Biomedical Sciences with Computational Biology phd programs

[analodaini]

Hello everybody!

I am a Biochemistry major and was initially intending to double major in Computer Science, but due to some issues I will be 4 classes short of a Computer Science major to graduate on time, so I will graduate with a Biochemistry major and Computer Science minor. I have done synthetic organic chemistry for one year in my school, then I did biochemistry research (isolating a bacterial compound) during one summer in my school, and another summer I did biomedical research in another school (investigating immune responses to a gut bacteria secretion).

I enjoy biomedical research but I don't want to only do wet lab for my graduate education. I don't have experience with bioinformatics or computational biology research (I took a bioinformatics class and that's it) but I am interested in going for a graduate program where I get to do both experimental bio and computational and I am finding it intimidating to find programs that are good and allow for that combination.

Here are my stat:

My GPA is 3.64 (I am repeating a class that I got a D in so hopefully it will go up to 3.72 by the end of this term). 

I have great relationship with the three of my research advisors and I think they will write me very good letters

I am an international student 

I would really appreciate some guidance :) 

Thanks

[Boolakanaka]

Perhaps Yale, see: https://cbb.yale.edu/

[jmillar]

The option is available at University of Michigan, especially if you apply through PIBS.

[ucgrit]

UChicago has lots of options like this! Most of the people I know in the Molecular Biosciences programs (particularly the Human Genetics and Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology programs) have projects that are wet and dry (some purely computational as well!) I think this is also true for the Biomedical Cluster. 

In the genetics programs in particular there are 'empirical' and 'computational' tracks that tailor the coursework for your specific interests - be that molecular biology or computational/biostats. But I also know a few students in Microbiology who work in mainly computational labs. 

(as an extra aside: my current project is about 60% wet lab and 40% dry lab and I came into the program with absolutely 0 computational experience except for one programming class I took my senior year) 

Feel free to reach out to us for more info / help with this! We (GRIT) are happy to help!

[Gopher29]

On 10/29/2018 at 7:04 PM, ucgrit said:

UChicago has lots of options like this! Most of the people I know in the Molecular Biosciences programs (particularly the Human Genetics and Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology programs) have projects that are wet and dry (some purely computational as well!) I think this is also true for the Biomedical Cluster. 

In the genetics programs in particular there are 'empirical' and 'computational' tracks that tailor the coursework for your specific interests - be that molecular biology or computational/biostats. But I also know a few students in Microbiology who work in mainly computational labs. 

(as an extra aside: my current project is about 60% wet lab and 40% dry lab and I came into the program with absolutely 0 computational experience except for one programming class I took my senior year) 

Feel free to reach out to us for more info / help with this! We (GRIT) are happy to help!

What would the prerequisites be for the computational track in genetics (esp for someone coming from a biology undergraduate)? E.g. a full series of calc1 - calc3, linear algebra, intro to programming, etc. thanks!

Edited November 3, 2018 by Gopher29

[ucgrit]

23 hours ago, Gopher29 said:

What would the prerequisites be for the computational track in genetics (esp for someone coming from a biology undergraduate)? E.g. a full series of calc1 - calc3, linear algebra, intro to programming, etc. thanks!

Hi! I think that we are pretty flexible about incoming prerequisites (all though all of the courses you listed would be good courses to take - especially statistics and programming courses). I know there is a required statistics course in the first year that requires linear algebra, but other than that I am not entirely sure that there are specific prerequisites. This link will give you more specific details about the computational track: https://ggsb.uchicago.edu/page/ggsb-computational-track-coursework.

I honestly wouldn't worry too much about fulfilling requirements before getting to grad school. When I applied one of my interviewer stressed the fact that I should have already taken statistics courses before coming to graduate school, but it didn't matter at all in the long run. I'd say take the courses that you think will prepare you best for the research you are the most interested in - anything you're missing you can take once you get into grad school. Hope that helps!