Life Science Informatics, M.sc.

The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology produces large amounts of data in a very short time. Analysing and understanding the human genome, epigenome and the associated transcriptome is a growing challenge. It is therefore important to generate a functioning and resilient interface between biologists, chemists, physicians and pharmacists, as research in the life sciences is not only carried out in the laboratory. The amount of data that is generated during the decoding of human, animal or plant genetic material, for example, must be processed and correlated to make it usable: This is the task of life science informatics.

Biomedical research currently uses a wide variety of computer-based analyses to identify and analyse genes that are predictive for the prognosis or response to therapy of a disease (personalised medicine and molecular diagnostics). The analysis and evaluation of these data sets requires a sound knowledge of medical and scientific basics in combination with application-oriented computer science knowledge. It is precisely these core skills that are taught intensively and in an application-oriented manner in the Master's programme Life Science Informatics.

The challenge of evaluating the NGS data is not to read the "letter sequence" of our genetic material (DNA and RNA), but rather to understand the function, regulation and interaction of genes, the "holy grail" of genetics.