CBB graduate students (PhD or MS) may elect to pursue an optional focus on "Translational Informatics." Translational research is concerned with bringing bioscience research discoveries into patient care. The CBB Translational Informatics focus emphasizes the intersection of bioinformatics and disease, and includes topics from both bioinformatics and clinical informatics. Examples include 1) research that uses genomic technologies to help better understand the mechanisms of disease, 2) organizing data from the electronic medical record to help define the clinical phenotype of many diseases, 3) building informatics tools that analyze clinical and bioscience data in an integrated fashion, and 4) the computer modeling of disease processes. A CBB student may select this focus area at any time. The overall CBB curriculum is unchanged, but the Translational Informatics focus makes the following specific course requirements:
The following two courses must be taken:
At least two of the other courses taken must have a major focus on clinical medicine and/or disease. There are many such courses. Examples include:
The PhD dissertation or MS degree project must focus on a topic related to Translational Informatics.