Biochemistry and plant biotechnology final year student planning to do postgrad in bioinformatics. Is it possible without pragramming knowledge ? How do I start

Question

[216031647]

Good day.

I need advice here! I am an undergraduate final year student in biochemistry and plant biotechnology. I am planning to do bioinformatics in my postgraduate, having no knowledge of pragramming-is it a good idea to start straight with bioinformatics or should I start with pragramming courses first?And are there good career opportunities in bioinformatics?

Thanks

Answer 1

[ATpoint]

For me as a biologist turned data analyst (=analyze the NGS data I produce in the lab myself) bioinformatics is mainly about understanding the concepts and frontiers of the subject. For this you do not need any programming. Still, at some point you will need to write custom scripts and little programs to analyze data. Also, once you got your head around the concept and logic of programming some topics might be more easily accessable / understandable. I suggest you take any online programming course, e.g. at EDX (many are free) and get some coding background. Usage of Unix systems and Unix command line should be on your schedule at some point too. I personally like coding in R (in fact the only language I know) for everything more complex, and for simple things the Unix command line typically does the trick. For me it was pretty much learning by doing, which was a pain at times. If there is a university curriculum that can assist you take it! Still, there are plenty of resources in the internet to educate yourself. Many people here at Biostars are entirely self-trained without any format university degree in bioinformatics, so it is possible, but it will take dedication and effort. Please also look around for other posts towards this topic using the search function. This has been discussed and extensively answered quite sime times before.

Answer 2

[Joe]

If you can position your self as a 'hybrid' - i.e. someone who understands the wetlab, but also the computational side (like me, and ATpoint) then your prospects are even better than just pure computation or pure wet lab.

When it comes to needing to know how to program, the best way to learn is by doing. The degree to which you can 'learn on the job' will be dictated by the type of lab you're applying to. If you applied to a dyed-in-the-wool computational biology or algorithmics-focussed bioinformatics group, they're unlikely to take you on unless you're already very proficient in one or more languages. This tends to be less about 'knowing how to program' however, and more about understanding principles of software development, which are entirely different things.

However, if you were applying to, say, a lab which produces its own NGS data, the capacity to learn while you do the job may well be higher.

All that said, it will never hurt to be as proficient as possible when it comes to programming. When I started my MSc+PhD I had only the barest minimum of code experience (by which I mean I could tell you what a foor loop would do, but I couldn't write one!). In the ~5 years since, I've had job offers from 2 'proper' bioinformatics jobs. My PhD has some bioinformatics elements but was primarily wet lab - I just took every opportunity I had to write code for whatever tasks presented themselves. I still wouldn't call myself an especially stellar programmer, but certainly good enough to get by.