Bioinformatics deals with discovering knowledge in biology or medicine present in large data?sets. As such, it is an interdisciplinary science that is always in rapid flux as the methods and the nature of the data sets change. Bioinformatics clearly involves the application of computers for storage, organizing, and analyzing the data. But it also involves statistics, probability, mathematics, and related disciplines to?create the analysis algorithms and to make sense of the results. Effectively interacting and collaborating with the content-area scientists also requires developing deep knowledge and understanding in those areas to be able to interpret the results and communicate them effectively to the?scientific community.

It is designed to provide students quantitative tools for analyzing data and problems associated with molecular, cellular, physiological and particularly, genetic systems. Students may select courses from a list of approved courses offered by the following departments at Marquette: Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science; Biology; Biomedical Engineering; and Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition, courses are offered by the Department of Physiology and the Division of Biostatistics at Medical College of Wisconsin. The program meets the needs of recent undergraduates seeking an advanced degree as well as employed professionals interested in opportunities for career advancement.