Ask HN: Am I too old to switch to Bioinformatics through a Masters?

By trade I am a web developer and have worked a lot both in the backend and with different databases. My math is very rusty from high school (because as you may know, there is no math in "soft" software development any more which always surprises my friends when they ask). I remember almost zero about how cells work from school.

I was trying to forget this part, but I am 39 now.

There is a very nice Masters program where I live in Europe that is about Bioinformatics, I contacted the co-ordinator and said I could get in if I refresh my Math and Biology with a few books about linear algebra and the book "Essential Cell Biology".

So here is the thing. It would take me this year to prepare myself at my own pace for induction and study these. Next year I would start the 2 year Masters and I will graduate when I am 42.

I would like to either do a Phd or work in a research environment where as someone put it here on Reddit and it stuck with me "I would much prefer analyzing vast datasets of cancer causing molecules than datasets of user behavior to make the company monetize a product".

Questions:

1) Am I too old to be accepted in jobs and research environments after I finish the Masters

2) Is age-related cognitive decline an issue that you think might affect me? I couldn't find many examples of people switched to something very intellectually demanding with no experience later in IT (most of my colleagues are now project managers something that uses crystallized (learned) intelligence and experience rather than sheer processing speed & memory)

3) Will I be able to actually contribute or with my age I will probably end up cleaning excel sheet data? I want to contribute meaningfully

Please be blunt, I am about to spend 3 years of my life in this.