M.Sc. and Ph.D. Studies in Bioinformatics, Biomodeling and Computer aided drug-design:

Applications are invited for graduate study leading to M.Sc. or Ph.D. in bioinformatics, biomodeling, drug-design and biophysics. Full-time research scholarship, which covers tuition and stipend, will be offered to each successful candidate. The current rate of stipend is $1,500/mo for M.Sc. and $2,000/mo for Ph.D with additional top-up salary possible after one year. Positions for research fellowships and assistantships are also available for those who have already got a M.Sc or Ph.D.

Specific projects include:

1. Bioinformatics and pharmainformatics database development.
2. Computer-aided drug design and testing software and research.
3. Mechanism of Chinese medicinal plant drugs.
4. Modeling of protein motions and dynamics.
5. Prediction of protein function and protein-protein interactions.
6. Simulation of biological pathways.

• Biochemistry and biology (expected to do research in bioinformatics and biomodeling).
• Computer science (expected to do bioinformatics and pharmainformatics database development).
• Pharmacy and pharmacology (expected to conduct research in drugs and pharmainformatics).
• Physics and chemistry (expected to do bioinformatics programing and biophysics research).

Expected course works:

Students can select 2 (for M.Sc.) or 4 (for Ph.D) courses from the following list or other courses offered by other Departments:

Bio and Pharm students:

• CZ5211: Topics in Computational Biology
  Protein sequence, structure, function, pathways analysis and simulation.

• CZ5xxx: Topics in Bioinformatics
  Sequence analysis and function prediction methods.
 
• MD5201 Advanced Molecular Biology.
 
• BL5201 Structural Biology and Proteomics.
 
• CZ5202 High Performance Computing Techniques (Elective, 4MC) 
  Prerequisite: Departmental approval 
  Unix file system, Perl, data mining, data visualization. Computation and visualization tools and libraries  (e.g., MATLAB, Mathematica, MPI, AVS, Lapack, NAG). Programming techniques for large-scale computations,  vector and parallel computation algorithms. Symbolic computations. Examples in bioinformatics, simulations of biological systems, and computational engineering science.

Computer Science Students:
 

• CZ5202 High Performance Computing Techniques (Elective, 4MC) 
  Prerequisite: Departmental approval 
  Unix file system, Perl, data mining, data visualization. Computation and visualization tools and libraries  (e.g., MATLAB, Mathematica, MPI, AVS, Lapack, NAG). Programming techniques for large-scale computations,  vector and parallel computation algorithms. Symbolic computations. Examples in bioinformatics, simulations of biological systems, and computational engineering science.
 
• CS6203 Advanced Topics in Database Management System
 
• CS5242 Advanced Neutal Network.
 
• CZ5206 Advanced Simulation Methods (Elective, 4MC) 
  Prerequisite: Departmental approval 
  Overivew of the theory and algorithms that form the basis for molecular modeling at different levels of approximation. Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulation techniques.  Molecular mechanics via empirical force field models. Energy minimization methods and conformational analysis. Quantum simulation techniques. Introduction to simulation software, e.g., Celrius 2, insight II, MOPAC. Application examples: structure phase transitions, surfaces, protein simulation, and drug design.
 
• CZ5211: Topics in Computational Biology
  Protein sequence, structure, function, pathways analysis and simulation.
 
• CZ5xxx: Topics in Bioinformatics
  Sequence analysis and function prediction methods.
 

Phys and Chem students:
 

• CZ5201 Advanced Computational Methods (Elective, 4MC) 
  Prerequisite: Departmental approval 
  Advanced ODE and PDE methods, symplectic integration, finite-element method, grid generation techniques, artificial boundaries, multi-grid method. Lattice Boltzmann equations, particle methods. Modeling of data, Fourier and wavelet transforms, optimization and search techniques, linear and nonlinear time series analysis. Examples in computational mechanics, fluid dynamics, and life science.

• CZ5202 High Performance Computing Techniques (Elective, 4MC) 
  Prerequisite: Departmental approval 
  Unix file system, Perl, data mining, data visualization. Computation and visualization tools and libraries  (e.g., MATLAB, Mathematica, MPI, AVS, Lapack, NAG). Programming techniques for large-scale computations,  vector and parallel computation algorithms. Symbolic computations. Examples in bioinformatics, simulations of biological systems, and computational engineering science.
 
• CZ5206 Advanced Simulation Methods (Elective, 4MC) 
  Prerequisite: Departmental approval 
  Overivew of the theory and algorithms that form the basis for molecular modeling at different levels of approximation. Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulation techniques.  Molecular mechanics via empirical force field models. Energy minimization methods and conformational analysis. Quantum simulation techniques. Introduction to simulation software, e.g., Celrius 2, insight II, MOPAC. Application examples: structure phase transitions, surfaces, protein simulation, and drug design.
 
• CZ5211: Topics in Computational Biology 
  Protein sequence, structure, function, pathways analysis and simulation.
 
• CZ5xxx: Topics in Bioinformatics
  Sequence analysis and function prediction methods.

For further information, interested candidates can contact me by  sending me an e-mail  to yzchen@cz3.nus.edu.sg.
You can also download an application form (at http://www.nus.edu.sg/registrar/prospective/graduate/application.html) and send the application to:

Dr. Chen Yu Zong
Department of Computational Science
National University of Singapore
Blk S17, Level 7, 07-24, 3 Science Drive 2
Singapore 117543