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A new blog-post: the two cultures of bioinformatics, and how academia selects against one https://philippbayer.github.io/blerg/posts/2023_07_02_the_two_cultures/

The two cultures of bioinformatics

i ramble about bioinformatics careers
Hello! Welcome!
in reply to Philipp Bayer

Ian Sudbery
Ian Sudbery
• •

As a fellow combiner (with a side order of tool bulding), I have to disagree. There is definitely a future in academia for combiner, they just won't be called "bioinformaticians", and rather will just be called "biologists".

Combiners absolutely can and should be leading research, as I do. Yes, I need some collaboration to generate data, but this is generally done as a quid pro quo for me supervising the analysis of their data.

in reply to Ian Sudbery

Frank Aylward
Frank Aylward
• •
@IanSudbery many good points all around. I think one way to succeed as a "combiner" is to focus more on the biological goal/question. I stopped identifying primarily as a bioinformatician because it felt like I was emphasizing the methods I use rather than the goal, per se.
@Ian Sudbery
in reply to Frank Aylward

Ian Sudbery
Ian Sudbery
• •

Yes, this is my approach in general. Unless I'm talking to people who do identify as bioinformaticians. As @gedankenstuecke said, a sort of code switching.

I think this points to a more general point that people who make their entire professional existance about a particular approach or technique are probably painting themselves into a corner that will hamstring their career. Whether this is bioinformatics, or something else.

@Bastian Greshake Tzovaras
This entry was edited (10 months ago)

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