Minor in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is an emerging interdisciplinary field that studies the sequence, structure and function of genes and proteins in living organisms. Bioinformatics requires knowledge fnd techniques from many disciplines, including Biology and Computer Science. When dealing with an influx of raw information, significant amount of effort is spent on how to effectively and efficiently warehouse and access these data and on new methods and algorithms aimed at mining this warehoused data in order to make novel discoveries in biology, medicine, and pharmaceuticals. Some examples of the topics are: genomics, proteomics, phylogenetics, functional genomics, algorithm and data analysis, micro array and gene expression, genomic medicine, biomarkers for cancer and disease, drug discovery and design for disease and disorders, database and data mining, network form and function, and ESL (ethical, societal, and legal) issues.

Because of the nature of the Bioinformatics minor and the need to take courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Computer Science, this minor is geared toward students who will major in one of the following sciences: Biology (BI), General Science (GS), Natural Science (NS), Computer Science (CS), or Information Science (IS). The minor generally requires a student to take an additional 6 courses (beyond their major). It is recommended that students declare a minor in Bioinformatics early in their Fordham studies (ideally in the Sophomore year).

The Bioinformatics minor is available to students at both Fordham College of Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center. If you are interested in a minor in Bioinformatics, please contact Dr. Gary Weiss (gweiss@cis.fordham.edu) if you are at Rose Hill or Dr. Damian Lyons (dlyons@cis.fordham.edu) if you are at Lincoln center.

The basic curriculum for the minor is listed below. Please note that the minor generally requires only 6 courses (5 for General Science majors) even though more than 6 courses are listed below. The reason is that many of the courses below can be counted as a requirement or elective toward a science major. When you declare your minor, we will provide you with the list of courses you must take beyond your major.

Courses for the Bioinformatics Minor:

1. Foundation: General knowledge in Biology, Computer Science, and Mathematical and Computational Reasoning
   1. Biological Science I (BI 1403/1413, NS 1403/1413 or equivalent)
   2. Biological Science II (BI 1404/1414, NS 1404/1414 or equivalent)
   3. Computer Science (CS 1600, CS 2350 or equivalent)
   4. General Chemistry I (no lab) (CH1321/NS1413)
   5. General Chemistry II (no lab) (CH1322/NS1414)
   6. Discrete Structures (CS1400, MT1100, or equivalent)
   7. Biostatistics (BI/CS/MT)
2. Introductory and Intermediate Knowledge
   1. Biological Sciences
      • BI 2539/49 (General Genetics with lab) or NS 3033 (Genetics with lab)
      • BI 3752 or NS 4076 (Molecular Biology with lab) or BI 3754 (Cell Biology) or NS 3054 (Cell and Development Biology)
   2. Computer Science
      • CS 2500 (Information and Data Management)
      • CS 3500 (Database Systems)
      • CS 4632 (Applied Data Mining) or CS 2850 (Computer Data Analysis)
3. Capstone Knowledge
   1. CS 4020 Bioinformatics