Rutgers Biochemistry Society
November 19, 2003
A conversation between Mahesh Yaragatti, President of the Society, and Bruce
Byrne, PhD, Associate Director for Education,
The Informatics Institute of UMDNJ
Mahesh: What is BioInformatics?
Depends on whom you ask...
- NIH
- Bioinformatics
- Research, development, or application of computational
tools and approaches for expanding the use of biological, medical,
behavioral or health data, including those to acquire, store, organize,
archive,
analyze, or visualize such data.
- Computational Biology
- The development and application of data-analytical and theoretical
methods, mathematical modeling and computational simulation techniques
to the study of biological, behavioral, and social systems.
- David Mount: Bioinformatics: Sequence and Genome Analysis. Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
- Bioinformatics
- An interdisciplinary field involving biology, computer
science, mathematics, and statistics to analyze biological sequence
data, genome content, and arrangement, and to predict the function
and structure
of macromolecules
- Bruce Byrne
- Using computers to systematically create new knowledge for biology
Mahesh: What about graduate program?
Our audience is narrowly targeted. We're looking for students who understand
biology and biochemistry; who are experimentalists; who need to use the rich
applications available; who will be contributing to the databases; who need
to evaluate the next generation of applications and databases; who need to
communicated to their partners in bioinformatics: computer science, mathematics,
and statistics.
The web is full of descriptions of programs. The following are (or appear
to be) alive at the moment. There are a lot of moribund programs still listed
by reputable institutions... and some not reputable. Take care.
- Check that the web sites are up to date and active.
- Make certain that courses listed are indeed being offered.
- Talk to students in the programs.
An unscientific survey of offerings:
UMDNJ (Other)
UW - Madison
Rutgers
Yale
Penn
University of the Sciences (Philadelphia)
Boston
University
Johns Hopkins
George Mason University
Mahesh: What kind of jobs in academia/industry?
The job boards and journals suggest that they're
plentiful. But, as you look at the listings, note which employers are
seeking candidates labeled "bioinformaticists" and which are looking
for more traditional titles with skills in bioinformatics.
Mahesh: What undergraduate majors would give a good background?
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Mathematics
- Bioinformatics (??)
The big question now is how the next generation of people who use
computers to create new knowledge in biology will be trained. Will it be
in a new discipline ("bioinformatics") or will we depend on classical fields
of study and incorporate new skills into those fields?
The critical characteristic of the next generation of scientists may not
be based in which of the fields they are trained but that they be curious
and open about companion fields and that they have sufficient skills that
they can speak the language of their collaborators.
Mahesh: What's the future of BioInformatics?
There are a couple of ways to approach this question.
Look at what the literature and conferences are saying
Use novel methods
More questions?
Bruce Byrne
(856) 757-7788
byrne@umdnj.edu
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