The Top Five Skills Every Bioinformatics Enthusiast Should Have.
Take a deep breath. I mean, relax. You have to carefully read each word in this article because it contains the key things you should know before setting out to be a bioinformatician.
But let’s start with the simplest FAQ.
What is Bioinformatics?
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that combines computer science, mathematics, and statistics to analyze and interpret biological data. It’s a relatively new field, and it’s constantly evolving.
Exciting Gist about Bioinformatics
There’s a lot to keep up with if you want to stay current in the field.
Enthusiasm for bioinformatics is growing rapidly as the field continues to yield new and exciting discoveries. Yes, it isn’t far different from other tech industries in terms of the rapidly growing knowledge base. In fact, it’s more evolutionary than others.
Before I show you the five start-up kits, let me tell you this story to drive home my point.
I was in a workshop recently, and we were to replicate a pipeline (watch out for my glossary list of bioinformatics terms). The pipeline was just about a year old. Guess what? There were bugs in the codes and that kept us stuck!
Why? Some of the software applications they used as of the time the pipeline was made have been updated just within the timeframe. Hence, some of the codes as well.
So, if you’re looking for a career where you have to learn new ways of doing things every time and stay up to date with new information, congratulations, you’re on the right path.
Can we delve into the subject of the day?
What Every Bioinformatics Enthusiast Should Know
If you’re enthusiastic about bioinformatics, you’ve made the best decision ever! But before you set out for an exciting bioinformatics career, either for graduate school or college, check out these five things every bioinformatics enthusiast should know.
1. The basics of biology and computer science
As a bioinformatician, you’ll be analyzing biological data — that’s just science! But it’s not just any kind of science; it’s biology combined with computer language. Much of what you might be interested in is related to molecular biology, plants, microorganisms, diseases, and so on. Many of which require a foundational knowledge of biology.
Since you’re dealing with big data, you definitely need to have a background knowledge of how computers operate. This is the simplest and first step in getting started in bioinformatics.
2. How to use bioinformatics tools and skills to hone
Once you’ve gotten your foot in the door with the basics of biology and computer science, there are some wonderful tools that can make your journey easier when you get started! You’ll want to learn how to use these tools so that you can get the most out of them when working with biological data.
Bioinformatics tools are used for a variety of tasks, from analyzing DNA sequences to performing mathematical calculations on protein structures, and even visualization of big data. So it’s important that you understand what each one does and how it can be used in conjunction with other tools for your own particular needs.
Technically, you are on a path to becoming a data scientist. But this time, a biological data scientist.
Some of the bioinformatics skills you must learn include but are not limited to:
- Programming skills
Does bioinformatics require coding? Yes, it does. Most bioinformaticians use R, Perl, and Python programming. But what is a bioinformatician without unix commands? You will frequently need bash or unix commands to work on the cloud. So go look for a Unix cheat sheet and start learning.
- Statistical skills
You’ll need strong statistical skills. This is because a lot of the data in genomics is statistical in nature such as a Fastqc report, and without a basic knowledge of statistics, you may not be able to analyze it effectively.
- Mining Big Data and Machine Learning
You’ll need to be proficient in big data mining and machine learning. This is because you’ll need to be able to process huge amounts of data quickly and effectively. For example, the human genome is about 3 GB of data and over 3 billion base pairs. Such data would have taken days or even month to analyze and interpret, but thanks to machine learning.
- Database management, e.g. SQL
Since you’re dealing with a lot of data, things might get really messy along the way. So you must have basic to expert knowledge of database management tools. Database management is needed in order to store and organize the data.
- Knowledge of bioinformatics resources such as BLAST, NCBI, Galaxy, and others.
There are definitely many of them out there that you would love to know about. But every bioinformatician should know that the NCBI database has a lot of interesting free resource tools.
- Research Skills
Since bioinformatics is a rapidly changing field, you must learn to hone your research skills to stay up to date. Check out new tools, recent publications, and much more. Just make sure you love doing independent research.
3. The types of data that can be analyzed with bioinformatics
Bioinformatics can be used to analyze many different kinds of data, including genetic data like DNA sequences or RNA transcripts, biological data like biochemistry measurements or metabolic rates, and statistical data like gene expression levels or models of protein structures, among others.
If you can learn about the different file formats that exist, what they mean, and when they are used, that will be a big plus for you.
4. The Applications of Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is ushering in a new era of medicine, science, and technology. It has the potential to impact every sector of society by providing solutions to challenges that have plagued humankind for centuries. What is application of bioinformatics? Here are some examples:
- Finding cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s
- Improving crop yields and disease infestation in agriculture,
- Improving existing treatments through the application of machine learning algorithms
- Precision medicine
- Interpreting large data sets in order to make predictions about the future
5. The Difficulties that Bioinformaticians Face
One of the main challenges that bioinformaticians face is developing their skill set and understanding how to use it.
They need to learn how different types of software work and how they fit together within an overall system. They also need to have an understanding of the data being analyzed and how it can be analyzed so that it can be interpreted correctly.
- Finding ways to keep up with rapidly changing technology
- Working on projects that involve both humans and machines.
- Working on projects that require analysis across multiple different fields (like chemistry or biology).
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, every bioinformatics enthusiast should know about the top five things mentioned in this article. Knowing them will give you a nearly smooth ride on your journey as a bioinformatician.
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