Scope of Bioinformatics: Career Options, Salary, Roles

Bioinformatics is a combination of Biology and Computer Science which is concerned with the acquisition, storage, analysis, and dissemination of biological data, most often DNA and amino acid sequences. It is a mixture of computers, software tools, and databases in an effort to give all the biological questions. For major initiatives bioinformatics approaches are frequently used that generate large data sets. The two important large scale that use bioinformatics are genomics and proteomics. It aims to analyse the informatic processes in biotic systems which includes application of computer science, statistics, mathematics into molecular biology. It is not so popular still now yet it is an impactful branch of Biomedical Science. However, the career scope of Bioinformatics is increasing and filled with a huge opportunities and prospects. This vlog is completely to understand what this field comprises of, courses you can pursue on this field and types of jobs you can opt for.

Bioinformatics: Course Overview.

If we say, then Bioinformatics can be termed as collecting, restoring and assessing bigger chunks of biological information. If someone wants to study on this specialised field then there are various courses one can opt for such as B.Sc Bioinformatics, M.Sc Bioinformatics amongst others. It aims to provide students including into the concepts of biomolecules with the help of machine learning, evaluating the evolutionary genetics, visualization software, DNA sequencing, data analysis, medicine precision, etc. Bioinformatics makes the students to understand the knowledge of carrying out genetics data, analysis of proteins and their interactions, drug designing using the models and computational chemistry along with genomic analysis.

To get admission in courses of Bioinformatics, one must have successfully completed their 10+2 with science and who wants to apply for masters programmes in Bioinformatics, one need to successfully complete their bachelor’s degree in any of the subjects i.e. B.Sc., BCS, B.Pharma and so on.

List of Courses in Bioinformatics.

There are a number of courses which are offered in the field of Bioinformatics. The courses are offered at the UG, PG, as well as diploma level. We have mentioned some of the top courses in Bioinformatics which you can choose to pursue and make a great career in the field.
• Diploma in Bioinformatics
• BSc Biotechnology and Bioinformatics
• BTech Bioinformatics
• BSc Bioinformatics
• Advanced Diploma in Bioinformatics
• Certificate in Bioinformatics
• Masters in Bioinformatics & Systems Biology
• Masters in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
• MSc in Biotechnology & Bioinformatics
• MTech/MS in Bioinformatics
• PhD in Bioinformatics.
Normally candidates who have completed their graduation in Biology can obtain to get post graduate degree in Bioinformatics or any Computer Science related program and they can go ahead with this stream further in their future and can gather knowledge and can choose this field as their career prospects offered in Bioinformatics.

Scope of Bioinformatics: Skills Required & Prerequisites.

To have a good career in this respective field candidates need to have certain essential requisites. To have a good job opportunities and a vast scope in Bioinformatics candidates need to follow the following skills –
• One should be proficient in the use of programming languages and software like basic C programs, C++, Perl, Python, MATLAB, etc.
• Should have core knowledge of bioinformatics tools such as Clustalw, Blast, BLAT, T-coffee, clustering tools and analysis algorithms.
• Candidates would be benefited if they have prior knowledge of software toolkits like Scaffold, UCSC, Enalos, Entrez etc.
• Must have knowledge about the interpretation of modules from extracted data out of multiple resources.
• Must have a clear understanding of Genetics and molecular biology.

Scope of Bioinformatics: Area of Employement

Candidates who got graduated in Molecular Biology with Information Technology can go deeper into the scope of bioinformatics by finding prospects in different sectors. For those who are planning to build a career in Bioinformatics, there are some specialised career fields –
• Clinical Pharmacology
• Bio-analytics
• Pharmacogenomics
• Computational Chemistry
• Sequence Analysis
• Proteomics
• Informatics Development
• Database Management
• Bioengineering
• Medical Technology
• Information Science.

Scope of Bioinformatics: Career Options

There is a wider scope of career options for bioinformatics, but it is person to person’s choice that in which industry or sector they want to see their career as. Both private and public sectors are available to offer bioinformatics as a career option. You can get various job opportunities on these two sectors. As you are getting knowledge on both the domains Molecular Biology and Information Technology, you can explore on different opportunities such as pharmaceutical science, biomedical science, biotechnology, amongst others.

