Course of Action

Industry is excited and IT professionals are a tad curious about what has been hyped as the burning hot sector that could even make the current downturn history and push India into the ‘giant league.’ Add to that rumors about six-figure salaries and you have sufficient reason to even think about a career shift to biotech or bioinformatics. We decided to take a closer look at
opportunities in this ‘emerging career’and find out if it’s really worth some serious thought. 

Today, bioinformatics as a subject is still in a very nascent stage. One reason for its sudden emergence into the limelight has been the IT meltdown and the subsequent search for new pastures. So much so that apart from government initiatives, many private institutions have started offering a bewildering range of certificate and diploma courses for widely-varying fees akin to the computer-training institute boom of the mid-eighties.

Skills required A biologist must also know  Key algorithms and methods of bioinformatics such as programming, optimization and cluster analysis Familiarity with LINUX and UNIX OSs Mathematics including statistical techniques and calculus Programming–C, C++, Java, Perl and Fortran Databases like Oracle and Sybase Knowledge of CGI scripts A computer scientist must also know Molecular biology Protein (Bio) chemistry Evolutionary biology Having acquired the necessary skills, you could do one or both of two things: use bioinformatics applications, to analyze and manipulate databases, or develop applications required by your project.

You have two choices if you want to branch out into bioinformatics.

• Join a bioinformatics team set up by players like Satyam, TCS or even a government organization like CDFD (Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics), Hyderabad for on-the-job training. Other key IT players who plan to foray into bioinformatics include Wipro and Sun, which has signed an MoU with the Andhra government.

• Take a training course in the subject. The choices available
  today are between a DBT 
  
  (Department of Biotechnology) sponsored Advanced Diploma in Bioinformatics, an MSc from a government-recognized university, or a course from any of the private educational institutions offering them.

IT professionals: Any takers? 

Many private and government organizations recruit people with different backgrounds, train them and build up small teams at their respective centers of excellence. Recently, IT players Satyam and TCS have recruited and are training small teams of IT professionals and computer-savvy biologists as part of their plans to establish a presence in this field. Sun Microsystems has signed an MoU with the Andhra government and is said to be in negotiations with DBT for setting up a few centers of excellence. Pharma majors like Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy’s and Shantha Biotech have research teams, strongly supported by bioinformatics professionals. A number of other players including Oracle have also expressed interested in
bioinformatics–evidence that this field is bound to grow. 

Such teams set up by the industry players are made up of domain experts from different fields. Satyam, for instance, has pooled experts in medicine, molecular biology, biochemistry, mathematics, statistics, physics and chemistry, backed by strong software engineering groups. The team was first trained in the basics of biology and molecular biology. Advanced training was then provided at CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) and Pune University. Through informal interaction and seminars amongst the team members the knowledge within the team has been multiplied. 

If you are a fresh BE/B Tech, well versed with C, C++, Java, CORBA or Perl and want to see whether the field is right for you, then CDFD Hyderabad will be worth a try. CDFD has a number of small projects where you can try out your skills and learn on the job. Mail your CV to
bioopp@www.cdfd.org.in. 

Courses on offer

DBT has started one-year courses (Advanced Diploma in Bioinformatics) in five Indian universities–Calcutta University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), Madurai Kamaraj University, Pondicherry University and Pune University. The intake for these courses is based on All India Entrance Exams that are conducted by the respective centers themselves as of now, though there are plans to make them a combined exam. You’ll be eligible to apply if you have an M.Sc in life sciences/biotechnology or any allied natural sciences or a BE/B Tech/M Tech degree. As of now, a majority of the students of these course are either ‘freshers’ or have minimal work experience. 

Though not under the DBT, the Bharathiar University, Coimbatore (www.bharathiaruni.org) also offers a two-year MSc courses in bioinformatics. The Karnataka government, too, has got into the act and has set up IBAB (Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology) at Bangalore in association with ICICI. A one-year diploma course has just been started at IBAB. You can get more information at
www.ibab.ac.in/ or e-mail info@ibab.ac.in.

The technosavvy Andhra government is on a similar course and plans to set up centers of excellence in partnership with major IT companies. It has already signed MoUs with companies like Sun and more are on the anvil. Also, newly started is a multi-university MSIT program (with some input from Carnegie Mellon University) at Osmania University, Hyderabad, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, and the Centre for Distributed Learning, Hyderabad. Though, this two/three year program is more of an IT program, specialization is available for bioinformatics. More details at
www.msitprogram.net/. 

No luck with the government institutions? Fear not, help is at hand in the form of a number of private institutions like Amity, Bioinformatics Institute of India, GVK, Ocimum, who offer a variety of courses. When enrolling for these courses keep in mind that most of them have just begun and only time will tell how good they are and how well recognized they are in the industry. Check for the institute’s record in placing students from other courses, if any; a good institution will try to give quality education to its students in new courses, including
bioinformatics.

That said, most institutes, both private and government, prefer to take fresh graduates or people with one to two years of experience.
Interested? Well, now it’s time to do some research on your own.

Benoy George Thomas