Bioinformatics program launched at School of Science, Engineering and Technology

In Texas, the School of Science, Engineering and Technology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio is launching a new Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics. Students can enroll in the program in Fall 2019. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary and growing field in science for solving biological, biomedical and biochemical problems by incorporating elements of computer science, mathematics and information technology.

According to Sourav Roy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Bioinformatics Specialist, the new program will meet market demands.

“Bioinformaticians are in high demand not only in research, but also in academia and industry, because very few people have the education and skills required to fill the available positions,” said Roy, who recently co-authored an article in the journal Nature that used bioinformatics to describe genome features of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which spreads infectious diseases like dengue and Zika. “Bioinformatics is highly applicable to all branches of life sciences and also to fields like personalized medicine and pharmacogenomics,” which is the study of how genes affect a person’s response to drugs.”