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Career Choices for Computational Biologists?
wengkius writes "I'm entering grad school this year and will be working towards a higher degree in Computational Biology. While my undergraduate training has been in computer science, I'm looking to apply what I've learned in a new area that has piqued my interest. Now my question is this: apart from the obvious career choices that I have thought of (academic research, pharma corporations, biotech startups), are there any other career options that I have yet to consider? Would be great to hear from Slashdotters who are familiar with the field."
Biotech.
"Now that I'm about to graduate, I'm not sure exactly what the hell I'm supposed to do with this fancy piece of embossed paper. Please help me!!!"
Huh? Sorry, IANAL nor a degreed professional, but if I'd spent that much time of my life and that much money... uhm, I'd have given it way more thought than you seem to have done.
/.'s opinion of the worth of computational biology, well I'd say that there is lots of work to be done yet. That whole genetic splicing and stem cell research and genomic research etc. There is also AI and robotics research teams that you might find interesting.
Not to slam you unconditionally, I'm sure you have given this some thought, but since we don't really know what you are good at and what you like (other than school) how about you give us a multiple choice list of things you have considered and we as slashdotters will duly vote in the latest poll.
If you simply want
I'll wait for the multiple guess poll, thanks.
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Plastics.
My advice -- be familiar with the tools and techniques, and pick a fun and collaborative project. Whether computational chemistry (my field) or biology, the tools that you use can and will be applied elsewhere. Being familiar with measures of similarity (Tanimoto similarity, for instance), has implications to multiple fields, as does multivariate modeling (PLS, SVMs, K-nearest-neighbor models, etc). I know several grads who 'jumped ship' to market analysis/market prediction (think brokerages and Wall Street). The point is, you become an expert in your field, and have the offers come to you.
Cheers,
-Mike
If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business. -Thackeray, William
My flippant answer was to head back to IT. In my IT department there are ex-biologists, ex-mathematicians, former construction workers, former civil engineers, etc.. Or McDonalds...
Haha.
Anyhoo, you'd be surprised at the number of companies that keep biologists on staff. Oil companies have quite a few. Some may think they are whores brought in to lend legitimacy to the company positions, but they are really needed to asses environmental effects. Same thing applies to cruise lines, construction companies, agriculture businesses, etc..
These are the kinds of questions that you should be asking your advisor. Giving you direction in your career is a pretty significant aspect of the mentor role. I'm amazed you haven't already had these kind of discussions. This faculty member chose you to work for them; there's obviously a reason, and thus they should have an interest in your career.
We don't know you. He/she does...at least more than us.
Granted, they may be apt to nudge you towards academia, but they should also be very familiar with the commercial applications of the field.
It's certainly a field where I could see there being a lot of consultant work in the coming years, and you could try to set yourself up for that role when you're more experienced. It's nice and cushy when you've got cred.
Also, application of biological systems to other non-biological processes is certainly a possibility...one you're set up well already to tackle with your compsci background.
Again, you're ignoring a wealth of resources available at your university. Ignore us and go ask there.
Check the National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov/) and search for Computational Biology. You're going to find a lot about genome research. In fact there is a whole site devoted to it (http://www.genome.gov/).
You can also check out the Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.bls.gov/OCO/) provided by the US Dept. of Labor. You can look around their site, altho' it's not very easy to find exactly what you're looking for.
But I have to wonder, have you talked to any of your professors? What about friends of your family in somewhat related professions?
Good luck.
Later . . . Jim
Unlike the previous posts, I'll try to be sincere. I am currently pursuing my PhD in computational biology as well. Don't try to think of it as "career options", but more like "area of expertise". Because biological data generation is exceeding our current analysis capabilities almost every area of biology will benefit from compbio. Find something you enjoy, make sure it's biologically relevant, and head for the career that best satisfies those goals.
V
Planning is no use anyhow.
Here's the truth: if you get a really good education then what you are doing 5 or ten years later can be entirely different. So focus on the education not on specific mad skilz. Do learn a new skill at each job however as that's what's going to get you the next job.
Personally, I've published papers in atomic physics, remote sensing, computational biology, medical imaging, information theory and half a dozen other fields, radically changing fields every 5 or ten years. The only common thread is a versatile education.
