Wet Lab / Dry Lab Transitioning with Dr. Willian da Silveira

The Bioinformatics and Beyond Podcast

For people who work in the life sciences, a very common occurrence is for folks who work on the "wet" side of research, largely doing bench work, to become interested in or start wanting to transition to doing more "dry" research, like computational research in bioinformatics. In this special episode, dedicated to those thinking about transitioning from "wet" lab work to doing more "dry" lab type work, my guest Dr. Willian da Silveira explains his own transition from a full bench scientist to a full time bioinformatician. Dr. da Silveira also answers many questions from the bioinformatics subreddit on this topic. Following Dr. da Silveira's explanation of his career trajectory and his own shift from "wet" lab work to "dry" lab work, I ask a series of questions from the bioinformatics subreddit seen below, with time stamps included:

[19:00] Bioinformatics subreddit questions begin.

[20:00] What general stats and technical requisites are necessary to transition from wet lab to dry lab work?

[23:30] Is it boring to only do data analysis versus conducting lab experiments?

[27:50] Should you transition early, for example during a masters or PhD program, or can it be done later?

[33:30] Does the transition need to be forced or does it happen more often by chance?

[35:10] Is there a downside to being self-taught as a bioinformatician?

[36:20] What are the upsides of picking up bioinformatics later on, starting as a wet lab scientist first?

[40:25] How to get accepted into a bioinformatics PhD program with no formal CS education?

[42:07] What about dry lab to wet lab transitioning?

[48:07] How do you get your foot in the door when switching from the wet lab to a dry lab with little or no dry lab experience on your CV?

[50:45] If you do feel stuck, would the best route be to go ahead and pick up some formal education like a paid masters degree?

[52:48] Would it make sense to transition to dry lab work given employment and financial considerations?

Finally, to end the discussion, I ask Willian what he thinks the ideal mix of wet lab and dry lab experience might look like.