Bioinformatics Institute
About
Bioinformatics Institute is the first non-governmental non-commercial bioinformatics research and educational institution in Russia. It was created in 2013 on the basis of Bioinformatics Courses (launched in 2010) that were initially supported by St. Petersburg Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the Academic University) and JetBrains company. The Institute is located in St.Petersburg, Russia.
Founder and Director of Bioinformatics Institute is Nikolay Vyahhi, who is a member of Pavel Pevzner’s St. Petersburg Algorithmic Biology Lab, founder of Bioinformatics learning platform Rosalind, one of the creators and instructors of the first Bioinformatics Algorithms course at Coursera platform.
Mission and purposes
The Institute’s mission is to prepare new generation of highly qualified specialists in the field of bioinformatics and to popularize bioinformatics in Russia.
The purpose of educational programs is to acquaint students with the main objectives and methods of bioinformatics and also with open problems related to this science.
Advisory Board
Advisory Board is created to oversee Institute's activities and control quality of its educational programs and research projects. Board members also contribute to partnerships establishment and curriculum development.
Board Members
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
Faculty of bioengineering and bioinformatics, Moscow State University |
![]() |
Center for Algorithmic Biotechnology, St. Petersburg State University |
![]() |
![]() |
Programs
- Algorithmic Bioinformatics (1 year, part-time).
- Bioinformatics for Biologists (1 year, part-time).
- Master program Algorithmic Bioinformatics (2 years, full-time).
- Bioinformatics Summer School: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (one week every summer, full-time).
- Intensive Course on Genomic Bioinformatics (3 days, twice a year).
- System Biology Workshop (4 days, every May).
Students
Bioinformatics Institute is open to senior students from Mathematics, Informatics and Biology majors. Besides intense curriculum, students participate in state-of-the art research projects and internships in partner organisations solving real bioinformatics problems.
The Institute offers additional education and allows students combining studies at the Institute with their main educational programs. Education lasts 1-1,5 years and is carried out in a form of lectures, workshops and research work. Classes take place on Saturdays and one or two evenings during the workweek.
Moreover, we run a full-time M.Sc. program Algorithmic Bioinformatics in cooperation with the Academic University that is open for research-oriented students with strong programming and mathematical background. Master students study four full days a week, other time is devoted to research work.
Research
Bioinformatics Institute's main research area is NGS bioinformatics and its application towards systems biology and medicine. Our research group is lead by Alexander Predeus. We are always looking for motivated students interested in learning systems biology and bioinformatics applied to genomic data.
Existing projects can be divided into two categories:
- projects related to transcriptomics, that rely on analysis of RNA-Seq and other methods of expression profiling;
- projects studying mechanisms of biological processes via genomic methods (such as ChIP-Seq and DNase-Seq), and their integration (using probabilistic and network methods) for genome annotation and better understanding of biological regulation.
The final goal of our research always lies in applied biological or medical problems, and we adhere to this principle in each of our active projects.
More details: http://bioinformaticsinstitute.ru/research. If you have any questions contact us at predeus at gmail.com.
Team
![]() |
Ekaterina Vyahhi, COO |
![]() |
Nikolay Vyahhi, founder |
![]() |
Aleksandra Panteleeva, curator |
![]() |
Alexander Predeus, research director |
Contacts
In case of any questions about admission to the Institute's programs or partnership as well as other suggestions, please contact us at info@bioinf.me_