The M.S.B.Sc. is not a lock-step program and offers both thesis and capstone (non-thesis) tracks. The capstone (non-theses) track is the default option and will require 45 credit hours (24 hours of core/required courses, 15 hours of electives, and 6 hours of capstone). The theses track will require 39 credit hours for completion (24 hours of core/required courses, 9 hours of electives, and 6 hours of theses) and also the approval of an OC faculty member to advise and support a specific research project.
In the near future, the M.S.B.Sc. program plans to add greater focus on the growing field of genomics and molecular computational biological sciences. For example the Ocean Center have recently launched a "Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance (GIGA)" consortium.

Moreover, a new 4 course certificate in ?computational molecular biology? has now been launched through the OC. The certificate intends to give students a practical background in DNA sequence analysis and bioinformatics. The training can make them more competitive in industry job searches for this growing field. The certificate will involve 2 genomics related courses from the OC, and 2 computer science courses from the College of Engineering and Computing.

Relevant courses in computer sciences (some taught by the NSU Graduate school of Computer and Information Sciences) and state of the art practical courses in bioinformatics will be added. These will enable students to gain basic training and practice that can likely translate to employment in the growing bioinformatics and genomics fields.