A field guide to cultivating computational biology

Way, Gregory P.; Greene, Casey S.; Carninci, Piero; Carvalho, Benilton S.; de Hoon, Michiel; Finley, Stacey D.; Gosline, Sara C.; Lȇ Cao, Kim-Anh; Lee, Jerry H.; Marchionni, Luigi; Robine, Nicolas; Sindi, Suzanne S.; Theis, Fabian J.; Yang, Jean H.; Carpenter, Anne E.; Fertig, Elana J.

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3001419

A field guide to cultivating computational biology

Journal Article · Thu Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · PLoS Biology (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001419· OSTI ID:1830208

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[6]; ^[7]; ^[8]; ^[6]; Marchionni, Luigi ^[9]; ^[10]; Sindi, Suzanne S. ^[11]; ^[12]; ^[13]; ^[14]; ^[15]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Univ. of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO (United States)
Univ. of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO (United States)
RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama (Japan); Human Technopole, Milan (Italy)
Univ. of Campinas (UNICAMP) (Brazil)
RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama (Japan)
Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Univ. of Melbourne (Australia)
Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York, NY (United States)
New York Genome Center, New York, NY (United States)
Univ. of California, Merced, CA (United States)
Technical Univ. of Munich (Germany)
Univ. of Sydney, NSW (Australia)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)

Evolving in sync with the computation revolution over the past 30 years, computational biology has emerged as a mature scientific field. While the field has made major contributions toward improving scientific knowledge and human health, individual computational biology practitioners at various institutions often languish in career development. As optimistic biologists passionate about the future of our field, we propose solutions for both eager and reluctant individual scientists, institutions, publishers, funding agencies, and educators to fully embrace computational biology. We believe that in order to pave the way for the next generation of discoveries, we need to improve recognition for computational biologists and better align pathways of career success with pathways of scientific progress. With 10 outlined steps, we call on all adjacent fields to move away from the traditional individual, single-discipline investigator research model and embrace multidisciplinary, data-driven, team science.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1830208

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--166678

Journal Information:: PLoS Biology (Online), Journal Name: PLoS Biology (Online) Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 19; ISSN 1545-7885

Publisher:: Public Library of ScienceCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
biologists
careers
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computer and information sciences
computer software
institutional funding of science
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A field guide to cultivating computational biology

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