Is it a Bioinformatics college degree for me?

Question

I like the following topics: cell biochemical processes, how human cells attack infected cells, how cells produce proteins, protein functions, how viruses use cells to replicate, mostly biology/biochemistry topics that have a relation to the medical fields.

Also I am a computer engineer and i am currently studying medical laboratory technology.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Well in my opinion I would not major in bioinformatics if I were you. All bioinformatics is is the application of computer programming and database management to biological problems. It was a big deal a few years ago with the sequencing of the genome, and do not get me wrong it is a big deal.

But if you already are good at programming languages as you mentioned that you are a computer engineer, then I think you can make yourself more attractive by focusing on some other biological topic rather then relearning computer stuff. You probably already have the skills necessary for a job in bioinformatics.

Many experts believe that the current bioinformatics degree will not exist in the future, because its really not a different field but applying comptuer skills to a particular field. As one expert put it..its like majoring in microscopy.

If you really like the lab stuff perhaps just do the traditional molecular micro or biochem degree.

Or perhaps biomedical engineering...that sounds like fun stuff..you can apply your computer background and engineering to solve medical problems. Its a big field in the future.

To rehash im not saying its a bad field...but if you already got the great computer skills...focus and expand your knowledge on research methods. just my humble opinion.

Answer 2

I agree with David H's excellent answer. If you are truly interested in the biological processes you describe a career in bioinformatics will not help you answer them. It is essentially to do with data analysis and database management for vast quantities of data generated by genomics / proteomics / transcriptomics etc etc projects, none of which will actually give you the mechanistic understanding you seem to be interested.

I would suggest basic laboratory research in biochemistry, molecular biology or cell biology would suit you a lot better - but it may require some further training for you.