You can add National Labs to your list as well. It's easier to change fields and keep your job there than almost any other employer.
Instead of talking to Slashdot, I think you'd be far more likely to find help speaking to some of your professors. Software development is a strange field, where anybody who grew up with a 386 and a BASIC interpreter can sell their services and offer relatively high value. Ph. D's in computer science tend to have a completely different skill-set from successful developers, and as such their insight into career options isn't frequently as helpful as that of the broader community.
Computational biology, though, is a far more specialized field, and I suspect that your professors will know far more about what sort of problems exist in the field, who is working to solve them, what applications exist for research, etc. You're paying these people, so make use of them outside of the lab / lecture hall.
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It depends on your program's definition of Computational Biology. Traditionally, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics have referred to the same general type of work, but more recently each has taken on more precise meanings, especially in industry. Computational Biology primarily refers to ab-initio, in-silico modeling of biological systems (conformation, docking, systems biology simulations). Bioinformatics refers to the analysis of biological data, primarily from the various "omics" (genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, etc).
In industry, computational biology is viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. The promise of in-silico modeling has been just around the corner since the 70s and no system has yet delivered on the promise. If this is what you're doing, stay in academia and keep working on the dream (but, apply to D.E. Shaw Research on the off chance you can get a job there, they're building a supercomputer for this). Or, if you would like a bigger paycheck and more predictable work, switch over to computational chemistry, which is much more accepted and an important component of most drug discovery pipelines.
Bioinformatics, on the other hand, is basis of many product and research groups. The most important skills are the ability to communicate with biologists and experience with genomic databases, genomic search tools, and statistical modeling along with the ability to tie it all together programatically. This often includes developing data mining pipelines and creating nice Web interfaces for the scientists to access them with. Good CS and programming skills can give you a leg up over the people with bioinformatics degrees. If this is what you want to do and you're young/single, biotech startups or bioinformatics startups are a lot of fun. You'll work hard and the company will probably go under, but it's a great way to get deep experience in the field and make connections for your next job.
Right now, the most exciting industrial work is probably around next-gen sequencing platforms. Look at 454/Roche, Applied Biosystems (SOLiD), or Illumina. Lots of really interesting high-performance computing, algorithmic, and scientific challenges.
Good luck!
-Chris
You're entering grad school this year and already asking about job opportunities?? A graduate degree is in no way a free ride to employment. In some cases it can even hinder your employability. If you're pursuing a PhD, you're at least 6 years away from having a real job (post-docs are generally paid slightly more than an individual with a BS). You'll have plenty of time to think about things then. If you're going for a masters degree you need to understand that most employers (especially those in industry) consider an individual with a BS and two years of experience equivalent to one with an MS. But perhaps you're just doing it for the learning experience.
I work in a computational biology department at a research institution. Everyone I know is either in academic or government research. My only degrees are in Computer Science... I get the biology knowledge I need from my collaborators. Maybe I don't understand your question? What are you hoping to hear? If you are planning on studying for a higher degree in computational biology, that pretty much limits your career choice to "computer scientist working with biology or medical researchers". You are likely to find a job wherever one finds biology and medical researchers (as you noted, academic/government research institutions, biotechs, and pharmaceutical companies). To get a sampling of what jobs in the field look like and what sorts of companies/institutions hire such people, try the International Society for Computational Biology and look at their jobs section.
Try to pick up some computational chemistry as well. Just because the academics have put up fences between the departments, doesn't mean you have to honor them.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Not all of use use college as a means to employment. A lot of us seek employment after our BS (or during our MS) and then finish up the MS and PhD while working in industry. I'm doing it - I got a "real" job during my first semester of MS work, and am presently done with course requirements for my PhD, working on my dissertation - and I know a lot of people who have done the same thing. You can do it in parallel, and often it's more lucrative. Just watch the stress...
My question to you would be what is your goal of getting a Master's degree? I'll be entering a Ph.D. program in biology under an NSF fellowship for the atol program this fall and my goal is research and doing a post-doc for some university where I can eventually complete my own research goals.
My impression of graduate study was to prepare you to complete independent/collaborative research, but that may be different for people outside of biology/chemistry etc., such as fields like cs, ce.
