In Los Angeles area, how does one get involved in these projects? I would like to volunteer at a local research lab. I am coming from a computer scientist background and would like to learn more about the medical space.
Much like in CS/Software, it'll help if you've read a bit of their work and/or can show some way you could contribute directly. i.e. "I specialize in CS and did a side-project analyzing <gene_dataset_x> where I found <something_cool>. I read your <paper> and found <this_thing_you_did> was very cool for <insightful_reason>. I'd love to get more involved in the field and possibly find a volunteer position where I could contribute, would you have time to chat on the phone or over coffee sometime?"
One place to look for genomic data:
http://www.internationalgenome.org/data/
There are others, google around and if you could also look at https://www.plos.org journals to keep an eye out for new freely available articles in this and other areas of biology. Good luck! :)