MSc Integrative Biology

This one year course trains students in the skills necessary to develop models useful for bioscience research. Experience in this area is required by an increasing number of research groups in both academic and industrial sectors, indicating excellent employment prospects for graduates.

Integrative Biology (also known as Systems Biology) is a rapidly growing field with a bright future. The BBSRC has invested a total of £60 million in six Systems Biology Centres at University of Nottingham, Newcastle University, Imperial College London, University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh and University of Oxford.

Integrative Biology brings together biologists, engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists to generate new data, biological resources and virtual models of an organism that will aid understanding of how they grow and develop.

This MSc in Integrative Biology provides a background in many disciplines including biology, computer science and mathematical modelling, thus providing a framework for the student to succeed in this exciting field. Many biology research groups are developing towards systems approaches, and this MSc will prepare and train the student to be able to achieve fully in this field.

Background to Systems Biology

Integrative Biology involves collation of data sets from experiments quantifying biological molecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins, hormones, transporters etc. facilitating development of sophisticated mathematical models. These models are used to simulate and predict behaviour of biological systems and organisms under investigation. Integrative Biology is intrinsically multi-disciplinary and most effective when carried within a group of scientists with many divergent types of expertise.

Computers can now be used to make predictive models of biological systems, ranging in scale from individual biochemical reactions through to virtual cells to tissues, complete organisms and even populations of organisms. This discipline depends on collaboration between the theoretical modellers and laboratory investigators of biological systems, analogous to relationship between theoretical
and experimental physicists. Integrative Biology is perceived as a major area of future bioscience research.

This one-year course trains people in the skills necessary to develop models for use in bioscience research. Integrative Biology expertise is increasingly required by all research groups in both academic and industrial sectors, indicating excellent employment prospects for graduates.

This course attracts graduates who have an interest in applying their biological or computing knowledge in a mathematical computing environment. Students are familiar with IT and are therefore more comfortable working with computers than in traditional laboratories. Undergraduate courses described here use models of biological systems to predict experimental responses prior to actual experimentation, then used to confirm or refute model results.

Integrative Biology is valuable in identifying experiments that are the highest priority and will provide the most critical but missing information, thereby increasing the probability of producing successful discoveries in the laboratory.