Considering Bachelor Options, Need Something To Introduce Me To Real World Bioinformatics

Question

[Max]

I am currently deciding on my bachelor education options and considering bioinformatics as a possible choice. Based on various articles introducing bioinformatics - I like the idea of being bioinformatitian. However, as this decision is very important to me, I would like to aquire some additional information on the subject.

Could you recommend me some articles or books (preferrably only chapters of them) which would give me some broad but precise overview of what is considered a bioinformatitian job? Something that would give me a better view on it to understand if I would like it or not.

I've checked the questions on this website regarding favourite bioinformatics books, however they provide good means to study bioinformatics, but not to simply get an idea of what would bioinformatics job feels like.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

[John St. John]

I am not aware of such a book. Bioinformatics is a pretty rapidly evolving field. Some research topics that were really hot 10 years ago are more or less dead now (ie protein folding), and new opportunities have sprung up in the past 3 or 4 years that were not even considerations 10 years ago. Things go back and forth as well. For example ancient DNA-sequencing was fairly active in the 90's I believe, then it died out, and now it is back in the spotlight with new technologies and advancements enabling the sequencing of entire ancient genomes.

I would look at what some of the Bioinformatics research groups in schools you are interested in are specifically researching. If you are interested in what jobs are available for bioinformaticians, there are tons of smaller start-ups out there, as well as more established companies like Illumina, Life Sciences, etc. Also many pharmaceutical companies hire bioinformatics researchers so that is also an option. There are also large government labs like JGI you could look at the job openings for.

Good luck!

[Max]

But how does it feel, is bioinformatics a growing field or a stagnant one? I've read lots of articles which name it a very perspective field of study, however it's broadness is exactly what scares me the most. From your answer I can judge that today bioinformatics is something totally different from 2000-th bioinformatics. Is there something common between them that never changes (and never will change), which I can use as a baseline to evaluate what IS bioinformatics about?

[John St. John]

Definitely a growing field at the moment. I would say more and more biologists are being forced to become bioinformaticists to some degree as time passes.

The baseline thing I would say is statistics, computer science (i.e. data structures and algorithm development/usage) and programming. The problems always change but those skills carry over well to new ones.

Answer 2

[Zev.Kronenberg]

Do you care more about the biology?

Find a program that focuses on biology and uses bioinformatics as a means to get at the interesting biology.

Do you care more about modeling data and the tools?

Train in math and computer science.

Do you care about the money?

Avoid science.

You are in an exceptionally awesome time of you life. Speaking from experience you will probably change your field of study at least once in college. Have fun~!

[Max]

"Do you care about the money?" - only to the extent of having not a pathetically looking payment. But I've already searched for bioinformatics salary and it seems to be good enough for me. Also my preliminary focus is more biology oriented. Thanks for the answer.

[Zev.Kronenberg]

I started in biology. Keep in mind that as the field matures and more people will have the expertise needed to do bioinformatics and this might cut salaries. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Answer 3

[Obi Griffith]

I don't know if you will be able to find such a book. I suggest you sift through bioinformatics blogs. These are often blogs by bioinformaticians (surprise, surprise), describing their day-to-day life, activities, problems, challenges, etc. This might be a way to get a sense of what a bioinformatics job "feels like". However, keep in mind that there is a HUGE amount of variation depending on the research area, organization, and type of position you have. The good news is that demand is generally high for bioinformatics expertise and this gives you more flexibility to find a position that works for you. Some lists of bioinfo blogs have been posted here and here. There are also LinkedIn, Facebook and other groups you might join. Finally, I suggest that it is probably not necessary to make this decision at the undergrad level. Very few bioinformaticians take a specific bioinformatics bachelor. If you take the standard courses for a biology, biochemistry, or computer science major or some combination you will have a good grounding while still keeping your options very wide open. Then, take a co-op or internship program during your studies to try out some bioinformatic projects. Good luck!

[Max]

Thanks a lot, those blogs seem to be something very close to what I was looking for.

Answer 4

[Sukhi Singh]

This boils down to, are you interested in programming and biology. Both are pretty cool and one spends a lot of time to get knowledge in both. I think, its a fast and cool field with lots of hot topics. The risk factor is less as you can quickly migrate to bio or computing with little more training. Like I have worked on 6 different biology projects on the bioinformatics side including some of which I had no knowledge in last 2-3 years, but it worked fine. You can read wiki and watch some sequencing videos to get a feel. There are some one hour lectures on youtube which will flash your knowledge. Also try some ted talks.

Cheers

Answer 5

[tonikumpeter]

You might want to read that: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2012_04_13/caredit.a1200041