Course summary

These are exciting times in biology and medicine. The genomics revolution is opening up whole new areas of research - from new insights into how organisms function, to new understandings of disease and disease processes. Medicine is currently involved in the largest and most ambitious IT project in the world - the capture and interpretation of electronic patient records. This information will make health care much more effective and can help spot new diseases early - whilst they can still be contained and controlled. At the heart of all these developments are data and knowledge - and a real need and demand for the skills and techniques that computer scientists can bring these problem areas. Biology and healthcare now provide some of the fastest growing and most challenging areas for computer scientists to apply their skills. The Digital Biology pathway is centered around a central theme of Biohealth Informatics. The theme is specifically designed for computer scientists without any previous experience of medicine or biology and will help you to develop the core skills needed to work or research (as a computer scientist) in these rapidly evolving fields. This core theme is complemented by a range of other themes that allow students to develop additional skills which have important applications in healthcare and biology.