Somehow I missed this one… but WOW> I need to quickly just send it up here for those interested.
The title is somewhat misleading: Core Services: Reward Bioinformaticians (linked is the open access manuscript). While the punch-line is pleading to evolve academics view on staff positioned bioinformaticians, I think there is much more important meat in this body of words.
First off - “Routinely Unique” - University of Texas Health System did an 18-month analysis of projects completed in the bioinformatics core. Of a total of 46 projects, 34 were uniquely different analyses. 74%... different analyses. Three quarters of the projects were seeking customized, collaborative analyses. That’s good, no, great actually. That means biologists are thinking of the analyses they are drawing conclusions from. Tool set out of box is not being used… people, real scientists are working collaboratively through the data. I can only hope a statistician is taking part.
Secondly, “applied bioinformatics” - 5% of the staff’s time are spent doing actual bioinformatics, ya know the method development stuff that warrants and receives publications and grant dollars. That means the vast majority of staff core bioinformaticians are NOT advancing their careers. Yea, that was the point of this article.
But here’s the real deal. EVERYONE doing life science research will need applied bioinformatics analyses. Every. Single. Scientist. Therefore they will need to understand mathematical, statistical and computational analyses and then apply these fundamentals to their area of study to make conclusions.
They will either have to pick it up themselves, or ask, no beg, and then wait…. for an applied bioinformatician. And the data just keep piling up.....