You say genomics, I say genetics...

摘要

Training as a geneticist or genomicist today involves mastering a lot more than the mendelian ratios, central dogma and population equations of times past. Not only has the conceptual focus shifted from genes to genomes, but that change has added the new realm of bioinformatics. As a result, today's genetic scientists have skill sets that dwarf those of their mentors. "Back in my day, the ability to manipulate a large amount of data was only for population geneticists. No longer. Molecular geneticists do this today too," says Joann Boughman, executive vice-president of the American Society of Human Genetics in Bethesda, Maryland. Over the past few years, familiarity with, if not expertise in, bipinformatics has become not just desirable, but expected. "Classical and molecular genetics are still part of the training, but it is hard to believe that anyone with a PhD in genetics nowadays would not also have a background in bioinformatics," says Richard Gregory, director of research at Genzyme in Cambridge, Massachusetts.