Forum:Bioinformatics Insight - Introduction To Bioinformatics

Question

[Malachi Griffith]

An Introduction to bioinformatics with Dr. Steve Jones, Head, Bioinformatics, Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency.

A very brief high-level introduction to some background history related to bioinformatics and some discussion of future directions and applications. The video is intended for a lay audience who may be completely unaware of the idea of bioinformatics and its growing contribution to the field of biology.

The video was created as part of Genome BC's Genome Education program as part of the following mission:

Providing reliable resources for curious individuals, as well as classroom-ready activities for high school teachers and students, we work to provide information about genomics and its impact on society accessible and exciting!!

[Michael]

at 4:24, does he want to explain cloning, or why?

Answer 1

[Michael]

While this video certainly depicts the motivations of Steve, his motivations to go into bioinformatics, and his CV, it falls short of explaining what bioinformatics really is or does. His viewpoint is certainly very narrow, I would therefore not call it "Introduction to bioinformatics". It was maybe not the intended title, rather to depict the potential of bioinformatics for the future. As such I'd question if the video tells us, who already know the basics (e.g. what is assembly, what kind of computational methods exist), a lot of news, except from "Biology is becoming more and more computational".

On the other hand, a lot of terms are used without further explanation, some machines are shown without further explanation, or without drawing the connection between the computer racks full of cables and the Illumina sequencer (which you only recognize if you already know what the cabinet is for). If one was going to use this to explain bioinformatics to a layman, then this intent is going to fail. In consequence, it doesn't have much use, it doesn't provide a lot of new perspectives to bioinformaticians and had almost no digestible value for the layman or students.

Maybe a bit better for this intent but not by far: another vid.

What you notice throughout is that the film makers are not real professionals, they all seem to make the same mistakes: showing a lot of complicated equipment without explaining it (here a bit less, at least they show a sequencer, while he is talking about sequencer), showing a lot of complicated graphics without explaining what you see. The result might be the impression: "Yeah, bioinformatics is very complicated".

Also both guys seem to promote the "factory science" approach, yeah, we have big data, we got ever bigger machines, we need to buy ever bigger stuff, think big. While that might be the reality, partially, I don't think this is a very innovative approach. So, no, you cannot buy your publications at Illumina or Affymetrix (or can you?).

[Malachi Griffith]

This seems a disproportionately visceral response to a short video post. I have edited the post to make the target audience more clear. Young students may visit this site shortly after they discover the concept of bioinformatics. Starting at the beginning with material aimed at a lay audience seems reasonable. Few of the videos posted thus far or likely to be posted in the future will have been 'made by professionals'. Perhaps you could post the alternate video you suggest with a description as a separate post...

[Michael]

That's my point, I don't think this video is well suited to explain the big picture to lay students. Maybe watch it again and try to figure how much you need to know already about biology and bioinformatics to understand what he is talking about.

[Istvan Albert]

I understand the sentiment that you express but what I noticed that outside of our own world most other scientists (let alone the general public) do not have even the slightest understanding of what bioinformatics is. (ha, I made a mistake writing bioinformatics and not even the spell checker knows how to correct the word!) So in the end we do need movies of all kinds, more practical oriented or more overview types like this - even they may feel superficial - these do help others understand the field.

[Michael]

I am really looking for good videos that explain how bioinformatics works to students or an interested lay audience. It is important that such attempts are made. However, if that was the attempt I would like to hear some feedback from the audience: would such material make students choose bioinformatics, would it convince politicians or funding agencies of the importance of funding for bioinformatics? And I am not sure this movie does.

[Obi Griffith]

lol. Did you expect him to explain how cloning works, how sequencing machines work, what a cluster rack is, etc in a 7min PR piece? I think the video is targeted more at a non-expert audience. Not necessarily lay-people but perhaps scientists outside the bioinformatics field or students just getting started. The main message that "Biology is becoming more and more computational" is an important one. I think we need more people beating that drum. There are still a lot of people, from first year students going into biology to granting agencies who still have not realized that biology is now primarily (though not exclusively) an informatics problem. Steve Jones is one of the more effective advocates for bioinformatics out there and I would certainly not characterize his viewpoint as "very narrow". Disclosure: I'm a former trainee from Steve's lab.

[Michael]

I'm not sure what I expected, maybe the format is not so well suited. All I have is the impression that he doesn't explain bioinformatics well, and I don't think that's a problem per se, as it might not have been the original intention of the vid to explain bioinformatics in general. I don't know his viewpoint, but the viewpoint that is -expressed in this footage- appears very narrow to me. It mainly focusses on sequence and cancer, all valid examples, no doubt.

I do not know if one can do much better in a 7min PR movie, but that is the point. To me it appears this format doesn't give a lot of information to the lay audience, nor does it tell me anything new.