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Bioinformatics in The Economist

Posted by michael on from the buzzwords-of-the-next-generation dept.

Erich Schwarz writes "Bioinformatics has gone from being an esoteric sub-field to being a business. The Economist gives a useful overview, while warning 'Bioinformatics is not for the faint of heart...'"

7 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. What I'd major in by SteweyGriffin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I had to do it again, I'd definitely choose biology or bioengineering or something related.

    It seems as most everything in computer has "been done", and biology/chemisty/biochemical engineering seems to be where all the fun & excitement is these days.

    Anyone else agree? Just curious.

    1. Re:What I'd major in by GuySmiley · · Score: 5, Interesting
      As a molecular biologist, I steer interns out of biology. Blend bio with any other discipline. You will spend your entire life justifying the 90% of experiments that fail, justifying your existance to get grants, etc. Bio-business, bio,-programming, bio-sales, bio-anything. Lab rats at the bench make no money, get zero respect, get zero creative control and are this generation's ditch diggers.

      A decade of scientific failures is indescribably difficult to explain, but it is ungratifying. I have been taking Linux/SQL classes for the last few years trying to steer into the digital world, and thus mine and slashdot's interests are now intersecting.

      Yes, having interesting work can only go so far. You still have Senior management flushing the cool stuff you invent down the toilet or left on the vine to rot. At the end of the day , you still have a pile of bills to pay.

      looking for meaningful work in MPLS fleabag-at-covat-dot-net

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    2. Re:What I'd major in by t0rnt0pieces · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As a molecular biologist, I steer interns out of biology. Blend bio with any other discipline. You will spend your entire life justifying the 90% of experiments that fail, justifying your existance to get grants, etc. Bio-business, bio,-programming, bio-sales, bio-anything. Lab rats at the bench make no money, get zero respect, get zero creative control and are this generation's ditch diggers.

      I couldn't have said it better myself. Here's something to chew on. Do you need a bio degree to do bio-sales, bio-business, bio-programming, etc? Most likely not. Biologists generally know nothing about business, sales, or programming, so they can't get jobs in these fields.

      I work as a lab tech and I agree that they are ditch diggers. I actually did go to grad school for a bit, I pretty much hated it. It's very unsatisfying. At least if you program you can design something *useful* that *works* and feel like you've accomplished something. Biologists go months without accomplishing anything, and the work is dirty. Who wants to be in a lab for the rest of their lives? Even the PhD's have it really tough. No one hires PhD's, they're overqualified. Most of them end up working long hours for years as post-docs making $30,000.

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  2. The submitter is correct by SteweyGriffin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Bioinformatics is really where it's out. Just glancing around at various newspapers, it's readily apparent where the future is heading.

    Is it really what we want/need as humans? I'm not sure. But I for one won't wager a guess until there's more research done in the area, so I say let's explore it more before we defame it conclusively or support it as a technological breakthrough.

    Some other recent news items:
    Nabda, Unesco Collaborate in Bioinformatics Training
    AllAfrica.com,Africa-05 Dec 2002
    ... Development Agency (NABDA) and the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural
    Organisation (UNESCO), penultimate Tuesday held a two-day Bioinformatics ...

    Bioinformatics ahead for Danville
    Danville Register and Bee,VA-30 Nov 2002
    ... Developing these plants will involve both horticulture and bioinformatics and will
    be one major focus of Danville's Institute for Advanced Learning and Research ...

    The race to computerise biology
    Economist (subscription),UK-12 Dec 2002
    Welcome to the world of bioinformatics--a branch of computing concerned
    with the acquisition, storage and analysis of biological data. ...

    Observing Proteins And Cells In The Wild: Quantum Dots May ...
    Science Daily-13 Dec 2002
    ... Today it is internationally renowned for research and graduate education
    in the biomedical sciences, chemistry, bioinformatics and physics. ...

  3. Viewpoints by VoidEngineer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hmmm. Seems like it would be easier to say that everything which has been done in computer science has 'been done', whereas everything that hasn't been done in computer science, 'hasn't'.

    Seriously, though, you may be mis-categorizing your subjects. Look at computers as computational entities, rather than disk drives, monitors, and so forth. In that case, an optical computer or a biocomputer operates on many of the same systems priciple as a 'digital computer', and there is therefore much to be done in the field of computer science.

    Absolutely. Optical computing is getting some great advances in Holographic Video at the MIT Spatial Imaging Group. And chemical computing is advancing nicely in Carbohydrate Chips at the University of Chicago.

    For my money, I'd bet on optical video cubes, 3D television, and biochips in the future... which are all applications of computer technology. Remember, 'computer' use to refer to the job title of a person.

    For my money, I think that the future has got SnowCrash, Cryptonomicon, Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Johnny Mnemonic written all over it (and maybe a bit of Jurassic Park.

  4. Don�t forget Chemoinformatics by Wdi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    While there is a real hype about bioinformatics, do not forget its sister discipline, chemoinformatics. Chemoinformatics is more concerned about handling chemical structures rather than genomes (but the boundaries are not that clear, and companies such as Accelrys 8cited in the article] are more a chemoinformatics than a bioinformatics company).

    An interesting overview about CI can be found at Nature.

    Still, you need dedication for this job: A Ph.D. in chemistry plus solid computer science knowledge is still the norm. But those few who qualify are really sought after.

    Disclosure: I am the Director of Chemoinformatics at start-up ChemCodes (www.chemcodes.com), so I know what I am talking about.

  5. Postdocs Jobs in bioinformatics and proteomics by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Want a high paying job in bioinformatics? there are several high paying postdoctoral positions ($59000 to $75000 starting salary) available at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

    goto www.lanl.gov and click on the 'jobs' tab then the postdoc link.

    here is one example:

    Summary: Postdoctoral Positions in Protein Bioinformatics and Structural Genomics: The Bioscience Division (B-2 Group) is seeking 2-3 highly motivated researchers for immediate openings to work with our interdisciplinary team of Bioinformatics and Structural Biology. Research activities will focus on the development and application of methods in Functional and Structural Genomics, including: 1) inference of function in proteins based upon structural and sequence information; 2) prediction of protein structure, protein binding, ligands, and active sites using both ab initio approaches and experimental information; 3) identification of signatures of pathenogenosis; 4) annotation and analysis of selected genomes; and 5) creation and curation of annotated protein databases.

    Required Skills:Experience in at least 2 of the following areas is required (more than two areas of experience is highly desirable):

    • Protein structure modeling or protein-ligand analysis or other related modeling
    • Background in molecular biology, or microbial pathogenesis, or related fields
    • Experience with the common sequence analysis tools for Blast search, sequence alignment, phylogenetic analysis, etc.
    • Drug design, or protein design or protein structure predictions or docking
    • Functional annotation of putative genes based on literature analysis
    • Curation of biological databases and web programming
    Desired Skills:Knowledge of one computer programming language (e.g., Perl, Python, FORTRAN, C++). Use of common molecular graphics tools such as Pymol, Xtal. Research in genomic sequence analysis or protein structure. Familiarity with SQL databases, unix, and XML is useful. Education:A Ph.D completed within the last 5 years or soon to be completed is required. Notes to Applicants:Starting salaries range from $59,300 to $67,300. For further technical information about the position and the project, contact Charlie Strauss at cems@lanl.gov (505-665-5838), or Murray Wolinsky at murray@lanl.gov (505-665-0952).
    Candidates may be considered for a Director's Fellowship and outstanding candidates may be considered for the prestigious J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard P. Feynman or Frederick Reines Fellowships. Please see Special Postdoctoral Fellowships for further details.

    For general information refer to the Postdoctoral Program page.

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