A beginner's guide to bioinformatics - part II

In part I, I described Layers 1-3 of learning bioinformatics for solving biological problems. Let me cover two expert levels here.

Layer 4 – High level coding in C/C++, Java for implementing existing algorithms or modifying existing codes for new functionality

Those who try to be on the cutting edge of solving biological problems often reach the limits of layers 1-3 very quickly. This is even more important these days, because biology is getting very data intensive. Let me give few examples -

i) Let’s say a lab invested money for an ABI SOLiD sequencing machine, but a new paper on aligning sequences came out that does not cover SOLiD color-space data yet. Should the lab throw away its sequencing instrument and buy something new?

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