Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM)
Bioinformatician
Computational biology and genomics
What this life looks like
You use computers and statistics to unlock the secrets hidden in biological data. Bioinformaticians develop and apply computational tools to analyse genetic sequences, protein structures, and other large biological datasets, generating insights that advance medicine, agriculture, and evolutionary biology. It sits at the exciting frontier where biology meets data science.
What she actually does
You write code to process and analyse DNA sequencing data, build pipelines for genomic data analysis, develop databases for biological information, apply machine learning to identify patterns in biological data, collaborate with wet-lab scientists to interpret their experimental results computationally, and work on problems ranging from cancer genomics to infectious disease evolution to crop improvement.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Research Institutions | H3Africa network, WACCBIP Ghana, KEMRI Kenya, MRC Gambia, AHRI South Africa |
| Universities | Computational biology groups at UCT, Wits, University of Nairobi, Makerere |
| Pharmaceutical & Biotech | Drug discovery groups applying genomics, African genomic medicine companies |
| Public Health | Africa CDC, NICD South Africa — pathogen genomics for outbreak surveillance |
Why it matters in Africa
Africa has the world's greatest human genetic diversity — yet African genomes are vastly underrepresented in global genetic databases. H3Africa is generating African genomic data at scale, and African bioinformaticians are needed to analyse it. The same skills apply to pathogen genomics, where Africa needs real-time sequencing capacity for outbreak response.
Your pathway in
- Build strong foundations in both Biology and Mathematics or Computing at school
- Pursue a degree in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or a combination of Biological Sciences and Computer Science
- Develop proficiency in Python and R — both are essential bioinformatics tools
- Engage with African bioinformatics training programmes through H3ABioNet at h3abionet.org
- Build a portfolio of analyses using public genomic datasets from databases such as NCBI
Skills you will need
- Python and R programming
- Linux command line
- Genomic data analysis (BLAST, BWA, GATK)
- Statistical analysis
- Database management
- Scientific writing
A woman in this field
Prof. Nicola Mulder
South Africa
Nicola is a professor of computational biology at the University of Cape Town and lead coordinator of H3ABioNet, the Pan-African Bioinformatics Network. She has trained hundreds of African bioinformaticians across the continent through workshops, online courses, and research collaborations. Her leadership in building Africa's bioinformatics capacity makes her one of the most important figures in African computational science.
Take your first step
- Study Biology and Mathematics — both are equally important in bioinformatics
- Learn Python programming for free through freeCodeCamp at freecodecamp.org or Python.org
- Explore H3ABioNet's free online bioinformatics training courses at h3abionet.org
- Look at the NCBI database at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and understand what genomic sequences represent