Proposed Course requirements for the Ph.D. Degree in Pathology &
Microbiology, Specialty Track in Bioinformatics
Admission Requirements
Students must meet the existing admission requirements as defined by the Pathology and
Microbiology Department of UNMC.
For admission to the departmental graduate program, the applicant must have at least a
Bachelor's degree in Science with a broad background in the sciences that include courses in
organic and quantitative chemistry, biochemistry, calculus, and physics. The applicant must
present both an academic record and background that are acceptable to the departmental
Graduate Committee.
All successful applicants for the PhD degree should have at least a 'B' average in college
coursework and will be required to take the Graduate Record General Exam (GRE); Successful
applicants will be expected to score above the 40th percentile in each of the three (verbal,
quantitative, analytical) general exam areas.
Applicants who are deficient in one or two of the course requirements for admission, but who are
otherwise well qualified, may be admitted on the provision that deficiencies are removed prior to
admission to candidacy.
All application materials required by the Graduate Studies Office at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center must be supplied before action can be taken on a candidate's application.
Written letters of recommendation, as well as personal motivation as judged by the student's own
personal statement, significantly influence the evaluation of the potential of the applicant to
complete a rigorous course of advanced and original studies in a field of modern biology.
If it is considered appropriate and necessary to the evaluative process, the applicant will be
invited for an interview with members of the Departmental Graduate Committee.
Program of Study
TThe Graduate Committee of the Pathology & Microbiology Department at UNMC will oversee
and be responsible for advising and training of students. Students in the BioInformatics specialty
track must satisfy the graduate requirements of the UNMC Graduate Studies program and the
Department of Pathology and Microbiology.
Introductory/Foundation Courses
The following introductory or foundation courses are recommended to facilitate entry and
progress through the BioInformatics specialty track. The number of courses will vary from student
to student. For example, a student with a strong biology/chemistry background would ignore the
foundation biology and chemistry courses and focus of the information and computer science
courses. The reverse would be true for students with a background in information and computer
science.
Undergraduate Biology and Chemistry


BIOL 2140 Genetics, 3020 Molecular Biology of the Cell and CHEM 2210 Fundamentals
of Organic Chemistry or CHEM 2250, 2260, 2274 Organic Chemistry I/II and Lab or
equivalents
Introduction to Bioinformatics Seminar course
Computer Science



CIST 1400 - Introduction to Computer Programming
CIST 1404 - Introduction to Computer Programming Lab
CSCI 1620 - Introduction to Computer Science II
Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis




CIST 2110 - Organizations, Applications and Technology
ISQA 2010 - Statistics for Information Systems (or equivalent)
ISQA 8040 - An Overview of Systems Development
ISQA 8050 - Data Organization and Storage
Core Courses
All students are required to take the core course requirements for the Graduate Degree in
Pathology & Microbiology.
The Core course requirements for Pathology and Microbiology Ph.D. degree:


BIOC 841-842 - Molecular and Cell Biology UNMC, or equivalent
PAMM 857 - Medical Immunology UNMC, or equivalent
The BioInformatics specialty track has the following additional course requirements:
Pathology & Microbiology


PAMM 973 - Introduction to Genetic Sequence Analysis
PAMM 950 - Special Topics - BioMolecular Informatics UNMC
Computer Science



CSCI 3320/8325 - Data Structures and algorithms
CSCI 4850/8856 - Database management Systems
CSCI 4450/8456 - Artificial Intelligence
Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis


ISQA 4730/8736 - Decision Support Systems
ISQA 4880 - Systems Simulation and Modeling
Elective Courses
In addition to the recommended Foundation courses and required Core courses, students must
choose at least two (2) upper level advanced graduate courses, from the folowing list of courses
with approval of the Graduate Committee. These electives are to be based on the background
and research interests of the student.
Biology and Chemistry


BIOC 926 - Advanced Topics in Biochemistry Nucleic Acids UNMC
P-SM 806-808 - Biostatistics UNMC



PAMM 890 - Molecular Biology of Viruses UNMC
PAMM 955 - Advanced Immunology UNMC
BIOL 8060 - Comparative Genomics UNO
Computer Science




CSCI 8080 - Design and Analysis of Algorithms
CSCI 8070 - Genetic Algorithms
CSCI 8156 - Graph Theory and Applications
CSCI 8446 Introduction to Parallel Computing
Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis



ISQA 8210 - Software Project Management
ISQA 8220 - Systems Analysis and Design
ISQA 8700 - Date Warehousing: Theory and Practice
Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam
A comprehensive exam will be administered as defined by the Pathology & Microbiology
Graduate Committee. This exam is usually taken at 2 1/2 years following entry into the program
and includes a research grant application.
Thesis Research
Research projects will be addressed in consultation of a graduate advisor and the student’s
graduate supervisory committee.