Bioinformatics is an emerging area of life and health sciences. It is encompassing most of the aspects of bio- computing. Recent years have seen an explosive growth in biological data processing. The major areas of Bioinformatics are DNA sequence analysis, protein synthesis, and Pharmacogenomics. Large sequencing projects are producing increasing quantities of nucleotide sequences. The contents of nucleotide databases are doubling in size every year. The latest release of GenBank (V.102) exceeded one billion base pairs. Not only the size of sequence data is rapidly increasing, but also the number of characterized genes from many organisms and protein structures doubles about every two years. To cope with this great quantity of data, the new scientific discipline Bioinformatics has emerged. As a consequence of the large amount of data produced in the field of molecular biology, most of the current Bioinformatics projects deal with structural and functional aspects of genes and proteins. Many of these projects are related to the Human Genome Project.

1. Scope & Career opportunities

The future of biology will be increasingly shaped by the interplay of Bioinformatics and classical biology. Currently, the field is undergoing an enormous expansion. In the future, individuals who not only understand biology but can also use Bioinformatics tools will make the crucial management decisions on drug discovery programs.
Biocomputing, as the computational basis for e.g., Genetic Diagnostics, has increasingly more influence on the life of everybody. It provides the theoretical background and practical tools to scientists to explore proteins and DNA.

2. Definition

Bioinformatics combines the tools and techniques of mathematics, statistics, computer science and Biology. The principal idea of conducting this course is that the features of the biological databases should be properly understood, taught and should enable the scientific users to get a quick idea about the current knowledge on Bioinformatics. This course is mainly oriented on the computational aspects needed for life science personnel. The wide coverage of contents will enable the student to work under any type of environment and all varieties of biological, biotechnological and biochemical industries and institutes.
The postgraduate Diploma in Bioinformatics is a one-year course encompassing two semesters. There shall be terminal examination at the end of every semesters on the dates notified by the controller of examinations of the University.

3. Medium of instruction

English is the medium of instruction for conducting the course and the examination.

4. Eligibility

Masters degree in botany, zoology, microbiology, biochemistry, biotechnology and degree in pharmaceutical sciences. The candidates seeking admission should have a minimum of 55% in aggregate. The selection of the candidates will be purely on the basis of merit in the entrance test to be conducted by the Dean, Faculty of Science. However, for the current session the admission will be purely based on their merit in the qualifying examination.

5. Course Structure

The course structure is as follows: