ACROSS AND BEYOND THE DEVIDE:

Bioinformatics is a multidisciplinary field derived from computational and biologicalsciences. Its multidisciplinary nature has created a niche for specialists trained inboth biology and computing, and it has required distinct teaching cooperation fromexperts in these two different areas. Consequently, teaching bioinformatics willrequire specialist educators with in-depth knowledge of the two different components-- biology and computer science. Because this is quite a daunting task, mostuniversities lack the necessary specialists and experienced bioinformatics staff. Theymust therefore resort to the logical route of interdisciplinary and cross-facultyteaching. However, interfaculty teaching subsequently raises the issue of‘ownership’, and consequently creates concerns regarding teaching and learningcultures, as it is obvious that each discipline has an its own inherent culture. In thisarticle, we examined the curricula and their implementations at two Malaysianuniversities. Because both universities place their bioinformatics courses in opposingdepartments, we aimed to study how educators overcome the interdisciplinarybarrier. In addition, we concisely explain the components that constitute thebioinformatics field, analyse the unique education criteria that are required to produceindividuals with bioinformatics training and provide an overview of globalbioinformatics education to further improve our implementation of bioinformaticseducation