Summary Report for:
43-9111.01 - Bioinformatics Technicians
Apply principles and methods of bioinformatics to assist scientists in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. Apply bioinformatics tools to visualize, analyze, manipulate or interpret molecular data. May build and maintain databases for processing and analyzing genomic or other biological information.
This title represents an occupation for which data collection is currently underway.
Tasks | Interests | Work Values | Wages & Employment
Tasks
- Develop or maintain applications that process biologically based data into searchable databases for purposes of analysis, calculation, or presentation.
- Enter or retrieve information from structural databases, protein sequence motif databases, mutation databases, genomic databases or gene expression databases.
- Monitor database performance and perform any necessary maintenance, upgrades, or repairs.
- Analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques.
- Confer with researchers, clinicians, or information technology staff to determine data needs and programming requirements and to provide assistance with database-related research activities.
- Create data management or error-checking procedures and user manuals.
- Design or implement web-based tools for querying large-scale biological databases.
- Develop or apply data mining and machine learning algorithms.
- Document all database changes, modifications, or problems.
- Extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve.
Interests
Interest code: IRC
| Investigative — Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally. |
| Realistic — Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others. |
| Conventional — Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow. |
Work Values
| Independence — Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employs to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy. |
| Support — Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees. Corresponding needs are Company Policies, Supervision: Human Relations and Supervision: Technical. |
| Working Conditions — Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions. Corresponding needs are Activity, Compensation, Independence, Security, Variety and Working Conditions. |
Wages & Employment Trends
National
Median wages data collected from Statistical Assistants.
Employment data collected from Statistical Assistants.
| Median wages (2008) | $16.76 hourly, $34,850 annual |
| Employment (2006) | 23,000 employees |
| Projected growth (2006-2016) | 
Average (7% to 13%)
|
| Projected need (2006-2016) | 12,000 additional employees |
State & National
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 wage data
and 2006-2016 employment projections
.
"Projected growth" represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2006-2016). "Projected need" represents job openings due to growth and net replacement.