[BioEdu] What kind of programming skills should a bioinformatician have?

[Erwin Sentausa]

Dear Jeff, Kevin and Fitri,
 
Thank you very much for your kind and useful responses.
 
I have to admit that I agree to what Jeff wrote in his last post. We have to be developers (or at least database administrators in some cases) and not only users in order to pursue careers in bioinformatics. That was actually the reason I posted my question. Specialization is surely needed in this increasingly huge field of biological sciences.
 
Regards,
Erwin

--- On Sat, 6/28/08, J.W. Bizzaro <jeff at bioinformatics.org> wrote:

From: J.W. Bizzaro <jeff at bioinformatics.org>
Subject: Re: [BioEdu] What kind of programming skills should a bioinformatician have?
To: "Education in Bioinformatics" <bioedu at bioinformatics.org>
Date: Saturday, June 28, 2008, 6:22 AM

I think that those carrying the title "bioinformatician/ist" are
increasingly seen as computer scientists with a specialization in biological
data management and analysis.

Remember, there are two major groups in the field: users and developers. 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Fitri is arguing that you can pursue a
career as a bioinformatics user.

I once heard Lincoln Stein of Cold Spring Harbor Lab argue that the field of
bioinformatics will be absorbed back into the field of biology as biologists
begin to use bioinformatic methods in every day work.  This is probably true
for those who are users, but I think developers will have enough unique
"CS toolsets" to be able to a lot of things that wet lab biologists
cannot.

Thus, if you are interested in drug design or recombinant DNA technology
"using" bioinformatic tools, it may be better to pursue a career in
biochemistry or molecular biology.  In such a case, I think the need to
understand the science would outweigh the need to understand the technology.

Cheers,
Jeff

fitri.amelia at ui.edu wrote:
> Dear Mr. Erwin
> 
> I've graduated my master program in bioinformatics field. I think you
just
> 1) know what you wanna do? If you wanna try to design vaccine, what kind
> of vaccine do you want? DNA or protein, then what is the step? if you have
> known the proces, you just search in web. Example: your first step is
> amplification you DNA, it means you'll work in PCR and you need
primer. So
> you should try to find the software that can find the primer.
> 2) if you don't familiar in using software, you can read
"help" in each
> software
> 
> 
> you can explain clearly your objective, may be I know the software that
> appropriate with your objective.
> 
> 
> My field is Medical bioinformatics
> 
> 
> Regard,
> 
> Fitri Amelia
> 

-- 
J.W. Bizzaro
Bioinformatics Organization, Inc. (Bioinformatics.Org)
E-mail: jeff at bioinformatics.org
Phone:  +1 978 562 4800
--

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