2 answers
Mariam
Student
Cairo, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
4
Questions
Asked
558 views
What is the Bioinformatics field like?
What are the field's pros and cons? What's a day like in the field? What majors would be appropriate? What skills are required for it?
#bioinformatics#biology #medicine #engineering
Login to comment
2 answers
Mahmood AL
Engineer
2
Answers
Houston, Texas
Updated
Mahmood’s Answer
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combines computer science, statistics, mathematics, and engineering to analyze and interpret biological data.
Andrew Wong
Engineer
21
Answers
New Haven, Connecticut
Updated
Andrew’s Answer
In a typical day, you will be writing software and performing analysis on biomedical data like those from genetic sequencing, microarray, etc. Nowadays large dataset is common. So you would be savvy with data analysis languages like R and Python. Higher level works involve innovating new algorithms. It's not uncommon to juggle between Linux servers to run programs and transfer data.
Major:
Statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, molecular biology, machine learning
I would say statistics is the hardest skill to acquire, perhaps because our education systems usually don't emphasize that. Usually don't need to get a computer science degree to acquire enough programming skill for bioinformatics. A good understanding of molecular biology is a must. Many people switch to bioinformatics after completing some molecular biology research. You should focus on understanding the principles of biology not the lab work if goal is bioinformatics. Research experience is very helpful. Not uncommon to see bioinformatician with PhD.
Pro:
A growing field. The trend is we generate more and more data. There's need for automated analysis.
Many innovation going on in machine learning which is waiting to be applied to bioinformatics problem.
Cons:
You need to like working in front of computer whole day.
Major:
Statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, molecular biology, machine learning
I would say statistics is the hardest skill to acquire, perhaps because our education systems usually don't emphasize that. Usually don't need to get a computer science degree to acquire enough programming skill for bioinformatics. A good understanding of molecular biology is a must. Many people switch to bioinformatics after completing some molecular biology research. You should focus on understanding the principles of biology not the lab work if goal is bioinformatics. Research experience is very helpful. Not uncommon to see bioinformatician with PhD.
Pro:
A growing field. The trend is we generate more and more data. There's need for automated analysis.
Many innovation going on in machine learning which is waiting to be applied to bioinformatics problem.
Cons:
You need to like working in front of computer whole day.