Ask HN: SWE to Bioinformatics | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: SWE to Bioinformatics

3 pointszaptheimpaler4 comments

Hi HN,

I've been a software engineer for 8 years and have become more and more interested in biology and medicine over the past years. I'm considering trying to move into the field of bioinformatics. I would love to hear from people who have done this, or maybe gone the other way as to how to do this..

One big obstacle I see is the requirement for Masters or PhDs in the field. I don't have either of those and don't have the grades or research experience to get into grad school. It could be done maybe but it would be a very uphill battle. The value of the degree seems dubious as well because I hear people much prefer PhDs to M.S students anyways.

On the other hand, I do see its a very deep field. Right now I'm doing a Bioinformatics course on Coursera & learning physiology & statistics but it would take years to really build up a background. There are some biotech startups that just need traditional software roles that I'm trying for - that seems like the best option for now.

Is there anyone who has successfully transitioned? For now I'm conflicted on whether this is even doable or if its just a pipe dream..

Do you want to become an informatician or do you want to write software in informatics?

I’ve worked in Biomedical Informatics for the past 12 years, but as a software engineer. My original experience was not even close to this field.

You can certainly pursue a degree—yes, likely PhD. Or you can use your SWE background to enter the field. There is a learning curve to understand the domain, but that’s what we do as software types.

Is there a big difference? I suppose to start I want to write software in informatics and maybe pick up more of the biology on the job if I can.

How did you find your job? What kinds of companies hire roles like that? I looked at a few pharma companies (in Canada) and have seen very few roles that seem like they would hire software engineers.

The difference, imo, is basically in how you define your primary goal. Is it software development or is it specifically informatics?

In my experience (in academia) most informaticians are focused on the data whereas my focus is software development in support of the informaticians’ goals.

Take a look at some Universities that have Biomedical Informatics departments; I started with a University that has such a department. They’ll typically have faculty that have grant-funded projects that require a software component, whether it’s NLP, AI, ML or application development for various purposes (including clinical-use software).

Also look for organizations or companies working with HL7 standards (most recent tech is FHIR (http://hl7.org/fhir/)).

Very helpful, thank you for responding!! I do see one or two bioinformatics adjacent software positions at a nearby uni so I'll try applying there!

I did previously interview at a FHIR related place a few years ago, but it seemed to be quite far off from the medical or biological side of things, more about billing and administration.

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