Computational Biomedicine and Biotechnology (MS)

Admissions

CoBB welcomes students from various backgrounds, including life science, computer science, physical science, mathematics and statistics, and engineering majors, students with interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary backgrounds.

Application

Required Materials:

• The Online Application
• Statement of Purpose
• Three letters of Recommendation
• Unofficial Transcripts
• Unofficial TOEFL Scores/IELTS/Duolingo Scores (for international applicants)
• Application Fee

Financial Assistance

Financial guidance is available through the University of Pittsburgh Office of Admissions and Financial Aid: https://financialaid.pitt.edu/graduate-students/. All students are responsible for their own tuition.

Degree Requirements

To receive the CoBB MS, all students are required to complete a minimum of 30 credits of masters-level coursework and to maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher. Additionaly information can be found in the Student Handbook.

Curriculum

• At least 4 research credits of independent study
• A summer internship or additional directed study, worth 3 credits
• 3 credits of Fundamentals of Computational Biology
• 2 credits of Professional Development
• One course (taken or waived) from each of the five groups
  • Computational Biophysics
  • Computational Systems Biology
  • Computational Genomics
  • Computer Science
  • Electives

Directed Study

Gaining hands on experience in solving problems in computational biology is an essential part of CoBB training. Each student is therefore required to take a minimum of 4 credits of directed study with a University of Pittsburgh faculty member. Students are expected to select a research mentor for the directed study in their first semester, and to complete the research requirement in the second and/or third semesters.

Internship

To gain experience in the professional application of computational biology, students are encouraged to participate in a 2 to 3 month summer internship at a company of their choosing. Acceptable internship sites include industrial labs, biotech/pharma companies, and governmental organizations.

Students will present a written report with well-defined structure and content at the end of their internship to summarize their experience and the skills they acquired during their experiential training, and to make recommendations for future work. They will also make an oral presentation to share their experience with others.

Completion of Degree

The program is structured in such a way that students can finish their degree within 12-20 months, depending on the background of the student. To complete the degree in one year, students must demonstrate proficiency in programming, calculus and linear algebra.

For more information on the program, please visit www.csb.pitt.edu/cobb/