UTEP Bioinformatics Program Coordinator Position

The Master of Science degree program in bioinformatics at UTEP began in the Fall 2001 and its first class graduated in Spring 2003. This two-year Professional Science Master's (PSM) degree consists of 40 graduate hours of courses in the computational, mathematical, and life sciences. In addition, it requires a summer practical work experience internship in the public or private sector. Being interdisciplinary in nature, this program combines the resources of the Colleges of Science and Engineering, the Graduate School, and the support of business and private industry.

The master's degree in bioinformatics curriculum emphasizes areas such as protein modeling and drug design, molecular sequence and structure database management, and statistical analysis of genomics data. By May 2007, the program has 20 graduates (please visit the Alumni page). Some of them have joined the workforce in biotechnology and software industries, while others have become laboratory managers and programmer analysts in prestigious research organizations like the Broad Institute at MIT, National Cancer Institute, and Washington University.

With the aim to meet the challenges in many fast growing industries in diverse areas of biomedical research, faculty members in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and statistics actively participate in interdisciplinary team teaching and collaborative research in bioinformatics. Students entering the program typically have a Bachelor's degree in one of the science disciplines. During their course of study, students will sharpen their problem solving capabilities by acquiring knowledge and skills from other areas with an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of bioinformatics problems.

As a result of their training in bioinformatics, many students from the life sciences have experienced renewed interests in mathematical sciences. On the other hand, many students with excellent background in mathematics or computer sciences demonstrated their ability to acquire biological knowledge within a short time in the program. Our Bioinformatics Program aims at producing graduates prepared to serve as research, managerial, or technical professionals in various areas of bioinformatics. It is part of the national effort in developing PSM degrees to enhance our future economy through promoting innovations in science and technology. Please read an article "Mastering the Job Market" from Science Careers about PSM graduates who often get multiple job offers.

To highlight the potentials of bioinformatics and its applications in various biomedical fields, it would be best to cite an article written by Desany and Zhang (2004) from Genetech, a biotechnology company in San Francisco, California. The article is entitled “Bioinformatics and Cancer Target Discovery” published in Drug Discovery Today, 9(18):795-802:

“The convergence of genomic technologies and the development of drugs designed against specific molecular targets provides many opportunities for using bioinformatics to bridge the gap between biological knowledge and clinical therapy. Identifying genes that have properties similar to known targets is conceptually straightforward. Additionally, genes can be linked to cancer via recurrent genomic or genetic abnormalities. Finally, by integrating large and disparate datasets, gene-level distinctions can be made between the different biological states that the data represents. These bioinformatics approaches and their associated methodologies, which can be applied across a range of technologies, facilitate the rapid identification of new target leads for further experimental validation.”