What is the UCLA Bioinformatics Ph.D. Program?

We offer integrated doctoral training for students interested in working at the interface of computer science, biology, and mathematics to address the fundamental challenges of contemporary genomic-scale research.  Our interdisciplinary Ph.D. program consists of an integrated one-year core curriculum, research rotations, over 50 elective courses, and faculty mentors spanning biology, mathematics, engineering, and medicine.

What is Bioinformatics?

Bioinformatics can be defined broadly as the study of the inherent structure of biological information. Some of this inherent structure is very obvious (e.g., statistical patterns that reveal crucial functional regions such as genes), while others are less obvious but still immediately fruitful (e.g., how regulatory sequences give rise to “programs” of gene expression), while others are profound long-term challenges (e.g., how the genome encodes the capabilities of the human mind). Bioinformatics is the marriage of biology and the information sciences. Long term, this is a huge intellectual project. Fortunately, it is producing immediately valuable results now, e.g.:

1. Statisticians have invented analyses of DNA microchip results (expression measurements of all 30,000 human genes simultaneously) that can distinguish different types of tumors with dramatically different treatment requirements, which previously were hard to differentiate clinically.
2. Evolutionary biologists have developed bioinformatics analyses of genome sequence data that reveal the precise pathways by which dangerous pathogens (like HIV) evolve drug resistance, and how to slow the evolution of multi-drug resistance.
3. Computer scientists have created powerful new ways for mapping brain functions automatically from standard imaging data.