Computational Molecular Biology

Rutgers/UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is a world leader in the field of Structural Bioinformatics and is the site of the Protein Data Bank and the Nucleic Acid Database, which are the international repositories for 3 dimensional structures for proteins and nucleic acids.

Bioinformatics combines advanced computer science technology with biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics to understand the complex molecular interactions that link the individual macromolecules to the integrated functions of the living cell.

Computational biology and Bioinformatics are providing new methods of study into disease processes and leading to novel diagnostic and treatment strategies. Molecular Biosciences students have numerous opportunities for study in this rapidly emerging field including interdisciplinary connections between the laboratories of Molecular Biosciences investigators and our highly ranked computer science, mathematics, chemistry and physics departments.

Students interested in computational molecular biology whose primary background is in biology should apply to the Molecular Biosciences Program. Students whose primary background is in Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Computer Science or one of the other physical sciences should consider applying directly to the BIOMAPS Graduate Program in Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics, which has an overlapping, but different set of program requirements.

Many Rutgers/UMDNJ faculty serve as graduate student thesis advisors in both the BIOMAPS and Molecular Biosciences programs.