Some examples of bioinformatics studies include the analysis and integration of genetic and genomic data, cheminformatic comparisons of proteins to help improve personalized medicine, and the prediction of protein function from data sequence and structural information. Although in industry, the larger the data sets get the more specialized and faster tools are needed for data processing such as Spark. Since bioinformatics is very research-oriented and jobs in industry are few, many graduates (maybe 40%) join PhD programs. Bioinformatics is an official journal of the International Society for Computational Biology, the leading professional society for computational biology and bioinformatics. Research is conducted in academia and industry -- but how does it differ? Bench-based researchers, both in academia and in industry, provide the classic example of a bioinformatics user, but this group is broadening in scope. The ones joining industry usually work in non-bioinformatics positions, for example, as IT consultants, software developers, solutions architects, or data scientists. Final word If the argument of core skill similarity holds true people from data science should be able to perform in bioinformatics positions after acquiring some domain specific skills and knowledge. Nonetheless, programmers stand to benefit greatly from the many software tools, libraries, and educational materials available supporting the use of Perl and Python for bioinformatics [13] – [17] . Many research labs now require the expertise of dedicated bioinformatics core centers or their own in-house bioinformaticists. Every company is different. Java, for example, which is popular in both academic curriculum and industry, has served as the basis for many successful bioinformatics projects. Very quick and dirty look at salaries in industry vs. academia: Academic Salary Mean/Median: $36,520 / $33,712; Industry Salary Mean/Median: $66,239 / $64,235 Members of the society receive a 15% discount on article processing charges when publishing Open Access in the journal. I think working for a sequencer company, for instance, might be a lot of fun. Bioinformatics refers to the study of large sets of biodata, biological statistics, and results of scientific studies. Salary. Philip Guo, an assistant professor of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, wrote an article in December 2014, “Industry versus academia: A junior employee’s perspective,” and says, “It feels like your time belongs to yourself, not to your employer. Peter Eckes, President, BASF Bioscience Research, and Alexa Dembek, DuPont’s Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer, have the answer for you Having worked both in academia and industry, I will likely never return to industry again. 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