Ten Simple Rules for Starting a Company [PLoS Computational Biology]

Many bioinformaticians come from either biology or CS so this is a common question. In general if you are from CS you have to learn the biology, and if you are from biology you will have to learn to program. Both types will also usually have to learn some statistics as this is important for research.

You mention that you enjoy the field which is perhaps the most important thing. I recommend finding a good masters degree in bioinformatics which should introduce you to many of the basic topics. A bioinformatics masters degree will also make you more competitive than with a degree alone. You'll need a PhD if you want to stay and go further in Academia.

You can consider just volunteering to do a project for a biology lab. You have the tools (quantitative thinking, programming, etc) but to work in biology you need to know about some specific biology knowledge domain. There is shortcut, you need to read text-book and then review articles in a sub-discipline until you are comfortable with the area. After that, reading current research papers will get you to the cutting edge and you will start to see where you can contribute. It is possible to do this on your own but it would be much faster to get guidance, either through a course or as I said above to work directly in a lab that is doing some biological research. You would also have to figure out what areas of biology you want to work on.

Take a look at Counsyl. One of the most math/CS focused companies in genomics:

http://counsyl.com/about/jobs

Do you want to work on CS or software engineering?

I think you'll find many computational biology companies have software engineering job postings that don't require any biology background, https://www.23andme.com/about/jobs/ http://www.nanoporetech.com/careers/job-centre/view/91

Since you're reading that textbook it seems like you want to work on new algorithms for computational biology. In that case, you'll want to get a higher degree in bioinformatics.

It's pretty hard to give good advice without knowing if you want to go into industry or academia. The job market for computational biologists in industry is tight and problem-specific, and you'll generally need some research experience before you can land a gig -- there's not much computational biology going on that isn't considered "research" (even in industry).

That said, I'd recommend you start off by looking for a programmer gig in a good research lab. It's not as difficult to get one of these jobs because good CS students usually go into other fields, and academic labs are more willing to train. Spend a few years there learning the process of research, and you'll be much better qualified for an industry job. You'll also have a better idea if you really want to pursue computational biology as a career.

Other posts in this thread recommend applying for engineering jobs at biomedical startups (23andMe, Counsyl, etc.) That could be a decent option, but remember: if you're working on the website (or the robots, or...), you're not learning how to do computational biology. So it may not be the best long-term choice if you're interested in the science. Make sure that the position fits your long-term goals.

Finally, the general rule in computational biology is that "biology" is the most important word. From the perspective of a biology researcher, programmers are a commodity -- an expensive commodity, but still generic and interchangeable -- but biologists who know computer science are rare. The only way to ensure long-term success in this field is to be the latter. So regardless of what kind of job you pursue, make sure that you're spending at least as much time learning the problem domain as you are learning about computers. You really do need to become a domain expert. Being a computer scientist isn't enough.

Does the first point match your experience? I feel like VC emphasises getting a great product ready first over everything else.