Coming from more of a biology standpoint, I'd say look into biological monitoring, genetics, phylogenetics, as these are areas that use lots and lots of math, especially the last two. Aside from that, I wouldn't know what to tell you since I'm not too familiar with computational biology. Lab jobs are always available too, if you are willing of course.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
I would look at your question two ways - are you asking for who to work for, or what to work on? There are a lot of things to do, either way.
In terms of who, your choices are plenty. There are a few general options, which vary depending on the field. In general, you have big fish, small (usually new startup) companies, and of course academia. Each has their pluses and minuses, and you'll probably think differently of each of them by the time you're done in graduate school. I'm on my third year of my biochemistry PhD and I know my opinions on each of them change a lot.
As for what field to go in to - obviously you need to find something you want to do, or you'll end up wanting to shoot yourself. That said, I would also recommend looking into the trends - both in funding and in people. Bioinformatics and genomics were both very popular a few years back, and now a lot of people are graduating with degrees in each. There is plenty of work to be done in those fields, but the competition is getting tougher in funding and job hunting. Other 'omices are getting big - proteomics is a great example - and are seeing the same funding / staffing trend that was observed in bioinformatics / genomics a few years back. I was just at a proteomics conference myself a couple weeks ago, and the head-hunting was astounding.
That said, a wise man once pointed out that you'll find the excitement, funding, and staffing for a new technology to be respectively out of phase - at least until the technology du jour is considered "accepted" and "stable". Computational biology and all of its facets is really interesting, but it can be bumpy at times too. So choose your path wisely.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
..biologists used to get a job working at the local garden centre. Those cabbages need keeping free of slugs. And if you have computational biology, you'll be able to work out the right dose of weedkiller and fertiliser.
Stick Men
You can always look into NORBAC, the North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission. :P
It's better to burn out than to fade away
I work next to a lab of computational biologists (immunology, actually), and one career path that isn't quite so unusual is finance. There's a lot of demand for excellent quantitative and computational skills in finance/investment banking. It may not be related to biology, but it's a very real possibility.
There's a "whale biologist" joke in here somewhere. But I'm too lazy to work it out. ...whale biologist?
A program at my previous college would graduate 5-6 bioinformaticians with PhDs a year. The ones who got snapped up were the ones who also had a substantial background in the biology they were working with. Take whatever genetic/bio courses you can fit in along with your bioinformatics work. When choosing a doctoral project, try to find one that involves collaboration between your advisor and professor in the genetics or cell biology department. As some posted above, bioinformaticians can find jobs pretty much anywhere biologists are employed, but the biologists will be important in making any hiring decisions and they want someone who understands the biology in addition to being a wiz at the computational stuff.
First of all, well done thinking this at such an early stage in your grad school life. A common route for people with a computational science background (although comp. biology is much less well represented) is being a quant in finance. Whatever you do, take courses (if you can) that give you a background and *get an internship or two*. Many advisors do nothing to prepare you for a job that isn't being a professor. Take your career into your own hands. Taking 3 months off to learn about finance (or whatever) will help you a lot when you apply for jobs. It will also pay a lot better than grad school.
Working at a national laboratory is another option. I was an intern at Los Alamos for two summers working on proteomics research as a code monkey. There is a pretty broad array of topics you can work on at places of that size, so that may provide you more opportunity to find something you like than working at a university. And it probably pays better :)
I know it is still academic research, but it is a very different environment than a school lab.
Somebody has to port the FAH app to new platforms... Sounds like you're the obvious choice!
I got my PhD last year in a similar field, and I made the leap into video game development. Best decision I ever made. Besides the fun factor, the biggest issue in a science career (well, in academia at least), is just how freakin long it takes to get your career going. After grad school, 6 years in my case, you have to do a post-doc for a few years, then get (hopefully) get a tenure-track faculty position, then work your ass off to actually get tenure. Then, if everything goes right, your career starts. For me, that time commitment was simply not worth it.
You're essentially asking: what can I do with a graduate degree in computational biology that's not computational biology. If you haven't even started working on it yet, and you're already looking to work outside of the "obvious" areas for your graduate degree, I would bet you're not going to get that degree.
