Bioinformatics is the application of statistics and computer sciences to the field of molecular biology. The primary goal of bioinformatics is to increase the understanding of biological processes ,however, is its focus on developing and applying computationally intensive techniques e.g., pattern recognition, data mining, machine learning algorithms, and visualization to achieve this goal. Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly, drug design, drug discovery, protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, prediction of gene expression and protein–protein interactions, genome-wide association studies and the modeling of evolution.

Bioinformatics is a new fast growing field of research poorly served by traditional curricula in Life Sciences. As the demand has outpaced the supply of bioinformaticians the first job after graduation is often a PhD project at a research institute or at an University in or outside the Netherlands.

After five years
This is a new field, thus we have no hard data on the follow-up. It is however anticipated that five years after graduation, about one third will still be employed as a scientist at an University or research center. Others will choose for a career at research-oriented pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies.