Forum:Mentor for a beginner bioinformatics student

Question

[UT_FAN]

I am a 13-year-old middle school student residing in a small city in Tennessee, USA, with a keen interest in coding. My coding journey began in 2019, and since then, I have successfully completed various coding courses in languages such as R, Python, Java, JavaScript, HTML, and C++. I am recognized as a gifted student, excelling in both math and science, as evidenced by my composite score of 34 on the ACT. Currently, I am currently enrolled in the Harvard CS50 computer science course (online) and am working on my final project to successfully complete the course. Additionally, I possess a solid foundation in biology and have enrolled in the Honor's Biology program at CTY (Johns Hopkins University).

Despite my achievements, I have reached a point where my gifted program and my science/STEM teacher can no longer provide the guidance I need. Living in a small city further limits my opportunities to approach research labs for guidance. I am in search of a mentor who can offer me an internship-style project with real-world applications, allowing me to explore my coding skills and my passion for biology. While I have enjoyed the computer courses available on platforms like Coursera and edX, I am now seeking a mentor who can direct me towards utilizing these skills to solve practical problems. I am uncertain about how to approach a professor, and any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Yogi]

I'm in a lab currently that you may want to look into. We just started (I'm a PhD student) after my mentor moved from Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

I'm trying to think of the best way to get in contact with you since it seems I can't privately message you.

[jkim]

I wish I was that smart when I was young. :-) I would recommend digging into college level math/stats - calculus 1,2 and 3, linear algebra, introduction to probability, linear model, statistical learning and so on. I believe statistics plays a crucial role in the bioinformatics field. Good luck!

[Ram]

Is there a reason why linear XYZ phrases are in bold in your comment?

[UT_FAN]

Thanks I will look more into what you have suggested

Answer 1

[jared.andrews07]

Depending where you are located, you may consider reaching out to people at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. There is some precedent here for PIs working with advanced high school students during summers, though your quite young age will make it a challenge. Regardless, reaching out never hurts.

If you are looking for additional challenges and a way to dip your toes into bioinformatics, rosalind offers a wide range of coding challenges that introduce some core concepts. Some of the problems are quite easy, some will take a bit of time. They are quite nice for learning how to think about bioinformatics, though it's rather rare to work at such a low-level given that tools have been developed that make most of these tasks much easier.

For more cutting edge/novel work, there are the DREAM challenges, which try to identify the best approach(es) to solve a given problem. They often have multiple stages and can be very complex. They also usually have prizes for the top performing teams (collaboration is encouraged).

[UT_FAN]

Thanks this is very helpful.