to download FOA brochure (PDF) - the University of Mauritius

MSC BIOINFORMATICSOn completion of this programme, learners willbe able to:• Outline the molecular basis of gene structure,function and evolution.• Apply the essential programming skills toproblems of molecular biology andbioinformatics.The field of biological sciences has experiencedunprecedented development over the last twodecades due to the applications of bioinformaticsin the understanding of living organisms. It iswhere computer science and biology cometogether to address basic problems. Hugeresources have been allocated to sequencing ofgenomes of diverse forms of life, from humansto plants, and microorganisms. Large numbersof databases have been set up to maintain theinformation that is in the public domain. Issuesrelevant to agriculture, human health and theenvironment are being addressed with toolsof bioinformatics to provide rapid and reliablesolutions to many problems. High-throughputtechnologies churn out large volumes of datafrom experimental procedures and these canonly be analysed by appropriate programs. Thiscourse aims at providing the learner with therequired know-how for developing and usingtools in bioinformatics. It integrates disciplines asvaried as biochemistry, cell biology to computerprogramming and algorithms. Above all it givesa choice in career paths as the training providedto graduates will enable them to work in manydifferent fields such as medical research, drugdiscovery, veterinary labs, agricultural research,food safety, agricultural biotechnology andbiodiversity. Employers now require people withskills that can extract and analyse the informationfrom such sources.• Apply necessary skills to use statisticalmethods for the interpretation of experimental data.• Apply skills to extract information frompublicly available databases.• Demonstrate an understanding of thealgorithms used in Bioinformatics.• Apply the skills to use relevant tools currentlyavailable for understanding and comparing genomes,analyzing DNA/RNA sequences and protein structures• Apply the steps involved in gene identification,gene annotation and genome analysis.• Utilise the various bioinformatics tools inresearch applications in the medical field, in veterinary,agricultural as well as in environmental science.14