How to Become a Bioinformatician?
There is no single definition for bioinformatics but it is generally agreed that it is to do with the utilisation of computing technologies for storage, retrieval, manipulation and analysis of biological information. Bioinformatics could involve analysis of molecules inside your body such as the genetic material (DNA) and the proteins. The massive growth in genomics and proteomics data (see featured article) has created a great demand for scientists with expertise in bioinformatics.
Undoubtedly, this is an exciting time for getting involved in bioinformatics and the financial rewards can be rather high compared to other areas of science. Although, becoming a bioinformatician can be an attractive career move, it is important to ask yourself the following questions before starting a course:
1. Do I have sufficient love for both computers and biology to spend hours in front of a computer screen on a daily basis?
2. What kind of job would I like: research in a pharmaceutical company or teaching and research in academia?
3. Do I really want to spend time and effort learning the latest tools in bioinformatics to help my research?
The greatest numbers of jobs in bioinformatics are based in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies because the demand is the greatest there. The number of jobs in academia is increasing but the numbers are still much fewer than in industry. There is a big difference between being a user of bioinformatics tools and developing new ones. If you want to do the latter, then you will require extensive knowledge of relevant skills from computer science. This may entail pursuing a formal course covering programming, databases, data structures, computational complexity, and numeric methods. Due to the scarcity of fully-fledged bioinformaticians, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly forced to hire scientists with degrees in life science with self-training in computer science. Others are recruiting computer scientists and training them in biology. Ideally, what the companies are looking for are people with dual backgrounds in both biology and computer science so that they are able to understand the subject well enough to develop methods to analyse and interpret biological problems.
If after answering the above questions, you still decide to pursue a career in bioinformatics, then you can choose one of the following routes to enter the field of bioinformatics:
Self-Teaching and Distance Learning
If you are willing to work hard, and can work on your own, then self-teaching can be a fruitful approach to entering bioinformatics. There is a wide variety of bioinformatics related resources freely available on the Internet. A combination of such Internet resources and books can help you develop sufficient bioinformatics skills that can prepare you for a new job or going on to further studies in this field. Some may not have the luxury of taking time off from work to attend a course in bioinformatics. For those people, web-based tutorials can provide a convenient and attractive alternative way of acquiring skills useful in bioinformatics. There are many, often excellent, tutorials on public domain tools that can be freely accessed over the Internet. Furthermore, an increasing number of Universities and Institutes are offering formal Web-based courses.
Undergraduate and Post-Graduate studies
If you are young a degree course in Bioinformatics may be the best route to take. Unfortunately, there are not many of these courses offered by Universities although they are increasing. The Universities are aware of the increasing demand for experts in bioinformatics, and are beginning to offer new undergraduate and post-graduate courses in this subject. Although such courses may not emphasise on specific software, they do offer in-depth understanding of the principles underlying developing algorithms and their applications. As there is no consensus on what a bioinformatics course should cover, curriculum varies greatly from institution to institution. This is at least partly due to the fact, that pharmaceutical companies, and Universities are still finding it difficult to recruit bioinformatics experts on their teaching staff and are therefore dependent on one or two experts in-house.
If you already have a degree in computer science or a life science subject it would be advisable for you to start a Masters degree in Bioinformatics. There are a large number of such courses offered by Universities, some of which focus more on biological analysis, whilst others focus more on computer science aspects.
Post-doctoral Studies
For someone who has finished a Ph.D. degree, it would be more fruitful to do a bioinformatics postdoctoral rather then doing another degree. It will require hard work and willingness to take some extra courses to develop sufficient level of bioinformatics expertise but may be well worth it.
Work Experience in Industry and University
For someone in their mid-career, it may be possible to enter bioinformatics by working for a short time in a company or a University research department actively engaged in bioinformatics.
Short Courses and Commercial Software
Attending a short course is particularly suited for someone wanting to gain an in-depth understanding of a particular bioinformatics tool in a short period of time. Unfortunately, the number of short course offerings is few, although they are on the rise. Training on commercial bioinformatics software tools is another way of getting into bioinformatics. Such tools with user-friendly interfaces, that are easy to use, are now available along with on-site training. The drawback is that training offered by companies is often limited to their own products.
Final Words
There are several routes available for entering the field of bioinformatics, each with its own pros and cons. For this reason, you MUST research every route in detail to make sure it covers the topics and subjects of your interests and, most importantly, your career needs.