Advancement in the field of bioinformatics in terms of career perspectives.

1. Career Opportunities/Options in the
field of Bioinformatics
Presented by:
Dr. Shikha Thakur
Assistant Professor
Thakur College of Science and Commerce
Mumbai
Maharashtra

2. BIOINFORMATICS
• Field of Bioinformatics doesn’t existed in 1970 to 1980
• There are certain areas of biology that required substantial use of the
computer.
• Reason behind quick emergence of Bioinformatics
• Crystallographers had to write code to transform x-ray diffraction data
into molecular structure predictions; evolutionary biologists had to
create databases to store protein and DNA sequences produced by
the introduction of sequencing technology.

3. Career options in Bioinformatics
• Career Development
• Target group 900 scientists at DKFZ (Masters, PhD, PostDocs)
• Career Development:
• Platforms, tools and information
• Initiative and needs come from scientists

4. Two categories of students in this field
• Computer scientists who enjoyed biology at school and are
interested in tackling biological problems.
• Biologists who are handy with computers and fancy taking this from
a hobby to a profession.

5. Scope for Bioinformatics
• There is still a wealth of biological information out there to
be deciphered, and there also be an increase in the number
of bioinformatics research programs.
• Also the bioinformatics market everything is still growing
worldwide and is expected to surpass the 50 billion dollar
mark soon.

6. Careers Service Milestones
Training and Development Coaching and Counseling Networks and Database Seminars
Seminars Counselling Network (People)
Workshops Career lunches Partners (Jobs)
Publish Guidelines Match Mentoring Joint Calendar
Academic Careers Annual Survey Web/Social Media

7. Non-academic jobs
• Research in industry (Pharma/Small biotech)
• Research/Project management
• Publishing, medical writing, journalism
• Science communication and public relations
• Patents
• Teaching
• Sales and Marketing
• Consulting
• Clinical trials and applications
• Informatics

8. Bioinformatics positions
• Academic (publish)
• Core facility
• Training
• IT Software
• Biostatistics
• System Analyser/Engineer
• Technical Support
• Database Designer
• Administrator
• Applications Analyst
• Programmer
• Marketing
• Topics:
• Medical/Clinical research
• Sequence/high throughput screening

9. Career Oppurtunities
• Below are brief descriptions of some of the areas within bioinformatics
that oppurtunities are arising are:
• Sequence Assembly: This involves the use of sophisticated computer-
based methods to assemble the thousands of fragments that make up the
genome of an organism.
• Genome Sequence Analysis: This involves mapping out the regions of a
genome that code for a particular protein’s production. It also involves
mapping out areas of the gene that is clipped out or discarded. All these
are done using sophisticated software programs and results are then
compared with databases of already mapped out genes.
• Functional genomics: This is the process of determining the functions of
genes and determining whether they would suitable for drug discovery.

10. • Genotyping: This involves the discovery of disease causing genes and using that
knowledge to identifying individuals who are susceptible to such diseases.
• Proteomics: An offshoot of genomic studies, this is the study of the portion of a genome
that is expressed in particular cells. This usually involves the use of micro-arrays (a
cutting edge technology that allows the expression of level of thousands of genes in a
cell sample to be quickly determined) and the results are entered in a database. This is
especially useful for drug/gene therapy.
• Pharmagenomics: Here databases of single nucleotide polymorphisms (gene mutations
that cause particular disease states or increase/decreased sensitivity to drugs) have an
important role to play in future drug development efforts and in the design of clinical
trials.
• Database Administration: This usually involves the design and maintenance of huge
databases of genomic sequence and biochemical information. These databases need to
be constantly updated. There is also the involvement in the development of intelligent
search algorithms to search through the database and retrieve relevant information.

11. Skills Needed
• Good communication skills- As a bioinformatics specialist, you will be
communicating complex data to people with a variety of backgrounds, It’s very
much like being a translator. You have to know the languages involved, and you
have to be an expert communicator in order to help people understand each
other.
• Good teamwork skills- Bioinformatics is about information and communication.
You will be working on a team with people who have diverse backgrounds and
differing areas of expertise.
• The ability to multitask- You will need to be able to handle several complex tasks
at a time. This can be a high pressure job with deadlines that have to be met. The
ability to multitask will help you manage your job with less stress.
• Flexibility- You may be moved from one project you are working as your skills are
needed. You may have to put aside a project you are working on to help someone
with an urgent request. Flexibility is a key skill to have in bioinformatics.

12. • A working knowledge of biology and its applications. You don’t have to be an
expert in biology, but you do need to know what kind of information you are
working with. It is especially useful to know about molecular biology and genetics
and to understand recent genetic research.
• Proficiency in computer languages. Basic programming languages like C++,
Python, R. Java, PHP and MySQL. Most bioinformatics programming utilizes
PERL.
• Skill in data mining. Being able to extract data from multiple resources is
invaluable.
• Good data visualization skills. One need to be able to take complex data and
interpret it into models and other ways that make it understandable for biologists
and other team members.
• Experience with bioinformatics tools, such as Blast, molecular modeling, drug
design, sequence analysis algorithms and clustering tools.

13. Foreign Jobs Websites
• ISCB: Job Board
• Bioinformatics.Org
• BioPlanet Jobs
• Science Careers
• The ScienceJOBS
• helpBiotech
• BioSpace
• Bioinformatics.Fr
• Bioinformatics.ca

14. Top Bioinformatics Companies
• Abbott
• Adolor
• AstraZeneca
• AMGEN
• AVAKI
• CIPHERGEN
• Geospiza
• Monsanto
• pfizer
• Roche
• Millennium
• Virtual Genetics
• MERCK
• LEXICON

15. IBIOS – Prof. Dr. Elis
• iBioS – Short for integrative Bioinformatics and Systems Biology – works on
the development of computer- assisted methods for the analysis of
complex data generated in the modern life sciences and develops
mathematical models for key cellular processes, for example in the context
of virus infection or cancer. Theoretical projects are carried out in close
collaboration with the experimental groups focusing on cellular death
pathways.
• Areas of major interest include:
• Modeling and simulation of cellular systems.
• Data mining in molecular genetics and next generation sequencing.
• Data management for high-throughput technologies and medical samples.
• Quantitative monitoring of intra-cellular processes using light-microscopy.
• Biomedical computer vision.

16. Background of people working in Bioinformatics
• Biologists, informatics, mathematicians, physicists,medical scientists
converted to Bioinformaticians.
• Biomathematicians, Computational Biologists – now that specialized
studies are possible.
• Example Service Bioinformatics (HUSAR).

17. Bioinformatics (HUSAR) Tools and Databases
• HUSAR (Sequence Analysis Environment)
• SRS (Sequence Retrieval System)
• Mascot Server (Database searches with mass spec data or peptide
sequencing)
• Pipelines (e.g. SNP analysis, protein analysis)
• CNV programs (PennCNV, QuantiSNP)
• NGS software

18. Bioinformatics (HUSAR) Services includes:
• Bioinformatics consulting/Support
• Bioinformatics and NGS analysis courses
• Software implementation
• Tools for Microarray analysis
• NGS mapping and annotation
• Scripting (e.g. Genome analysis with Ensembl)
• Development of bioinformatics analysis pipelines, which are complex
analysis program combining different bioinformatics applications
connected by rules.

19. Career options at a glance
• Professor
• Science Technician
• Research Assistant
• Bioinformatics Scientist
• Bioinformatics Analyst
• Junior Research Fellow
• Research Associate
• Bioinformatics Software Developer

20. THANK YOU…