Biological and Medical Informatics

The Biological and Medical Informatics (BMI) program trains diverse PhD students to become scientific leaders at the interface between computation, statistics, and biology. The program equips trainees with the skills and knowledge in computer science, clinical informatics, statistics, machine learning, physics, chemistry, and biology needed to study the composition, structure, function, and evolution of biological systems across molecular, cellular, and systems levels. These quantitative skills are essential for scientific progress given the massive biological and clinical data sets being generated across domains. Our students go on to be leaders in bioinformatics research across academia and industry.

UCSF researchers are pioneers in many bioinformatics areas including machine learning, human genetics and evolution, immunology, single-cell genomics, gene regulation, electronic health records, protein structure prediction, and drug design. With these diverse faculty interests, students are presented with a wide range of areas to explore and integrate. The BMI faculty include members of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, Howard Hughes Investigators, and National Institutes of Health New Innovator Awardees.

Faculty

Over 50 faculty members teach and mentor students in the BMI program. Faculty members are affiliated with the departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Microbiology and Immunology, Medicine, Neurology, and Surgery; as well as the Gladstone Institute and Institute for Human Genetics.

Sub-disciplines

The BMI program is a member of the Quantitative Biosciences Consortium (QBC) with the following areas of emphasis:

bioinformatics and computational biology
genetics and genomics
complex biological systems

The BMI program office is located at the Mission Bay campus.

The BMI program is offered by the UCSF Graduate Division, administered by the UCSF School of Pharmacy, and delivered by faculty members in the UCSF schools of pharmacy and medicine.