Objectives

The aim of the Bachelor’s Degree in Bioinformatics is to train professionals with a solid foundational knowledge in both Biology and Information and Communication Engineering, capable of providing high-level technical support in healthcare institutions and biotech companies. Alternatively, graduates may pursue further specialization with the goal of entering scientific research institutions.

To this end, a significant portion of the basic course credits is dedicated to disciplines such as Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, and Statistics. Considerable emphasis is also placed on related disciplines within the INF (Computer Science), ING-INF (Information Engineering), and MAT (Mathematics) academic sectors.

Specific Learning Objectives

In the Area of Information Science and Engineering:

The course aims to provide theoretical, methodological, experimental, and applied competencies in fundamental areas of computer science relevant to the study of living systems at all levels.

In the Biological and Biomedical Area:

The course focuses on providing theoretical, methodological, experimental, and applied knowledge in genetics, biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, with applications related to diagnostic and therapeutic activities.

Curriculum Requirements

The Bioinformatics degree program must:

  • Include tools from discrete and continuous mathematics; principles and structures of hardware and software systems; techniques and methods for the design and implementation of basic and application-level IT systems; foundational biological, biochemical, and biomedical knowledge, as well as bioinformatics applications in these fields.

  • Equip graduates with the necessary skills to design, develop, manage, and maintain bioinformatics systems.

  • Allocate a sufficient number of credits to laboratory activities in core and related areas.

  • Include complementary activities such as internships at companies, public institutions, and research laboratories, as well as opportunities for study abroad under international agreements.

Students will acquire both technical-practical tools and the methodological foundations necessary to build a genuinely interdisciplinary professional profile.

First-Year Curriculum

From the first year, students will study basic subjects including Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, and Chemistry, alongside essential knowledge to understand the structure and function of biological systems at the molecular and cellular level.

The goal of courses in Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics is to develop logical-mathematical and statistical skills aimed at interpreting molecular and cellular data in biomedical contexts, encourage a scientific-quantitative mindset, and foster the ability to formalize real-world problems and solve them using computational tools.

These foundational courses will be closely integrated with Cellular and Molecular Biology courses and supported by lab activities in Computer Science and Biology.

The Computer Science course aims to immediately teach programming (both procedural and object-oriented), module and library integration, as well as algorithm design (iterative and recursive) and basic data structures and their algorithms.

Basic Chemistry courses provide a comprehensive overview of the properties and reactivity of key elements and their most important compounds, with both inorganic and organic chemistry introduced in the first year to align with concurrent Math, Physics, and Biology courses.

Second-Year Curriculum

In the second year, students will deepen their knowledge in Genetics and Cell and Molecular Biology.

Bioinformatics activities begin between the first and second year, building on previously acquired mathematical, computational, and biological knowledge. These courses aim to provide practical knowledge of biological databases and web-based analysis tools, sequence and structure alignment algorithms, and the use of controlled biological vocabularies.

Third-Year Curriculum

In the third year, bioinformatics topics expand to include advanced technologies and methods for generating and analyzing biomolecular data, large-scale data visualization, and multi-level data integration.

Students will also have the opportunity to further specialize in two main directions:

  • Informatics/Engineering-oriented: Advanced methods and algorithms for biomolecular data analysis and data science, focusing on the analysis and modeling of information generation in biological systems.

  • Biology-oriented: Applied biotechnology fields with high potential.

A strong emphasis will be placed on fostering an “integrative mindset” that harmonizes skills currently siloed within separate disciplines. That is, both the overall program and individual courses will focus on applying mathematical and computational concepts to problems in cellular and molecular biology, and their diagnostic and therapeutic implications.

To achieve this, instructors will be encouraged and monitored to avoid compartmentalization and promote curriculum integration.

This approach will naturally lead to easier entry into the job market, where multidisciplinary competencies are in high demand across both academia and industry.

The proportion of time allocated to independent study is defined in the Degree Program’s Academic Regulations.