Bioinformatics Certificate

This certificate is designed for individuals with a college background in the life sciences to prepare them for careers in the emerging field of bioinformatics. Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to the management and analysis of biological data. Computational tools are used to store, retrieve, analyze or predict the composition of structure of biomolecules. Increasing, the biotechnology workforce requires knowledge of bioinformatics, at least at the literacy level, in order to be able to communicate in the workplace. Beyond literacy, there are employment opportunities available for scientists and technicians with the following skills: database creation and management; writing small computer programs (scripts) to query databases; using computational analysis tools effectively and website design and maintenance to make information accessible. In the certificate program, students study the design and use of bioinformatics tools, Unix, the Perl programming language, Oracle relational database, and internet technology.