The Master's bioinformatics and systems biology is a two-year programme taught in English, with an excellent international reputation. Research groups with extensive experience in a broad range of experimental and theoretical research lead the programme.

During the MSc programme, you choose between two specialisations, bioinformatics or systems biology, or both. The programme guarantees that, upon successful completion of the study, you can communicate effectively with your colleagues, irrespective of your focus on experimental or computational disciplines. 

The integrated design allows you to shape your path with a high degree of flexibility, depending on your background and interests.

The curriculum

In the first year in particular, much attention is paid to the basic principles of both bioinformatics and systems biology.

Students with a specialisation in bioinformatics expand their knowledge in sequence analysis, next generation sequencing, prediction and simulation of protein structures and medical applications of bioinformatics. Students with a specialisation in systems biology expand their knowledge with models of biological networks, experimental verification of models, relevance of systems biology for research and synthetic biology. This foundation prepares you to tackle real-world biomedical problems using computational and experimental methods.

In the second and final year, students do one or two research internships, complemented by elective courses depending on your preferences. Internships may take place at universities, hospitals, research institutes, or companies in the Netherlands or abroad.

Integrated programme

The programme truly integrates a Bioinformatics and Systems Biology perspective. Your compulsory courses will tackle research problems within both fields. You may opt to take elective courses with an in-depth focus on a single discipline, such as molecular biology or machine learning.

Mandatory courses are:  

• Fundamentals of Bioinformatics 

• Introduction to Systems Biology 

• Statistics with R 

• Biosystems Data Analysis 

You will study current issues, challenges and opportunities in both topics.  There are ample opportunities for interesting and challenging internships, in hospitals (such as in oncology and clinical genetics), at biotech companies, at seed breeding companies, in the pharmaceutical industry, in data science and, of course, at bioinformatics and systems biology groups at universities. You will also receive support in selecting internships that align with your personal and professional goals.

Supervision 

You will be assigned an academic mentor who will support you throughout the programme. This staff member will also act as examiner for your research projects. This mentoring ensures consistent, personal guidance as you develop your academic and research skills.

Which specialisation do you choose?

Bioinformatics specialisation

Bioinformatics deals with large-scale data analysis, like DNA-sequencing experiments. Programming, algorithms and machine learning are important elements. Bioinformatics is extensively used within the field of biomedicine, but also in many other areas of molecular biology. 

In the Bioinformatics specialisation, you will follow three additional courses in which you will learn how to write algorithms that can align sequences, design complex bioinformatics workflows to process molecular profiling data, predict how protein folds given only their sequence, simulate protein molecules, and apply machine learning effectively on large-scale molecular profiling datasets in biomedicine.

These courses are compulsory for the Bioinformatics specialisation:

• Algorithms in Sequence Analysis
• Structural Bioinformatics
• Bioinformatics for Translational Medicine

Systems Biology specialisation

Systems Biology encompasses modelling large biological networks, in combination with experiments to probe the system. Mathematical modelling, structured large-scale experiments and statistical analysis are important elements in the specialisation. Systems Biology is extensively used in bioengineering and biomedicine.

The Systems Biology specialisation comprises three additional courses. In these courses, you will learn how to model large metabolic pathways, how to deal with large and heterogeneous experimental datasets, how to set up experiments to probe biological systems and how experiment modelling and data analysis should be combined.

These courses are compulsory for the Systems Biology specialisation:

• Basic Models of Biological Networks
• Systems Biology in Practice

Degree requirements

A Master of Science in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology is awarded upon successful completion of all required courses in the curriculum, including a written Master’s thesis based on an independent research project. This translates into a total of 120 ECTS credits.

Accreditation and degree

This programmes has been legally accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). This means that upon successful completion of the programme, students will receive a legally accredited Master's degree in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology and the title of Master of Science (MSc).