Professional opportunities

Bioinformatician
Functions
Graduates in Bioinformatics can work as technical operators, researchers or scientific collaborators, analysts, or managers in public or private biomedical research institutions, healthcare facilities, or companies in the biomedical-pharmaceutical or biotechnological sectors.

Their acquired skills will enable them in particular to perform the following types of functions:

  • Design and management of complex IT systems for diagnostic and therapeutic medical applications, for managing clinical and bioinformatics databases, for processing medical and bioinformatics data in clinical decision support systems, and in computing centers in the biotechnological, biopharmaceutical, and molecular biology fields, within healthcare information systems and hospital centers;

  • Support for scientific activities in medical and biological research laboratories for bioinformatics, clinical, and inter- and intra-hospital scientific applications, and for personalized medicine, as well as in IT companies operating in the medical sector. Additionally, they can work in national and local agri-food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. It is worth noting that the Lazio region is the third in Italy, after Lombardy, for the number of biotech and pharmaceutical companies, which increasingly rely on omics technologies that require bioinformatics professionals for data analysis and application;

  • Collaboration with experimental biologists and physicians in research and diagnostic activities.

Skills
Graduates should be able to develop computational models and methods for analyzing biological sequences and gene expression data (genome, transcriptome, proteome, epigenetic profiles, post-transcriptional and post-translational modifications, genomic localization of proteins, genetic polymorphisms, RNA/DNA editing, etc.) and three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules, in order to identify phylogenetic similarities/specificities and relevant mutations, for example for personalized medical diagnosis and therapy (tumors, vaccines, genetic diseases).
They should also be able to organize integrated archives equipped with analysis platforms for better usability and presentation of biomolecular data. Another key skill is the ability to analyze and predict structural and functional aspects of macromolecules and their interactions with ligands and drugs.

Career opportunities
Graduates in Bioinformatics can find employment in IT service companies, software and hardware industries for bioinformatics or medical-clinical applications, public and private research institutions, and genomic and healthcare service providers.
At both national and international levels, the competencies acquired during this degree allow employment in hospital centers in bioinformatics, research laboratories in the medical field, supporting clinical and scientific activities of individual departments, and IT companies operating in the medical sector.
Continuing studies in master's programs such as Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genomic and Medical Biotechnologies, as well as other master's degrees in biological and IT fields (e.g., Data Science), for which the degree provides the required foundation, is also a viable path for deeper specialization. Those wishing to further pursue education specifically in bioinformatics will find a solid offering of master's degrees and second-level postgraduate programs both nationally and regionally (for example, the MSc in Statistics with a Biostatistics curriculum at Sapienza and the MSc in Bioinformatics at University of Rome Tor Vergata).

Biological Data Analyst/Modeler
Functions
The role of a data analyst/modeler is to analyze, formally model, present, and predict relevant biomedical features in datasets—such as identifying diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, trends, and statistically significant clusters. The bioinformatics data analyst is knowledgeable about the challenges of big data analysis and capable of selecting appropriate software tools.

Skills
Mathematics, programming, mathematical model development, optimization, understanding of software infrastructure, knowledge of algorithms for biological sequence and structure analysis.

Career opportunities
Same as above (Bioinformatician section).

Biological Data Manager
Functions
Coordinates the collection, integration, and publication of large-scale biological data. Can develop programs to provide web-based services using proprietary or publicly accessible data.

Skills
Management and maintenance of omics data, understanding of software infrastructure, mathematical data analysis and modeling, comprehension of data flows and formats.

Career opportunities
Same as above (Bioinformatician section).

Biological Data Integration Professional
Functions
Able to integrate data from heterogeneous sources and find suitable methodologies to extract recognizable patterns that can be immediately used by medical or biological professionals. This role requires knowledge of general bioinformatics issues and the ability to coordinate both biomedical and IT aspects.

Skills
Knowledge of biological databases and data formats, understanding of data mining tools.

Career opportunities
Same as above (Bioinformatician section).

Tools Developer for Biological Data
Functions
Understands biomolecular problems and solves them using public or custom-developed software. Capable of developing software implementations both for data analysis and for data presentation and integration.

Skills
Knowledge of programming languages and algorithms for the analysis of biological sequences and structures, software design for data analysis.

Career opportunities
Same as above (Bioinformatician section).