How to become Bioinformatics Scientist in 2024

Bioinformatics Scientist Conduct research using bioinformatics theory and methods in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. May design databases and develop algorithms for processing and analyzing genomic information, or other biological information.

Bioinformatics Scientist is Also Know as

In different settings, Bioinformatics Scientist is titled as

  • Bioinformaticist
  • Bioinformatics Scientist
  • Research Associate
  • Research Scientist
  • Scientific Database Curator
  • Scientist

Education and Training of Bioinformatics Scientist

Bioinformatics Scientist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Bioinformatics Scientist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Bioinformatics Scientist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Bioinformatics Scientist

Training Required for Bioinformatics Scientist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Bioinformatics Scientist in different industries are

What Do Bioinformatics Scientist do?

  • Recommend new systems and processes to improve operations.
  • Keep abreast of new biochemistries, instrumentation, or software by reading scientific literature and attending professional conferences.
  • Confer with departments, such as marketing, business development, or operations, to coordinate product development or improvement.
  • Collaborate with software developers in the development and modification of commercial bioinformatics software.
  • Test new and updated bioinformatics tools and software.
  • Provide statistical and computational tools for biologically based activities, such as genetic analysis, measurement of gene expression, or gene function determination.
  • Prepare summary statistics of information regarding human genomes.
  • Instruct others in the selection and use of bioinformatics tools.
  • Improve user interfaces to bioinformatics software and databases.
  • Direct the work of technicians and information technology staff applying bioinformatics tools or applications in areas such as proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, or clinical bioinformatics.
  • Develop new software applications or customize existing applications to meet specific scientific project needs.
  • Develop data models and databases.
  • Create or modify web-based bioinformatics tools.
  • Design and apply bioinformatics algorithms including unsupervised and supervised machine learning, dynamic programming, or graphic algorithms.
  • Create novel computational approaches and analytical tools as required by research goals.
  • Compile data for use in activities, such as gene expression profiling, genome annotation, or structural bioinformatics.
  • Communicate research results through conference presentations, scientific publications, or project reports.
  • Manipulate publicly accessible, commercial, or proprietary genomic, proteomic, or post-genomic databases.
  • Consult with researchers to analyze problems, recommend technology-based solutions, or determine computational strategies.
  • Analyze large molecular datasets, such as raw microarray data, genomic sequence data, or proteomics data, for clinical or basic research purposes.

Qualities of Good Bioinformatics Scientist

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.

Tools Used by Bioinformatics Scientist

  • Computer data input scanners
  • Computer laser printers
  • Desktop computers
  • Laptop computers
  • Personal computers

Technology Skills required for Bioinformatics Scientist

  • Accelrys Pipeline Pilot
  • Amazon Web Services AWS software
  • Apache Accumulo
  • Apache Groovy
  • Apache Hadoop
  • Apache HTTP Server
  • Bash
  • Bioconductor
  • Biomatters Geneious
  • BioPerl
  • BLAT
  • Bowtie
  • BWA
  • C
  • C#
  • C++
  • Canu
  • ClustalW
  • Cufflinks
  • Cytel StatXact
  • Data visualization software
  • dbSNP
  • Django
  • DNA sequencing software
  • Docker
  • ENSEMBL
  • Extensible markup language XML
  • Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
  • GenBank
  • Genedata Expressionist
  • GenePattern
  • Genome Analysis Toolkit GATK
  • Git
  • GitHub
  • Hypertext markup language HTML
  • IBM SPSS Statistics
  • Illumina Laboratory Information Management System LIMS
  • JavaScript
  • JavaScript Object Notation JSON
  • jQuery
  • Life Technologies SOLiD
  • Life Technologies Vector NTI
  • Linux
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Active Server Pages ASP
  • Microsoft Azure software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft operating system
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services SSRS
  • Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications VBA
  • Microsoft Visual Studio
  • MySQL
  • NCBI RefSeq
  • NoSQL
  • Object oriented development environment software
  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle Java
  • Oracle JavaServer Pages JSP
  • Oracle PL/SQL
  • Perl
  • PHP
  • PostgreSQL
  • Primer3
  • Public genomic databases
  • Python
  • R
  • Relational database management software
  • RNA sequencing software
  • Roche 454 Life Sciences GS Data Analysis
  • Ruby
  • Salesforce software
  • SAP software
  • SAS
  • Scala
  • Shell script
  • Software development tools
  • StataCorp Stata
  • Structured query language SQL
  • Tableau
  • Teradata software
  • The MathWorks MATLAB
  • Tibco S-PLUS
  • TIBCO Spotfire S+
  • TopHat
  • UNIX
  • User interface design software
  • Velvet
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software