INTEGRATIVE GENOMIC SCIENCES PATHWAY (IGS)

The IGS pathway introduces students to the emerging interdisciplinary field of bioinformatics and its relationships to molecular genomics, evolution, structural biology, and bioethics. The sequencing of genomes of humans and several other model organisms has led to new challenge in the life sciences – to successfully integrate large amounts of information in order to build and evaluate models of how organisms work. This is inherently an interdisciplinary problem, and involves bridging conceptual frameworks and ways of thinking between the life sciences, information sciences, and philosophy. 

Faculty in complementing fields such as biology and computer science, are working together to explore and develop new courses in this emerging field. As the disciplines advance, tomorrow's students in the life sciences and in information sciences will benefit from strong conceptual frameworks in informatics, biology, and bioethics, and in the links between them.

The pathway requires an introductory biology course (such as BIOL/MBB 181); one introductory computer science course (typically, COMP 112-Introduction to Programming, COMP 114 How to Talk to Machines, COMP 115 How to Design Programs, COMP211-Computer Science I, COMP113/BIOL/MB&B265-Bioinformatics Programming or an approved alternative); one upper-level computer science course (such as COMP212-Computer Science II, COMP331-Computer Structure and Organization, COMP312-Algorithms and Complexity or COMP354-Principles of Databases) or three 0.5-credit QAC courses (e.g., QAC 150 – SQL and Databases, QAC 151 – Excel and VBA, QAC 156 – R, QAC 157 – SAS, or QAC 158 – Stata) or an approved alternative; one upper-level bioinformatics course (from a list of approved courses); and one course in each of two of the following categories (from a list of approved courses): bioinformatics, molecular genetics & cell biology, structural biology, evolutionary biology, bioethics & philosophy of biology, and applied quanatitative reasoning. 

All courses for the IGS pathway should be taken for a grade (A-F). For IGS course requirement details click here.