Bioinformatics, Certificate

Program Director: Miranda Darby, Ph.D., darby@hood.edu; 301-696-3650

The Bioinformatics Certificate is designed particularly for students who have an extensive background in biomedical science or the life sciences, either through formal study or professional experience. The certificate introduces foundational technical skills for bioinformatics: utilization of public databases and applications, data mining, programming, applied statistics, and analysis of genomic, proteomic and modeling data. The capstone culminates in an integrative capstone course in which students will coalesce and synthesize the skills that they have developed in the foundational courses to analyze and interpret primary data to answer a biological question.

Application Requirements

Students wishing to enter the program must demonstrate their previous education in the biological sciences in one of three ways: 1) a completed undergraduate degree with a minimum GPA of 2.75 in biology, molecular biology, or a related field that includes undergraduate coursework in molecular biology, upper level genetics (equivalent to Hood’s BIOL 316) and cell biology (equivalent to Hood’s BIOL 339) along with significant work experience in the field; or, 2) acceptance into the Biomedical Science program; or 3) completion of a master’s degree (MA or MSc) or Ph.D. in a biology-related field. Students admitted to the certificate program are eligible to switch to the MS in Bioinformatics during their course of study. All coursework can be transferred to the MS in Bioinformatics.