updated, 8th, May, 2009
At Ochanomizu University clearly started to promote educational activity on computational biology since 2005. This activity has continued in a graduate education program, "Developing human resources of women who master computational biology." Any graduate students in this university can take this program. This program provides basic computational biology and lecture on leading-edge research on computational biology.
Ochanomizu University has some laboratory related to life science. Laboratory of Kei Yura, who belongs to the department of Life Science, was launched in 2008 and studies to expand the post-genome biology with the genome sequence information and protein structure information. Laboratory of Jun Sese, who belongs to the Department of Science, was launched in 2005, and studies how to extract useful information from vast volume of data about molecular biology. Their experimental tools are both a computer s. They do not wear a white uniform.
Ochanomizu University has Center for Informational Biology, Professor Kei Yura serves as a director. The members of this center are associated with informational biology in various forms of information.
Undergraduate education on Informational biology at Ochanomizu university begins in earnest in 2008. Until now, we did not have many opportunities for undergraduate students to learn about the field of informational biology. However, from 2008, we began teaching to undergraduate students. Please search "informational biology," "computational biology" and "bioinformatics" in the full text syllabus search of the university to look for classes. Class may be less than that you imagined. The reason is as below.
Informational biology is in an interdisciplinary area that is difficult to explain with the traditional classification. Interdisciplinary area means the borderline region between studies. You may feel strange about the word "borderline," but it was human’s convenience to have classified the phenomena of nature as "This is a physical phenomenon," "It's chemical behavior," or "This is math," but actually they are not classified as such by nature. Therefore, it is natural that we enter into the interdisciplinary area of traditional academic studies to explore the mystery of life phenomena.
Once you understand an overview of informational biology from the classes "Introduction to Informational biology" and "computational biology" and "bioinformatics," you can construct your own system of interdisciplinary areas based by taking classes from other departments. When you are sure about what you want to do and what you want to acquire, naturally the courses you should take will be clear. The members of this center will help students who want to learn informational biology. After you take courses related to informational biology during the first three years and become a member of Yura’s laboratory or Sese’s laboratory at the fourth year, you will receive the systematic education of informational biology to expand your own research.
