You love biology and computers, so you chose a bioinformatics degree. But what happens after graduation? Where do you work? Who’s hiring? Where do you find a job you actually like?
There’s a lot of questions for after graduation, but with your bioinformatics degree, you’ve also got answers. In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the main paths you can take with your degree and help you picture what your future could look like.
What is Bioinformatics?
A degree in bioinformatics gets into the statistics and math of biology. Using computers and software, bioinformatics analyzes the wealth of data being collected every day. This speciality is needed in every field of biology, including biotechnology, medicine, wildlife, conservation, and more. So the real question is: What can’t you do with bioinformatics?
Medicine & Healthcare
Bioinformatics is changing the way we do medicine. With transformative studies into cancer, genetics, and diseases, bioinformatics makes information readily available for doctors. Specialists compile research and data in an easy to read, accessible resource, making it easier to diagnose, treat, and even prevent diseases.
Instead of the general prescription, patients get actual, personalized treatments that make their lives better. Bioinformatics makes better medicine possible, using data and computers to help more patients than ever before.
Biotechnology & Drug Development
Bioinformatics makes biotechnology and drug development possible. Bioinformatics specialists can look at new products like biofuel and biodegradable plastic and run it through countless programs and experiments with software. They can put the products to the test before development even starts, making sure the product is actually useful.
Bioinformatics can even observe particular molecules in a medicine to see how it would react with other drugs. This testing can be done right on the computer before entering a lab, so development is faster, cheaper, and more effective.
Agriculture & Food Security
Bioinformatics has become vital for food security in agriculture. It helps improve crops, prevent disease, and study how environments adapt to natural disasters like flooding or drought. Environments are constantly changing, and scientists need bioinformatics to keep up with that.
When it comes to livestock, bioinformatics can help agriculture scientists find the best genetics to breed for better animals. Even in food processing, bioinformatics plays a vital role in keeping food safe. They can analyze data from thousands of other studies to see the best way to pack and ship food all over the country. Bioinformatics makes the whole food industry just work better.
Environmental Science & Conservation
Environmental bioinformatics is one of the fastest growing fields within bioinformatics. Protecting land and wildlife for future generations is becoming more of a concern today. Bioinformatics can analyze data about endangered species, biodiversity, and invasive organisms for conservationists to use.
In climate research, bioinformatics analyzes DNA to understand ecosystems and inform management and policy. Bioinformatics can look at how life affects the environment around them, from the smallest insect to large elephants or from a tiny weed to giant sequoia trees. Conservationists depend on this data to make effective environmental strategies and policies around the world.
Forensics & Public Safety
Even the justice system relies on bioinformatics. Today, DNA is used in forensic science to solve crimes across the world. It also helps prove the innocence of hundreds of wrongly convicted individuals. Bioinformatics, with its background in computer analysis and biology, makes that possible.
Because this work involves massive DNA databases and pattern recognition, bioinformatics makes this work faster, more reliable, and more ethical. Bioinformatics, working with forensic scientists, helps protect the public and solve crimes.
What Will You Do?
As you can see, there’s a lot of options for a bioinformatics degree. This degree isn’t going to take you to just one place. It’s going to take you to any field within biology that catches your interest. It really is a one-size-fits-all major.
So if you want to work in medicine, biotechnology, agriculture, conservation, or forensic science, then bioinformatics is the degree that can get you there.
Citations
National Cancer Institute — Bioinformatics, Big Data, and Cancer
Johns Hopkins University — Master of Science in Bioinformatics
USDA Agricultural Research Service — Research Project
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — Conservation Genetics Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — Forensic Genetics