Master in Biotechnology

Biotechnology, with a specialization in Bioinformatics, is a master's degree program taught in English at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Wrocław, Poland, running for 3 semesters with yearly tuition of 4000.0 EUR. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area that applies computer science, chemistry, and biochemistry to solve biological problems, usually at the molecular level. Typical activities in the field include analyzing information held in scientific literature and in genetic and structural databases, predicting protein structure, and designing drugs, biocatalysts, or biosensors. The curriculum introduces the programming skills needed to automate database searches and to analyze numerical and bioinformatics data, including results from next-generation sequencing. The study program combines advanced computer programming with specialized molecular biology techniques that are highly valued in the current job market. In the first semester, students study bioinformatics, molecular dynamics, networks and workstations with the UNIX system, applied informatics, a bioprocess project, theoretical chemistry, and two foreign language courses. The second semester covers molecular modeling, bionanotechnology, rational drug design, advanced programming and numerical methods, methodology of experimental research, instrumental drug analysis, retrieval of scientific and technical information, a managerial course, and a graduate laboratory. The third semester includes computational genomics, molecular engineering in genomic analyses, mathematical methods in the design and analysis of experiments, a further managerial course, and economics and organization of industrial biotechnology. Bioinformatics as a discipline sits at the intersection of biology, computing, and chemistry, and graduates typically move into roles in pharmaceutical research, computational biology, drug design, genomics, and biotechnology companies that rely on data-driven analysis of biological systems.