In the life sciences application subject of the bachelor's programme Applied Computer Science, specialized foundations of chemistry, physics, and biology are taught. Interdisciplinary modules build on these basics, dealing with problems including decoding the genome, developing drugs, processing genetic information, and simulating biochemical processes.

Students are given the opportunity to specialize in different areas. Corresponding model study plans are defined for these specializations. In all model study plans, these specializations are deepened in the in-depth internship and in the in-depth seminar. The in-depth internships and the presentation topics in the seminar are individually adapted to the interests and specializations of the students.

The various specializations that are continued in the master's programme and are described below in summary for the bachelor's and master's programmes are:
 

• The training focus on structural biology is justified by the research focus on structural biology in the life sciences. This training plan enables students to specialize in the study of structure-function relationships. One training focus here is the presentation of the various methods for structure elucidation by means of experimental methods as well as the evaluation of the experiments with the help of methods from computer science. Furthermore, various methods of theoretical investigation of structure-function relationships are dealt with. A later field of work in this subject area is application in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in the field of biotechnology (protein design, elucidation of disease mechanisms and their cure).
   
  
• A specialization in the field of experimental bioinformatics enables students to later pursue a career in the field of scientific instrument engineering (software development, instrument control). Here, learning experimental techniques as well as in-depth knowledge in the areas of robotics and embedded systems play a central role.
   
  
• One modern area of bioinformatics is systems biology. In this specialization field, the properties of living systems and how they function are studied in more detail. Various biological subjects play a role here, as students need to understand the function of cells. The simulation of reaction networks is dealt with in the specialization labs. The potential field of work for this orientation is biotechnology, e.g. optimizing substance yields in biofuel production.
   
  
• The specialization drug design focuses on the areas of organic and bioorganic chemistry as well as on the theoretical analysis of these compounds. This specialization should enable computer scientists to give realistic suggestions for possible drugs to synthetic chemists, as well as enable students to theoretically investigate the corresponding compounds and their possible modes of action. The intended field of work is the pharmaceutical industry.