by Lonnie R. Welch; Russell Schwartz; Fran Lewitter

“ The field of bioinformatics has grown in the past decade. There are many such degree granting programs around the world at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels. This article provides a status report of the EduComm's ongoing endeavor to identify a set of core curricular guidelines for bioinformatics education at all levels. As a pilot project, the Curriculum Task Force of the EduComm conducted a survey in the spring of 2011. ”

“ The initial working curriculum does not completely represent the breadth of suggested topics. For example, it does not contain anything explicitly related to medicine, structural biology, or biochemistry. A small minority of the respondents suggested these topics ”

“ The EduComm is currently (a) summarizing curricula from existing bioinformatics programs, (b) surveying directors of bioinformatics core facilities and biological researchers to identify the skills needed for people they hire, and (c) reviewing bioinformatics career opportunities to determine skill sets required by current employers of bioinformaticians. The new survey results may be used to propose curricular guidelines. ”