Are There Internships In Bioinformatics? How Can A Foreign Student Get Started In The Field?

Question

[vedran.stipetic]

Hi, I'm a first year mathematics student from Croatia, and I'm interested in the fields of biomathematics and bioinformatics. I have several questions that i haven't been able to find answers to on this forum, and I would greatly appreciate any input on them.

1. Internships: Are there any internships for bioinformatics in industry (not research internships on a university, I hope this is the right term), if there are where can I find them, which skill would be required of me, and what age are they mostly for (I was hoping for something for summer of 2015 or summer of 2016, is this possible, or is it too soon?)
2. Schools: As far as I know, there are no bioinformatics graduate courses in Croatia, so which are the best schools for bioinformatics I can get into being a foreigner? Also, there is only one bioinformatics and one biomathematics class offered on my college for mathematicians, should I try should I try signing up for some courses in biology or organic chemistry meant for biologists?
3. Mathematics: I've always preferred mathematics to coding (not that I dislike coding, I just prefer mathematics), so, how much mathematics is there in bioinformatics? Also, is there a forum similar to this but for biomahematics? I've tried googling but so far haven't found anything

---

Thanks for your help,

Vedran

Answer 1

[Devon Ryan]

1. A number of the pharma companies have summer internship programs, though you'll see large differences by country. I know that Novartis in the US offers internships, though they seem mostly in the lab (there are likely other options if you ask directly). Bayer here in Germany offers internships, though I suspect they're not appropriate for your interests (the concept of an internship or "Ausbildung" is somewhat different in German speaking countries). If checking the various company websites doesn't provide enough info, just try shooting an email to whomever is listed as a contact person...perhaps special arrangements can be made.

2. I don't see why being foreign would be much of a factor. In both countries I've lived (US and Germany), foreign graduate students are/were very common. Pick a program where you see people working on stuff that sounds interesting. Regarding current courses, do take some biology (particularly molecular biology) classes. All the math in the world won't help you if you can't understand the underlying biological problem. You might see if there are any classes titled "Theoretical/Computational Foo", where "Foo" is some biological field. The math in there won't be a challenge for you, but you'll start to see in what sorts of contexts mathematics can become exceedingly useful in biology. Regarding O-chem, I wouldn't bother. Unless you someday find yourself creating a database of chemical group modifications to in silico screen for interactions and want to include ease of synthesis as a metric then it's unlikely to be helpful (and really, chemists are pretty good at making crazy molecules these days...not to mention that you'd actually use a database of existing compounds in a proprietary library).

3. There's no single answer to this. BTW, if you enjoy statistics, then go more toward biostatistics (you'll find the job prospects excellent).

Answer 2

[William]

You can also have a look at Google summer of code.

"Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects."

There are several groups that offer projects and mentors. You can also submit your own project idea to create a new library or module for something of rewrite an existing one in better version.

This is one of the groups offering project idea's, I think there should be more groups like this.

http://nrnb.org/gsoc/

If you are good in math and can express the math in high performance programming code then you should have good prospects.

Two of the best places in Europe for bio-informatics are the Sanger and EBI institutes on the Genome Trust campus in Hinxton (near Cambridge) UK.

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/campus/

They also run student placements and are very active in outreach and training.

http://www.sanger.ac.uk/workstudy/placements/

http://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/Visitors_Programme/internships

[Emily]

Further to this, we have bioinformatics PhD programmes at the EBI and at the Sanger.

Answer 3

[Michael]

Croatian students have access to the Erasmus+ program of the European Commision: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/index_en.htm See also here for opportunities for students: http://ec.europa.eu/education/opportunities/higher-education/study-mobility_en.htm

This could help you greatly to provide financial support and also to transfer credit points earned during your stay, factors which certainly determine your success in your studies abroad.

A little downside, access to EU programs is often a little bureaucratic, you can't just apply online to any institution but:

The interested student should apply to the international office and/or Erasmus+ office of his or her sending higher education institution. The office will inform him or her of the possibilities of studying abroad as well as the modalities to apply and to receive an Erasmus+ EU grant.

That means you have to locate the Erasmus office of your university and ask for such possibilities.

Edit: Noticing that you were looking for industry internships, I'd still maintain my recommendation. Imho a university program is better for an undergrad to study the basics of bioinformatics than the pharma industry. An internship might be a good option for later after you have learned the basics of the field.

It is also important to point to the option of changing your university and moving to one where you can study exactly the topic you want, then you do not need to compensate via an internship.