About Bioinformatics

Our Bioinformatics programs are unique learning opportunities that will give you the opportunity to be at the forefront of an exciting field of study. For more information about Bioinformatics at Lakehead, see the following resources:

Why Bioinformatics?

Whether you are interested in medicine, climate change or some other environmental concern, Bioinformatics may be what you need. On the other hand, if you are just scientifically curious and want to make an impact on your world, Bioinformatics may be your destiny.

The phrase “personalized medicine” is appearing more and more frequently in the news, holding the promise of optimizing treatment for a specific person. However, to arrive at that possibility much work still needs to be done. This is one of the many areas where bioinformatics will play a significant role.

The idea of “personalized medicine” comes from the emerging field of systems biology, or understanding how an organism functions at the molecular level (DNA, RNA, proteins, etc.). Bioinformatics provides the foundation for systems biology, taking the myriad of biological data pertaining to the various molecular interactions and building a descriptive model. Students skilled in the field of bioinformatics will be at the forefront of this new and extremely important, but still emerging, field that will have a wide-ranging impact on the world.

Why Bioinformatics at Lakehead University?

Lakehead University has developed a unique well-rounded Bioinformatics program that blends together and provides the necessary education and training in all of the component fields: chemistry (molecular interactions), physics and mathematics (descriptive mathematical models), computer science (data manipulation), biology (organisms).

Lakehead University, as a small comprehensive university, provides students with smaller, more intimate, class sizes promoting more one-on-one interaction with educators. More importantly, many undergraduate students in the sciences find summer work as a research assistant that gives them the necessary work experience not available at larger universities.

Finally, local knowledge-based businesses support this program, which may offer students the opportunity for industrial work experience as well as job opportunities post-graduation.

Where would I Work?

Bioinformatics, as an emerging field of research, provides both fundamental and applied opportunities.

Fundamental

  • University Research Lab
  • Medical Research Lab
  • Research Institute

Applied

  • Health Care
  • Forensic Science
  • Biorefining Industry
  • Drug Company

What are the Career Opportunities?

Both in industry and academic research there is a growing demand for professionals who work at the interface between biological research and computer sciences. Career opportunities include:

  • Working in the area of bio-molecule and drug design
  • Creation of biological databases
  • Optimization of biotechnological processes and drug target identification

The excellent career opportunities combined with the rapidly increasing number of exciting bioinformatics research projects creates a strong and still growing request for students with a major in Bioinformatics.

The courses offered during the Bioinformatics HBSc give a broad and comprehensive introduction to modern bioinformatics methods that form the repertoire of tools used in academic and industrial bioinformatics research. It will contribute to filling the gap between industrial and academic demand and currently available professionals in the field.

A student who chooses to pursue a post-graduate degree may do so in bioinformatics, computational biology, and related fields such as biophysics, biophysical chemistry, or theoretical biology. The HBSc in Bioinformatics provides the basis to focus graduate studies in a variety of bioinformatics directions such as structural bioinformatics, genome bioinformatics, biological network analysis, biomolecular simulation, and systems biology.

What Type of Position Might I Hold?

There are many career options open to you once you have completed the HBSc (Bioinformatics) program:

  • Bioinformatician
  • Computational Biologist
  • Medical Imager
  • Biomedical Computer Scientist
  • Genome Analysis Technician
  • Molecular Biologist
  • Geneticist
  • Genome Scientist
  • Developmental Biologist
  • Cellular Biologist
  • Molecular Microbiologist
  • Biochemist
  • Biomolecular Structural Biochemist
  • Computer Scientist
  • Multimedia Developer
  • Programmer
  • Systems Administrator
  • Software Developer
  • Database Developer