What is bioinformatics? 

@Cade Atticus bot?

Hello. Did you study bioinformatics?

@@ahmadjiko7597 Nope. Not in undergrad anyway. Everything I know and used to get my metagenomics internship was self-taught after graduation

Ok , thanks for your answer, but im really confused between biomedicin and bioinformatic

How can I submit one in Bulgarian?

If you need translation into Arabic at any time, I am here ☺️

@@ismailsaleh7688 support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en looks as though nobody can contribute translations anymore.

@@dominic2446 yeah sadly

I can definitely do it for spanish

I'm from the Philippines too! Bioinformatics here is still on it's infant stage. I am a computer science student and have zero to no knowledge in biology,. Although I am catching up on the biology through supplemental resources such that of OSSU's Bioinformatics. It's a good source, but really, it is not a degree (but it can help). In my case, I can cross-enroll with biology and chemistry courses but it is not allowed on my school. I don't know about the classes on BS Pharmacy but if you've taken a molecular biology course or anything related to Bioinformatics with atleast three units, I suggest you look up on Philippine Genome Center internship/training. It would be the best starting point on bioinformatics in the Philippines for now, the experience you will get interning there would be valuable in the future. Goodluck!

If your interested in modeling, mabye take a look into Quantative Biosciences, it might match your interest.

@@thatmlgyoutuber7311 Oh, okay. Thank you for the recommendation! I'll search it up, anyway.

and what do biomedical engineer?...they also make software in medical

Dude Im in the same spot as you! Just graduated this may. I have sales and business experience as well and I am pretty social but I love biology and research, im kind of stuck now because I need to find a valuable skill to learn and apply in order to get entry level jobs before applying for my masters. Im gonna dive into this and try it out. Let me know what you decide or if you have any experience you want to share! Good luck

What did you end up doing in the end?

I'm just at the fundamental stages in bioinformatics, that is, I can't really do a lot of stuff. I really like bioinformatics and will like to advance my knowledge in this area after having got the opportunity to get a master's studies in it. I studied biotechnology and molecular biology at my undergrad. I must confess that I am overwhelmed by the several applications in this field and don't really know where to start from to advance my career in bioinformatics. I would be grateful for your advice going forward while seeking the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. in bioinformatics.

@@kwakuenoch823 I am more than happy to give my two cents about where to start, but I think it's important to realize that bioinformatics is too new a field for anyone to claim that they know a tried-and-true method for success . It's a casse of the blind leading the blind if you try to only follow what others have done in this field. So I would recommend being bold but having contingency plans. That said, I've had luck within academia by first learning a little Python during undergrad + online courses like DataCamp and then finding a genetics team that need a Python coder who knows molecular biology. I had to really bust my butt to learn about databases and more Python& R on the job (and I wasn't making anythong more than a research assistant's salary), but I became the in-house bioinformatics guy for this team. I think finding a research team where you have the freedom to chart your own course in order to solve a problem is a good fit for the molecular biology graduate who wants to become a bioinformatician. Another situation that could work well is to join a biology lab that needs a bioinformatics person and then collaborate closely with a different, more computationally-heavy lab. Perhaps your principal investigator can convince another PI to take you in for lab meetings where you are learning good bioinformatics & programming methodology. If you want to earn a PhD, I would start there before spending money and time working on a master's degree. You may surprise yourself by getting into a program, and then you will have much less debt. Howevere, if you know a job you want but need a master's to get that job, then the masters might be a good idea. Lots of masters programs offer degrees or specializations in bioinformatics these days. Other useful fields to earn a masters in include compsci and statistics, which both overlap heavily with each other and bioinformatics. Best of luck, friend! My email is luke.s.hebert@gmail.com if you want to chat in private.

Sorry for the typos. *case, *However

@@lukehebert6207 The message is well understood and is resourceful to me. I really appreciate the response. I will contact you via email as well later. Thanks once again

why are you jobless? isn't this field in demand .?

I m an aspiring indian 12th standard student .... Found this video in an article ... Really grateful 💕

As always, it depends. I haven’t used chemistry since undergrad but someone working in drug development or proteomics very much would, as would someone more involved with the sequencing or library prep process itself. Bioinformatics is still a pretty big field, so my part of downstream genomics analysis might be one of the few that don’t use chemistry much.

It sounds you have the right kinds of preparation, but your specific educational program may have more to say about that :)

Good point, I totally didn't mention machine learning! Where does that fall? I think like statistics it can be used in data analysis or as part of a piece of software to be shared with the community. What do you think?

OMGenomics I do agree that ML should fall under stats but in my experience statisticians always lament ML models are blackboxes hence aren't as sexy but it just really depends on your goals :) 👋 gd job on the series!

sorry I wasn't clear, I didn't mean ML is statistics, but that it can fall into data analysis and into software development, the same way that statistics can. ML is totally sexy though! Just ask silicon valley...

