Extent and content of the programme

Last edit: 27/01/2013
Approved: 27/01/2013

Systems biology, euSYSBIO, is a two-year (120 ECTS credits) master program on the advanced level (second cycle). The instruction language is English. Some elective courses are given in Swedish.

A joint curriculum is defined which involves always two universities. One university, here denoted the "home university" offers the first year (60 ECTS credits), and a second university, here denoted the "host university", offers the second year (60 ECTS credits). 

The program has two home universities, KTH (Stockholm, Sweden) and Aalto University (Espoo, Finland). In the theoretical subjects, the curriculi for the first year studies are compatible, but with some emphasis on the particular strengths of the universities. At KTH the emphasis is on modelling of dynamic phenomena and on algorithmic bioinformatics; at Aalto, the emphasis is on statistical modelling methodology and machine learning. Both first year curriculi include experimental courses. 

All universities in the program are host universities, and offer one specialized (second-year) course each. The second-year courses have a uniform format comprising one semester (30 ECTS credits) of specialized courses, and one semester (30 ECTS credits) degree project. To enforce consistency of evaluation and requirement across the program, degree projects will be evaluated both by the home university and by the host university. The project will be carried out from the topic of specialization of each of the universities: 

KTH: Molecular Systems Biology and Computational Neuroscience (two tracks) 

Aalto:  Computational modelling in systems biology 

IST:  Systems Biology of Stress Response and Biotechnology