How is a tipical day for someone working in the Bioinformatics field?

Question

Do you use a lot of biochemistry knowledge?

Answer 1

I do plenty of bioinformatics, though I do not do too much bioinformatics in biochemistry. Most of my work involves basic molecular biology (gene and protein sequences). I do what's called "data mining" (my personal term for it is "gene hunting"), looking for genes similar to those we already know (whether in humans or other species).

Of course, said genes that we're looking for are only hypothetical ("putative"), as someone found that out by calculating which mRNAs could be transcribed and then translated to protein. Starting, of course, from the genomic DNA in our chromosomes!

The main application for bioinformatics to biochemistry, in my opinion, is protein structure determination. Right now, an important area of bioinformatics is "transmembrane domain prediction". Using knowledge of properties of the various amino acids in a protein, as well as a semi-random "fudge factor" (known as the "Hidden Markov Model"), some programs can tell you how a putative gene's protein product might weave itself back and forth through a cell membrane. Of course, this idea is only valid for proteins that interact with the cell membrane. If the above model shows no interactions with the membrane, then hey, maybe it's a free-floater in the cytosol!

Also, there is some new application of small molecule interactions, where they look at how small (generally drug) molecules will sit with proteins. I don't know much about that stuff, but it is biochem-oriented.

Beginner bioinformaticists generally sit at a computer all day and perform data mining. It's more exciting than you'd think, but it does involve for the most part computer work. Some bioinformaticists work as general "research assistants" in academic labs, and get to do "benchwork" (physical experiments) in addition to the bioinformatics stuff. I'm like that, personally.

Now, as a cutting-edge bioinformaticist, later in your career, you may be using your vast biochemistry knowledge to DESIGN the programs that determine membrane interaction and small molecule binding!