Speaking as a more stats-motivated industry bioinformatician, I tend to think of machine learning/deep learning as methods that are complementary to stats, and maybe fall under a broader heading with them, rather than as a set of distinct methods. I tend to think of the tradeoffs as: Stats: + more robust to training-set specific variation when done correctly + more informative upstream/downstream of your tool + opportunities for logical extensions/elaborations+ more rewarding (to me anyway...) - more time-consuming - still prone to your own errors - needs to be clearly documented Machine/deep learning: + able to pick up patterns humans might miss + compute time is faster and cheaper than expert time + details that are difficult to model statistically can be picked up in these models + retraining isn't terribly difficult - sensitivity to training data - difficult to tell when you've overfit to your training data (this is slightly different from sensitivity!) - "black box" In the end, some machine learning methods are actually incredibly informative for statistical model development (the two that I can think of as most helpful are PCA and random forest models), while others are VERY black box (for now, some neural networks are a good example). Ultimately, they choice between statistical modeling and machine learning/deep learning is about balancing priorities and your strengths/weaknesses (or your team's!) Great work Maria :)

It probably depends on the specific research you are doing, but I personally haven't done advanced math in the genomics and sequencing field, so I think you can get by without mastering math in some parts of bioinformatics. If you check out the wikipedia pages for the subfields of bioinformatics represented in your program, you can tell which have more or less math in them. Also look at the backgrounds of professors you want to work with. Studying with a professor with a math/physics background probably means your research will require more math, while someone with a computer science (and sometimes biology) background might be less math-heavy in their research.

What happened?

One of the domains that uses statistics and data science of your domaine is provisional Microbiology ( usually in food industry to determine the shelf life of a product )

Why not reach out to DNAstack itself for tutorials? It's a company, so I think they have a big interest in helping you learn how to use their platform...

I've never heard of a bioinformatics healer, but it sounds an awful lot like bullshit. For real life bioinformatics, look at 23andMe, Invitae, Viome, and other such genetic testing companies that regular people can go through to analyze their genetics.

If you can get a good industry internship during your degree, that can help you get a job. If not, it can be more difficult to stand out. I gave an answer in this post (as "marianattestad"): www.reddit.com/r/bioinformatics/comments/179jl4x/jack_of_all_trades_but_master_of_none/. It's also just what you want from your career: To do deep bio research, you'll likely be better off getting a PhD, but if you are okay with technical tasks and taking more of a supportive role or software engineer, then leaning into the technical skills more can make the bachelors enough to contribute in bioinformatics.

@@OMGenomics thanks Maria!

You would be spending most of your time behind a computer, researching prior studies and translating them to useful algorithms. If you don't like coding, this might not be for you

I would suggest you try to learn some computer science and statistics beforehand, either in courses at your school or online, like through Coursera.

OMGenomics I think I'll try the online one. Thanks dear!!!

It's an exciting field, building up as we speak. I'd suggest checking out sites like Codecademy to familiarize yourself with Python first, and maybe poke around at Rosalind to practice solving bioinformatics-related problems with code. That's a good start, and from there you might look at some bioinformatics Coursera courses. Just know that you don't have to know everything, but you really DO need to get very comfortable with coding. That's where all the power is! Best of luck!

Hi @joycelau212, may I ask you how things went? my major was veterinary science with zero knowledge in programming and maths as well and I'm considering bioinformatics as a career but still need some advice if you may assist.

I would focus on computer science, but take some classes in molecular biology and genetics, and any other specific areas you are interested in diving deeper into. The skills you will use in grad school and beyond are likely to be broad areas of software engineering, some statistics and working with data, and depth in one small area of biology. That's at least based on what the field looks like from where I'm standing. Some of my thoughts on this will be in the other videos on this channel :)

@@OMGenomics Yes this is exactly what I was thinking after doing a little research about this. The only problem is bioinformatician in our country is not that known, there are only about less than hundred, I guess not even fifty graduates in this field so I'm worried about the job opportunities that I would get. Regardless of that I still want to pursue this because I think we really need this in our county and I love what bioinformaticians do and I see myself enjoying in this career. Thank you, looking forward to your next video 💕

I guess its not comparison but...part of computer science is actually part of Bioinformatics...so, its not hard core comp science but yeah sense of it.

It's simple: You need to be the one building the tools and using AI to make them smarter. If you are doing a repetitive task, then as someone who can code, you should already have automated that as much as possible. We are not the ones who will be replaced by machines, we are the ones making the machines. And if you are thinking you are replaceable, then build something to replace yourself.

