PhD Program in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Office of Graduate Studies University of California, San Diego

University of California San Diego Is an International Leader in the Field of Bioinformatics Research

The University of California at San Diego was one of the first major universities to initiate a bioinformatics graduate program and continues to be an international leader in the field. Located in Southern California, UC San Diego is a premier research institution that has fostered interdisciplinary research since its inception. The bioinformatics and systems biology graduate program at UCSD was created in 2001 with Professor Shankar Subramaniam as the founding director.

UCSD's bioinformatics graduate program now includes the collaboration of the following Schools and Divisions on the UC San Diego campus: the School of Engineering (bioengineering, computer science and engineering, and nanoengineering), the Division of Biological Sciences, the Division of Physical Sciences (chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and mathematics), the School of Medicine, and the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The graduate program is supported by the respective schools, divisions, and departments as well as by the NIH Training Grant and over sixty associated faculty.

Student-Faculty Ratio Is Nearly One-to-One

The cutting-edge research projects undertaken by UCSD's outstanding faculty and exceptional graduate students focus on new, developing frontiers in bioinformatics and computational biology. The program is one of the largest on campus in terms of participating faculty and provides students with an enormous amount of opportunities to work and collaborate with 60 faculty in different departments.

Meeting the Challenges of a New Era in Biology

The ability to decipher the genetic code of living organisms promises to improve the quality of human life and has dramatically changed the challenges that the biological and biomedical sciences face. Addressing the challenges of biological datasets at the genomic, sub-cellular, molecular, and biology systems levels requires the development of sophisticated computational methods (bioinformatics) for computational biology.

Moving biology into the realm of a quantitative, predictive, and theory-driven science will require an interdisciplinary research structure dedicated to developing intellectual and human capital in bioinformatics and systems biology. As such, there is an enormous need for trained professionals who are experts in both biology and computing.

The interdisciplinary bioinformatics graduate program is organized around a formal course requirement of five compulsory core courses and four elective courses. The core courses are Biological Data and Analysis, Sequence and Structure Analysis - Methods and Applications, Functional Genomics, Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics, and Seminar in Bioinformatics.

Graduate students choose electives in four of seven fields: biochemistry, molecular genetics, cell biology, algorithms, machine learning and data mining, bioinformatics and systems biology, and mathematics and statistics.

Bioinformatics Research Rotations

Each graduate undertakes three 10-week research rotations in three different laboratories within the first calendar year. The purpose of the research rotations is to train students in specific research methodologies, and identify a laboratory in which students will pursue doctoral thesis research.

All students, regardless of their background and elective track, are expected to identify a thesis research laboratory and join that laboratory by the beginning (fall quarter) of their second year.

Doctoral Theses in Bioinformatics

A sampling of the leading-edge doctoral theses completed by recent 2009 graduates of the UC San Diego bioinformatics program include: "Computational and Comparative Proteogenomics: Annotating Genomes and Proteomes using Tandem Mass Spectrometry," "Methods for the Analysis of Human Genetic Variation in the Search for the Genetic Basis of Human Disease," "Understanding the Global Architecture of Gene Regulation in Human Cells through Analysis of Chromatin Signatures," and "The Analysis and Integration of High-Throughput Biological Data for Pathway Discovery."

UCSD is a Nationally Ranked Research University

Established in 1960 in the San Diego community of La Jolla, the University of California San Diego soon became one of the country's top universities. The Southern California campus spreads from the scenic coastline, where the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is located, across a large, wooded portion of the Torrey Pines Mesa overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

One of ten campuses in the University of California System, UCSD boasts over seventy miles of beaches and one of the world's best climates. One can move from the beach to the mountains to the desert within a few hours and enjoy a year-round active lifestyle. A marvelous climate, a beautiful campus, and the lovely city of La Jolla are a perfect match for UC San Diego's superb academic environment for graduate education.

• Degrees Offered
• Major Degree Levels Offered
• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

• Degrees Awarded
• Master's Degrees Not reported
• Doctoral Degrees Not reported
• First Professional Degrees Not reported
• Other Advanced Degrees Not reported
• * Shows the number of degrees awarded for the last academic year that data was reported.

• Earning Your Degree
• Part-time study available? No
• Evening/weekend programs available? No
• Distance learning programs available? No
• Terminal master's degree available? Not reported

• Degree Requirements
• Master's Degrees Not reported
• Doctoral Degrees Not reported
• First Professional Degrees Not reported
• Other Advanced Degrees Not reported

• Acceptance Rate
• Applied260
• Accepted19
• Acceptance Rate7%
• Enrolled8
• Applying
• Application Fee - Domestic $60
• Application Fee - International $80
• Electronic applications accepted? Yes
• Applications processed on a rolling basis? Not Reported
• Application Deadlines
• Type Domestic International Priority Date
• Fall deadline January 16th Not Reported Not Reported
• Winter deadline Not Reported Not Reported Not Reported
• Spring deadline Not Reported Not Reported Not Reported
• Entrance Requirements
• Master's DegreesNot Reported
• Doctoral's DegreesGRE General Test
• First-Professional's DegreesNot Reported
• Other Advanced DegreesNot Reported
• International DegreesNot Reported

• Tuition & Fees
• In-state tuition *Not Reported
• Out-of-state tuition *$14,694
• International student tuitionNot Reported
• * Tuition for full-time graduate student per academic year
• Fees
• Per-academic year fees$7,867.00
• Per-term feesNot Reported
• One-time feeNot Reported
• * Fees for full-time graduate students
• Financial Support
• Financial award applicants must submitNot Reported
• Application deadlines for financial awardsNot Reported
• Types of financial support availableNot Reported

• Gender
• Total Graduate Students35
• Female Percentage31%
• Male Percentage69%
• Participation
• Total Graduate Students35
• Part-time PercentageNot Reported
• Full-time PercentageNot Reported
• Ethnicity
• Hispanic / Latino3%
• Black / African American0%
• White / Caucasian57%
• American Indian / Alaskan Native0%
• Asian37%
• Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander0%
• Two or more races0%
• Unknown3%