Forum:Can I switch back to wet lab in phd after doing a master in bioinformatics?

Question

[blueearth205]

Hi there, I am a bachelor graduate in field of biology and I have an offer to do a master in Life science informatics which is focused on computer science and data mining for biologists and will result in a bioinformatician upon graduation. I really like bioinformatics but I am interested to mix both wet lab and dry lab together. I also want to gain wet lab skills and take part in wet lab researches beside doing bioinformatics. Clearly finding such major for master is hard so I am wondering if I accept my offer will I be able to switch into wet lab for my phd? since my master will be focused on computer, doesn't it cause me problem for doing a phd? how can I make a balance between bioinformatics and wet lab researches?

Can you help me on this issue?

Thanks a lot

[fatima]

I have like this problem tnx :)

Answer 1

[shelly.deforte]

If you had a lot of wet-lab experience as an undergrad, then maybe. I tried to switch from biomathematics to a biology program going from masters to PhD and I had a lot of trouble because I didn't have enough wet-lab experience. I basically didn't get into as good as a program as I would have if I hadn't tried to switch. Several programs turned me down for no other reason than insufficient wet-lab experience. It's a really big deal. Bigger than you may think. In my experience, experimentalists aren't all that impressed with computational or mathematical experience, no matter how impressive your CV is, and they're very nervous (and rightly so) that you won't be cut out for whatever kind of lab work you want to do if you don't have proven experience. I ended up doing bioinformatics in a medical sciences program which is exactly where I wanted to be. But it was the harder path to take. In retrospect, it would have been easier if I'd stuck with either computational science or biology and then done the other on the side instead of switching or trying to do something in between. However, I couldn't be happier with my unique skill set.

[blueearth205]

Thanks a lot for your comment! so how can I improve my wet lab skill during my master. I mean you know I want to do bioinformatics I want to know software works and how can I use them but I also want to apply the result in wet lab! I do no want to sit all the day next to PC just doing programing or working with software. As you said I want to do something in between but I don't know how! Any suggestion?

[shelly.deforte]

I would find a lab to volunteer at while you are getting your masters. Find someone doing the kind of work that you would be interested in doing. If you think you might want to work with mouse models, find a lab where you can work with mice. If you want to do molecular biology, find a molecular biology lab. Almost any lab will happily accept the help. Basically, you need to be able to show the graduate schools you apply to for your PhD that you've tried wet-lab work and that you enjoyed it. When you switch from computational science to wet-lab science, I found the biggest concern is that you aren't going to like it and you're going to drop out.

Answer 2

[Devon Ryan]

There's no reason this should cause much of a problem. If you're interested in working in an area in which there are both wet and dry lab folks, then any good program is going to be looking for a mix of backgrounds (and ideally people interested in doing both). Just as an example, my Ph.D. is in neuroscience and my class was comprised of both molecular biologists and physicists, with some people (such as me) in between. Other years had CS majors and people with pretty much any sort of STEM degree you can think of. Interesting science is increasingly multidisciplinary and most good programs are going to want people with diverse backgrounds.

Having said that, know your strengths. If you already know a bit more about computational work, then look for PhD positions with a more computational angle. The goal isn't to completely change what you're doing, but to utilize what you already know a bit about to proceed at a decent speed toward finishing you doctorate (after all, you don't want to be a grad. student forever).