{"id":206,"date":"2009-04-14T17:45:37","date_gmt":"2009-04-14T17:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2009\/04\/14\/from_biochemistry_to_bayesian_computation_and_back_again\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:49:12","slug":"from_biochemistry_to_bayesian_computation_and_back_again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2009\/04\/14\/from_biochemistry_to_bayesian_computation_and_back_again\/","title":{"rendered":"From biochemistry to Bayesian computation and back again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was coming up to a year ago that I last <em>really<\/em> thought about Biochemistry, the title of my undergraduate degree. Of the timescale I am certain, because despite College being closed for the undergraduate vacation, the library is <em>packed<\/em>. Colleagues who are where I was one year ago count down the days of revision remaining until their finals in agonising, procrastinating <a href=\"www.facebook.com\">Facebook<\/a> updates.<\/p>\n<p>After my finals, I moved, by way of a computational final year project, towards <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.imperial.ac.uk\/pgprospectus\/facultiesanddepartments\/lifesciences\/postgraduatecourses\/bioinformatics\">Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology<\/a>. This year, a term of taught courses preceeded three lab rotations. The report describing the first of these was completed, bound and submitted two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>For my next <del>trick<\/del> project, I have been dispatched to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.imperial.ac.uk\/cmmi\">Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection<\/a> in the building next door. Needing someone with bioinformatics skills to tackle a particular problem, the group leader advertised for an MSc student who was to make this question their project.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Easter weekend over, I venture into the (busy!) library to get stuck into the background reading. As I tackle, highlighter in hand, the half-dozen papers I located via PubMed this morning, I face a dizzying reminder of the <a href=\"http:\/\/protein.bio.msu.ru\/biokhimiya\/contents\/v69\/pdf\/bcm_1403.pdf\">essay<\/a> I came across during my <a href=\"http:\/\/network.nature.com\/people\/erikacule\/blog\/2008\/10\/22\/multidiscipline\">first foray into Systems Biology<\/a>. It&#8217;s not just that, in the papers I consider, &#8220;Algorithm details&#8221; have reverted to &#8220;Materials and Methods&#8221;. Back in the territory of cleavage sites and cell walls and proteases, I just don&#8217;t feel certain which side of the Bioinformatics\/Biology fence I belong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was coming up to a year ago that I last really thought about Biochemistry, the title of my undergraduate degree. Of the timescale I am certain, because despite College being closed for the undergraduate vacation, the library is packed. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/2009\/04\/14\/from_biochemistry_to_bayesian_computation_and_back_again\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-the-phd","category-nature-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3050,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/3050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/erikacule\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}