Bioinformatics Programmer.

Under this profile, there is a huge processing system. One needs to work on various DNA and research projects based on molecular biology and enter them into the computational programming systems. Knowledge of coding along with programming languages such as C, C++, Python is needed to pursue the role of Bioinformatics Programmer.

Bioinformatics Analyst.

There is a huge number of entry level position, a Bioinformatics Analyst is based on research projects in labs and work on the development of informatics algorithms as well as bioinformatics databases which will help to detect the diseases and different physical ailments. To get scope in this bioinformatics field, one should complete their PhD courses in this fields or any other related one which is a common criteria.

Research Assistant.

If your planning is to discover a vast arena of research and development, then go for the role of research assistant or associate which is a suitable one. Whereas, one can explore positions available at academic and research institutions who work towards creating effective bioinformatics databases or finding the cures of the physical ailments with the help of this domain of study. Here, the doctoral degree is preferable but the students who are pursuing their post graduation can also work under this job profile.

Assistant Professor.

The most popular and opted job understand this bioinformatics profile is Assistant Professor. It is the most respectful job that one can opt for, it is basically good for those who wants to join academic arena. However, the doctoral degree is more prerequisite that one must be done. Moreover, you will be the one who will be imparting students with the knowledge of collecting, storing, as well as assessing data.

Computational Chemist.

Computational Chemist comes under the profile of career scope that one can opt for. It is quite an intensive profile which itself contains lots of responsibilities. Computational Chemist utilise statistics and data analysis procedures to develop effective models simulations of physical methods.

If you want to know more about the job opportunities on this field which they want to carve out as their career then follow the below mentioned positions-
• Junior Research Fellow
• Clinical Pharmacologist
• Proteomics
• Database Design and maintenance
• Pharmacologist
• Pharmacogenomics
• Informatics Developer
• Sequence Analyst.

Subjects in Bioinformatics

There are a number of subjects which are taught to the students who are pursuing their degree in Bioinformatics. It is important to know about the subjects which you are going to study while pursuing your degree. We have mentioned below some of the subjects which will be taught to you as part of your Bioinformatics degree programme.

• Web-based programming
• Macromolecular Biophysics
• Biostatistics
• Cell development biology
• Molecular Biology
• Genetic engineering
• Mathematics
• Metabolic engineering
• Quantitative techniques
• Computer programming
• Algorithms Design and Analysis 
• Proteomics
• Techniques in molecular biology
• Protein databases, Genomics
• Structural Biology
• Microarray bioinformatics
• Advanced biochemistry and Immunology
• Numerical and biostatistical methods
• Genomics

Top Universities for Bioinformatics Courses.

There are a number of universities in the world which offer admission to the Bioinformatics Courses. Those who pursue their degree programme from these universities have a great chance of placement and opportunities as the top universities add a great credibility to their profile. We have mentioned below the names of some of the top universities for the Bioinformatics course.

• University of Auckland (Xi’an Jiantong Liverpool University) offers BSc Hons in Bioinformatics courses.
• University of New South Wales offers BEng Hons in Bioinformatics courses.
• Technical University of Munich (University of Calgary, University of Toronto, University of Saskatchewan) offers Bachelor’s in Bioinformatics courses.
• University of Madrid offers Master’s in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology courses.
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers Masters in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology courses.
• University of Pretoria (The University of Melbourne, University of Auckland) offers MSc Bioinformatics.
• The University of Queensland offers Master of Bioinformatics, Master of Bioinformatics (Research- Intensive).
• Università di Bologna offers Masters in Bioinformatics (IBMB).
• KU Leuven Edith Cowan University offers Master of Bioinformatics courses.
• Deakin University offers Master of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics.
• Australian National University offers MSc in Quantitative Biology and Bioinformatics.

Top Recruiting Companies

After completing a course in the field of bioinformatics, students may get the opportunity to work with top companies such as –

• JGB Biopharma Consulting Inc.
• Skinner and Associates
• Joseph Associates
• Shay Group
• Amyris Inc.
• Hobson Associates
• BioQuest Inc.

Hope this blog helped all the students who are thinking of starting their career in the field of bioinformatics. To what they opt for, in which courses, it’s career options all are mentioned above which will help you all to choose your own stream.

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