From left: Fátima Al-Shahrour, co-director of the Master’s programme and head of the Bioinformatics Unit at the CNIO; María José Hernáiz Gómez-Dégano, president of SEBiot; Consuelo Martín de Dios, managing director of the Roche Institute Foundation; Iñaki Imaz Iglesia, Director of the ENS at the ISCIII; and María José Buitrago, Deputy Director-General for Cell Therapy at the ISCIII./ Fundación Insituto Roche
The Foundation highlights the pioneering vision of the organising institutions in identifying the need to incorporate bioinformatics expert profiles for the effective implementation of Precision Personalised Medicine.
Pedro García, Ana Vargas, Clara Gordillo and Raúl Viedma have been awarded grants from the 8th call for training support to undertake the Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics and Data Science in Precision Personalised Medicine and Health, a university-specific qualification from the National School of Health of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), during the 2026–2027 academic year.
The Master’s training programme aims to connect scientific knowledge with the development of new technological tools to address specific challenges in biomedical research, clinical diagnosis and the development of personalised therapies.
Fundación Instituto Roche has recognised the Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics and Data Science in Precision Personalised Medicine and Health on the occasion of its tenth edition, highlighting its commitment to training healthcare professionals in Data Science and acknowledging the pioneering vision of the institutions that launched the programme after identifying the need to incorporate specialised bioinformatics profiles for the successful implementation of Precision Personalised Medicine.
“With this recognition, the Fundación Instituto Roche reaffirms its commitment to training healthcare professionals in these new fields, which are becoming essential for medicine today and, above all, for the medicine of tomorrow,” said Consuelo Martín de Dios, Managing Director of Fundación Instituto Roche.
The Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics and Data Science in Precision Personalised Medicine and Health is jointly organised by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) and the Spanish Society of Biotechnology (SEBiot). Fundación Instituto Roche collaborates with the programme by awarding four grants to support students undertaking the Master’s degree.
The Master’s programme — accredited by the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), which recognises excellence in bioinformatics training programmes — has been a pioneer in Spain in Data Science education, having trained more than 180 specialists since its creation. These professionals are already contributing to the transformation of the healthcare system towards the medicine of the future.
Bioinformatics as an essential scientific discipline for personalised medicine
Fátima Al-Shahrour, co-director of the Master’s programme and Head of the Bioinformatics Unit at the CNIO, highlighted that the Master’s degree was a pioneer in recognising that biology and medicine were going to undergo a profound transformation as a result of the data revolution, and that this would require new professional profiles that did not yet exist in the labour market. The key was not to approach bioinformatics as an isolated technical specialisation, but rather as a scientific discipline capable of addressing real biomedical challenges from a different perspective.
“Rather than anticipating a specific technology, the Master’s programme anticipated an emerging real need: training professionals capable of working at the intersection of biology, medicine and computing. This commitment, which in 2017 might still have seemed highly specialised, is now fundamental to addressing an increasingly personalised, predictive and data-driven approach to medicine,” Al-Shahrour emphasised.
A programme adapted to the needs of the medicine of the future is reflected in the high employability of its scholarship recipients, both students and graduates. According to Alfonso Valencia, co-director of the Master’s programme, ICREA Research Professor and Director of the Life Sciences Department at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), the Master’s degree has successfully incorporated artificial intelligence, machine learning, the integration of clinical and biomedical data, and advances in data management — “an area that is becoming the foundation of all computational developments in biomedicine, where the professionals we train are increasingly needed and in demand.”
Iñaki Imaz Iglesia, Director of the National School of Public Health (ENS) at the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), recalled that “for more than 100 years, the ENS has developed training programmes in public health, maintaining its innovative spirit while preserving programmes built on solid foundations. This Master’s degree is a benchmark in innovation, applicability and rigour, and connects us with the best of science and technology,” he stated.
María José Hernáiz Gómez-Dégano pointed out that “data science is key to the development of new therapeutic approaches and Precision Personalised Medicine, but also to the advancement of biotechnology, by harnessing its full potential in areas such as healthcare, agriculture and environmental sustainability. This is why we committed to the Master’s programme from its first edition, and we will continue supporting a key initiative for training the professionals who are essential for scientific progress,” she said.
During the event, Fundación Instituto Roche also announced the recipients of the 8th call for training grants in Data Science applied to Precision Personalised Medicine, who will join the Master’s programme during the 2026–2027 academic year. The selected students are Pedro García, Ana Vargas, Clara Gordillo and Raúl Viedma.