One word: biotech

August 9, 2007 5:30 PM

How can I indulge my genomic fantasies?

Ever since taking a course in genomics/bioinformatics in college a few years ago (I have a CS degree with an emphasis in AI), I've been fascinated by biology in general, but biotechnology in particular, and I actually find that I have a passion for learning about this that I once had for learning to do software, but no longer do. I can't see myself doing programming much longer (I'm 29), so I've decided to pursue an MBA next year, and I'm considering making a move to working in biotech.

I have two questions:

1) What's the best way for me to get into biotech? By leveraging my software background, an MBA, or perhaps getting a biology-related degree?

2) If I can't work in biotech, or until I can, what are some ways I can continue my education on the subject as an amateur? I'm not looking for pop science kind of books... something more textbook like. Also, websites, current Big Ideas, important figures, etc.

My primary interests are in bioinformatics and stem cell therapies.

Thanks.

posted by mpls2 to science & nature (7 comments total)

I'm not familiar enough with the bioinformatics world to know if they hire programmers without biology experience, but you might be able to find a job at a biotech as a bioinformatics programmer. Alternatively, good programmers are pretty scarce in academia - if you can find a lab that needs a good programmer and can convince them that you're motivated to learn biology you might land a job that way where you could learn a lot of biology as you go. Both these still have you programming but would get you exposed to a lot of biology. You could probably volunteer in a bio lab at a local university to get some exposure to the field.

If you're willing to go back to school, you could always get a Masters or a PhD in Bioinformatics or another biology field.

As far as personal education, see this thread. Once you get up to speed a little on the terminology, the easiest way to teach yourself (at least for me) is to read papers. Keep up with Nature, Science, Cell, Genome Biology, PLOS Biology (last two are open access, so you can read them for free). A lot of journals now make their content freely available after six months, so you could teach yourself genomics by getting a copy of the human genome paper, and reading it and the papers referenced therein until you understood it.
posted by pombe at 6:02 PM on August 9, 2007

I know people who work for a small (relatively so) pharmaceutical division of a much larger consumer products company that do bioinformatics work without having a formal biology background. I got the impression that its enough of a challenge to get software working that not being a hard core biologist isn't a barrier to entry. This of course means that you will need to have strong social and collaborative skills so that you can work well with the people that have biology knowledge.
posted by mmascolino at 7:21 PM on August 9, 2007

If you want to do hands-on research or bioinformatics programming, I don't think the MBA would help you much. None of the lab rats or coders I know in biotech have an MBA; that degree is for people who want to become managers or executives.

My limited experience with bioinformatics programming is that it's more about knowing how to write code than understanding biology. If I was looking someone to work on a bioinformatics problem, I'd hire a good coder and teach them the biology on the fly. There are a few basic biological principles they'd need to know at the outset, and then the subtleties can be dealt with as they come up. So not having a biology degree is not a big handicap, in my opinion.

I'd think your fastest route to a biotech job would be as a programmer. Once you're in a biotech company, you can see about moving into another specialty. Some companies are surprisingly flexible about letting people move around, and small companies especially seem to have periodic "all-hands-on-deck" crises where everybody has to pitch in and do lab or manufacturing work. (Just don't blame me if you find yourself in a Tyvek bunnysuit washing glassware in the cleanroom!)
posted by Quietgal at 7:42 PM on August 9, 2007

1) Leverage your software background
Good programmers are hard to come by in biotech and your existing skills and experience will be a great selling point. The industry is in fierce competition for talent with the cream of the crop in tech and finance: everyone wants the engineers skilled in data algorithms, optimization, large-scale databases, and SOAP/XML interfaces. Basically any programming skills that would make you sexy to Google's search team or quantitative-based hedge funds are good skills to have.

While it's good to have an understanding of the fundamentals and try to remain current on what's happening in the biotech industry, you'd be wasting your time getting a biology-related degree at this stage. Biology knowledge is easy to pick up. It's the research skills and experience that take a lifetime to acquire and that's not relevant to you.

2) I recommend reading the In the Pipeline blog for coverage of current topics in pharma and biotech. The author is a working organic chemist and gives a great industry insider's perspective in layman terms. Skip the entries on actual chemistry but try to digest everything else. Any posts on state of research, drug development pipelines, commercial successes/failures, and current therapies in development are worthwhile reading material and stuff you can't find in medical journals.

College textbooks are probably overkill but if you're interested, Campbell's Biology covers the basics. If you can digest the chapters related to molecular biology and biochemistry (DNA, proteins, gene expression models), I think you've covered more than enough. This book seems to be highly regarded for newcomers to molecular biology.

--
FYI, I noticed your interest in genomics/stem cell therapies. Well, the grand promises of genomics research and gene-based therapies hasn't really panned out yet but genomics has really had a huge influence on another field: testing and diagnostics. Treatments that work on select populations can only work as well as the tests to identify them. A HIV therapy that only works on individuals that express a particular receptor protein depends on a test that can accurately identify those with the protein. Development of these tests depend heavily on teams of engineers and programmers to develop the algorithms and software to analyze blood and tissue samples.
posted by junesix at 7:47 PM on August 9, 2007

Go talk to the relevant biotechnology academics at local universities.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 8:55 PM on August 9, 2007

Required reading:

The careers in biotechnology series over at Sandra Porter's site. Be sure to read the comments on the posts as well.
posted by chrisamiller at 10:49 PM on August 9, 2007

i dont know where your skillz are at, but have you considered consulting for a biotech hedge fund?
posted by prophetsearcher at 9:29 AM on August 10, 2007