Getting started in Bioinformatics: A step-by-step guide.
A guide and advice on how to get started, or how to transition into Bioinformatics for people with biology or programming backgrounds.
Part 1: Why do you want to become a Bioinformatician?
Let’s start with a question: “What made me (you) interested in Bioinformatics?”. If you know the answer to this question it will be much easier for you to progress, and you will be able to set a clear goal based on it.
It is really important for you to understand why and what you actually want to do in the field of Bioinformatics, or any other field for that matter. Otherwise, it will be really hard to achieve any kind of progress. You will keep asking the age-old question: “What is Bioinformatics, and what can I do with it?”. Any answers you get from people will likely be too complex for a beginner, and most importantly- probably not helpful at all. You should first come up with a clear goal, that focuses on a problem you want to research, that you can tackle and solve.
There are many of us who won’t, and still don’t have an answer to this question, and it makes it harder to get started. Don’t worry, after reading this article you should have a very good idea…
