Q. As a biologist,
what skills do I need to make the transition to bioinformatics?
The
fact is that many of the jobs available CURRENTLY involve the design and
implementation of programs and systems for the storage, management and
analysis of vast amounts of DNA sequence data. Such positions require in-depth
programming and relational database skills which very few biologists possess,
and so it is largely the computational specialists who are filling these
roles. This is not to say the computer-savvy biologist doesn't play an
important role. As the bioinformatics field matures there will be a huge
demand for outreach to the biological community, as well as the need for
individuals with the in-depth biological background necessary to sift through
gigabases of genomic sequence in search of novel targets. It will be in these
areas that biologists with the necessary computational skills will find their
niche.
A. Molecular
biology packages (GCG, BLAST etc),
Web and programming skills including HTML, Perl, JAVA and C++,
Familiar
with a variety of operating systems (especially UNIX),
Relational
database skills such as SQL, Sybase or Oracle,
Statistics,
Structural
biology and modeling,
Mathematical
optimization,
Computer
graphics theory and linear algebra.
You will need to be able
to readily pick up, use and understand the tools and databases designed by
computer programmers, and
To communicate biological science requirements to core computer
scientists.