Challenge: A Multidisciplinary Degree Program in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics is a new field that is poorly served by any of the traditional science programs in Biology, Computer science or Biochemistry. Known to be a rapidly evolving discipline, Bioinformatics has emerged from experimental molecular biology and biochemistry as well as from the artificial intelligence, database, pattern recognition, and algorithms disciplines of computer science. While institutions are responding to this increased demand by establishing graduate programs in bioinformatics, entrance barriers for these programs are high, largely due to the significant prerequisite knowledge which is required, both in the fields of biochemistry and computer science. Although many schools currently have or are proposing graduate programs in bioinformatics, few are actually developing new undergraduate programs. In this paper I explore the blend of a multidisciplinary approach, discuss the response of academia and highlight challenges faced by this emerging field