Forum:Bioinformatics Research Topics/Areas that Everyone should take a look / Current Trends

Question

[pfee418]

Hi Biostars community! Recently I have planned to pursue a postgraduate study (MSc/phD) after my bioinformatics degree. I have been searching for my research area/topic that I might be interested but so far I do not have an obvious strong interest in any of them. So far I have a few ones in my mind: Cancer Biology/Cancer-related, Environmental Science or related area and Machine Learning/Deep Learning/AI (I realised this is a current trend in bioinformatics now. Correct me or expand my views on this if I'm wrong :'D)

As for Environmental Science, I wish I can help to solve environmental problems with my bioinformatics skills one day but so far I have no idea how bioinformatics can be linked with this area. If anyone know any research about environmental science with the application of bioinformatics, feel free to share and/or discuss below!.

I knew that bioinformatics has branched into many topics such as metagenomics, metabolomics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, evolutionary studies, functional genomics, RNA-seq analysis, data mining and now even machine learning, artificial intelligence are one of the interest in bioinformatics. May I know are there any topics/areas I should explore and discover? Feel free to share and discuss below :))

Since I have touched the topic about research areas/topics for bioinformatics. It will be great that if anyone would like to share the Current Trend of bioinformatics. I only knew applying Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in bioinformatics is a trend now.

Thank you in advance for all the comments and discussions below, really appreciate it. I hope this post can help others who would like to know the current trends and interesting topics that can be further explored! Thank you and have a great weekend! :))

Answer 1

[GenoMax]

I have been searching for my research area/topic that I might be interested but so far I do not have an obvious strong interest in any of them.

Chasing trends seems trendy but until you start working in an area you may not get a feel for it. You are more than likely to change your mind over time as well. Since research does not happen in vacuum or on your own, you will need to find an institution/mentor that works on a topic/in an area that will interest you.

Keep an open mind. At least you have decided on a crucial thing that you want continue working in bioinformatics. Find places you may want to join, take a look at interests of faculty there. Unless you get admitted to one of these places there is no path forward.

Bioinformatics associated with diagnostics/testing is going to be a big area of interest since that is where the real money is at.

[pfee418]

Hi, thank you for your suggestions and advices, I really appreciate it! Yes, I do agree that searching for project topics that are currently available in the institutions that I interested is another way to search for my interest. I guess I will start from there as well. Thanks a lot!

Answer 2

[Jean-Karim Heriche]

Don't necessarily go for trendy things. Trends could fade very quickly. I would suggest instead to look more for things that motivate you. Strong motivation is what helps you overcome the lows that inevitably happens at some point in a project. What scientific problems would you want to tackle? What would you like to be working on in 5 years?
You mention environmental questions so for some high-level ideas of connections to bioinformatics and other areas of science, maybe have a look at the new EMBL programme Molecules to Ecosystems.

[pfee418]

Hi, thank you for your suggestions! Yes, I do prioritise to go for topics that I interested because my interest and motivation to it will help me go further for a project. Thank you for the link of EMBL programme too! I will take a look at it.