You need to find out fast whether you really want to specialize in computational biology, whether you're interested in scientific modeling in general, or if you really want to just go make money predicting the stock market. If you don't want to do computational biology (which is a great field to get into right now), don't go for a graduate degree in it, you're just going to be frustrated.
If you really do like computational biology, but you're worried that you'll be cut off from working on anything else, don't worry so much. In science, it's easy to have side projects and collaborations involving different fields. I wish I knew more computational biologists.
In my experience, making connections for your next job is bullshit.
I have deep experience in fingerprint analysis, and made connections, but no jobs. I know of others in the same predicament. Experience seems to correlate negatively.
Same for the oil business, and unix system administration.
I now consider it to by a myth that one can get jobs by connections like that.
The reality is getting very different jobs sequentially, as one gets good at a business, and then gets unpopular in that business.
Kim0
I'm currently a student in a graduate-level biology program. We had a speaker from the USPTO (United States Patent and Trade Office) come and talk to us about a month ago. From what he was saying, the USPTO is dying to recruit more computational biologists. Basically, there's a lot of companies who are trying to patent biological database algorithms, and very few people at the trade office have enough know-how to properly determine if the patent should be granted or not, (or even if such algorithms are even patentable at all).
So, if you don't mind the paperwork and the lack of lab access, then there's a career that will accept you right away (according to the speaker).
"Operating systems suck: you're better off using only the BIOS" --trainsaw.com
I'm just kidding... actually they're giving preference to people with nuclear and quantum physics degrees...
please excuse my apathy
... Computational linguistics!
Here are some resources that might help you out.
Overview of the field:
http://bioinformatics.sdsu.edu/education.htm
News:
http://news.thinkgene.com/
http://www.bioinformatics.org/
Org:
http://www.iscb.org/
I assume you've crawled through Wikipedia already -- they break it down pretty well. Also, remember that a startup can be anything, not just a specific kind of work like you've seen in school. It's common in the biotech industry to make your career out of a string of startups; you'll get a pike of options from each, and most won't go anywhere, but one or two probably will, and you can benefit from that even after you've left.
Another option is to consider working for a company that develops and sells bioinformatic software to pharma/biotec companies.
I have a PhD in neuroscience, and have worked as a software engineer and as a computational biologist. If you want an academic career and to end up as a professor, then yes, you have many years of postdoc and suffering ahead of you. On the other hand, my experience is that the barrier between computational biology and other high tech/software work is very porous. Learn as broadly as you can: biology, machine learning, data analysis techniques... Unless you are going for the academic career, breadth is more important than depth, and if you keep your eyes and ears open you will find many and varied opportunities.
Here are some concrete examples: at my previous computational biology job at the Broad Institute, my group was mostly PhD mathematicians and physicists. Several of us left around the same time, and I am now at Akamai while others are at Google.
Good luck
The first thing that came to mind was, "one paramecium, two paramecia, three paramecia, four paramecia..."
Ack! Put down that microtome!
Additionally, the new sequencing technologies (for RNA and DNA) are making microarrays obsolete to some researchers, but the increase in data presents a new challenge.
These areas seem a lot more interesting to me than modeling and docking, which don't seem (to me) to involve much need for an intensive computer background.
The good news is that you've got a few years to figure it out, and you will go to many seminars in that time. I'd be more concerned with joining the right lab...
Good luck.
Submitter here. Thanks for all those replies. Some of them were really helpful and will no doubt be food for thought when I consider my options. I did an internship in one of the big pharma companies (**K) and managed to do some interesting (to me at least) work related to molecular drug discovery using computational approaches. As a CS student, I would have never imagined using the stuff that I learned on a field such as this. The only thing that gives me reservations about working for big pharma is of course the ethics. I don't mean the animal testing part (security was quite tight at our research site as we were frequently the target of militant animal rights groups) but rather the gouging patients with ridiculously priced drugs part.
Went into computational biology in 1997. There are biology majors & CS majors doing it, but only the CS majors get jobs. It's unemployment most of the time. Biology is still mostly wet lab grunt work.
If you have the right equipment, there's always that other industry to fall back on.
I think there still a need on custom software development. Most biologist can't code and mode programmers don't understand molecular biology. A computer biologist could work as a binding of both worlds (each "world" has its own terminology). At least that is what I do :)
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