Yes. That's the best solution.

same to me

+1

I`d say yes although only regarding the treatment of the Data/information part. if you look at the very top level definition provided in this video about Bioinformatics. One can easily determine/conclude that the "Field of application" is interchangeable, that is: switch Biology and biological Biological processes (More general) for Cognitive science (More focused). The Statistical part on the Venn Diagram and the Computer Science part remain unchanged. That is why in my opinion a person with more general fields is called a DATA SCIENTIST. One very important fact is what one has as knowledge that enable him or her to interpret and integrate data into a reasonable depiction of reality.

That sounds reasonable. If you want to catch up on the biology, there are plenty of online courses in biology and in bioinformatics.

@@OMGenomics wow thanks! that's encouraging

I have a whole video just on that! Here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZZz9HROAONA.html&ab_channel=OMGenomics

It depends a lot on what you're doing, but of course even the mainstream tech companies are getting into bioinformatics/biotech these days, mostly sprung out of Google, so the pay there must be about as good, assuming you're still a kind of software engineer or in a similarly technical role.

Biology: introductory biology including any genetics courses, as well as any specific areas of biology to explore (cancer, evolution, etc.), one of which could become your research field. Outside of biology: computer science, statistics, linear algebra + machine learning, and any courses at the intersection of these, such as bioinformatics itself.

@@OMGenomics Im thinking of taking Biotechnology or Biochemistry, would those take me into Bioinformatics? Are you American or British or? Because I think the degrees to take may differ between the countries.

Generally yes. I think it's broadly useful to learn data science and programming in python. If you're considering another degree and not just an individual course, then of course that's a larger decision that comes down to what you want from your career. Best of luck :)

Also Do you know sites I could use to practice some bioinformatics projects?

@@nicoletteolokpa6439 What kinds of projects are you looking for? I know sites like rosalind.info/ that are good for practicing small coding tasks, but if you want something larger, it might depend on your field and what you are trying to learn.

OMGenomics well it’s hard because I like what I’ve seen in bioinformatics so far especially with respect to sequencing but It’s still a little grey to me since it’s still quite a developing field. But I would say things in regards to sequencing projects are my main focus not sure if I’m making sense lol

OMGenomics and I’ve heard of Rosalind.info id look more into that

Absolutely. Learning computer science allows you to do a lot of cool things, and bioinformatics is one of those :)

Bioinformatics does not touch on environmental science all that often, so I recommend you read more into the courses you would be taking to make your choice.

@@OMGenomics thank you

it depends on where you're at in your career. You can study them both and look for education programs in bioinformatics, or find a job to do software/data science/bioinformatics at a biotech company.

Yes, but it’s not offered at all universities.

Interesting question! I'm not an expert on biostatistics, but I would say bioinformatics is more about computer science applied to biological data, which includes a lot of the genomics tools you run on the command-line, everything from BWA to bedtools. Biostatistics usually involves statistical tests, from basic t-tests to bayesian statistics. Bioinformatics and biostatistics certainly have a lot in common and often overlap within the same research project. In my case, I don't think my thesis had a single p-value in it because I was working with data from only one sample as a proof of concept, so I was definitely doing bioinformatics with virtually no biostatistics. If you did a GWAS, on the other hand, that involves running statistical tests across the genome, so it would count as biostatistics, and probably also bioinformatics because you dealt with a lot of data and bioinformatics tools to call all those variants in the first place.

Thank you very much for that kind answer. Well I'm studying Biostatistics in Colombia but unfortunately here it's focused on Epidemiology. I'd like to get in the future a Phd on Bayesian Statistics applied to Genomics. Do you know any way to find a program like that. I've been thinking about Canada. But I have no idea. Maybe you have worked with biostatisticians who do something like that?

PhD programs themselves don't have to be that specific. It's all about which professor you work with, so check out who writes papers in that field, follow people in the field on twitter, or search through faculty websites. You can find biostatistics people at most major research institutions.

Thank you so much Maria! I will follow your advices. The best for you, your channel and your work!

Cøld Spring Hårbør Labøråtøry :)

You can get away without math and stats if you focus on computer science instead and choose labs accordingly.

@@OMGenomics Thanks Maria

I agree that modeling is not easy, but I know plenty of people working in bioinformatics, including myself, who focus on the computer science and software side of it.

i agree, bioinformatics itself has such a broad range it so not a compact science field , the university i study is very much math oriented , anyway.. keep up the good work Maria and i hope you continue making more videos, your channel played a major role for me to choose bioinformatics as a career path after being a dentist for 10 years!

I wish I could have done more to get involved but there was no draft of scientists - I hoped someone would have called us all up and said “we need your help pipetting for COVID tests” or something! But nope! My job was still interesting though but just less than normal because I have really missed the team lunches. It’s the little things. Hope you’re all good out there!