WALK IN INTERVIEW

A walk-in Interview for the following position tenable at the Bioinformatics Infrastructure Facility (BIF), Department of Biotechnology, Alagappa University will be held at the Department of Biotechnology, Alagappa University, Karaikudi 630 003 on 15.05.2014 (Thursday) at 01:00 PM. This national facility is funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi. The main objectives of the Centre involve teaching and research activities in bioinformatics/biotechnology.

RA (One Post):

Salary : Rs. 11000 p.m. plus admissible HRA

Qualification: M.Sc., in Bioinformatics/Biotechnology/Biophysics/Biochemistry/ Life Sciences

Interested candidates are encouraged to send their Curriculum Vitae by email to “sk_pandian@rediffmail.com” in advance. On the day of interview, the candidates must produce original certificates in proof of their educational qualification and experience and a recommendation letter from the Head of the Department/Institution where last studied/worked. Candidates who have already passed the required Degree alone are eligible to appear for interview. No TA&DA will be given for attending the interview.

Advertisement: http://www.alagappabiotech.org/Walk%20in%20interview.pdf

Why Bioinformatics Matters More Than Ever

Every day, our world generates massive amounts of biological data—from genome sequences to microbiome profiles to real-time pathogen surveillance. Hidden within these datasets are the answers to some of the greatest challenges humanity faces: emerging diseases, antimicrobial resistance, environmental stress, genetic disorders, sustainable agriculture, and more.

Bioinformatics isn’t just a skill.
It’s the language of the future of biology.

By mastering it, you give yourself the power to:

Decode genomes and understand life at its most fundamental level

Identify patterns no microscope could ever reveal

Predict disease outbreaks before they occur

Accelerate drug discovery with computational precision

Contribute to open-source tools that empower scientists worldwide

You don’t just follow science—you drive it.

Every Expert Was Once a Beginner

Many newcomers feel intimidated. Command-line interfaces. R scripts. Python packages. Next-generation sequencing data. Complex machine learning models.

But here’s the truth: every bioinformatician started exactly where you are now—curious, unsure, but excited.

No one writes perfect code on day one.

No one understands genomics pipelines immediately.

What makes you a bioinformatician is not perfection, but perseverance.

When your script throws a cryptic error…
When your data refuses to format…
When your pipeline runs for 6 hours only to crash…

Remember: this is part of the journey.
Every error teaches you. Every retry strengthens you. Every breakthrough energizes you.

Bioinformatics Is Not Just a Career—It’s a Mindset

It’s the mindset of:

Problem-solving.

Continuous learning.

Turning chaos into clarity.

Seeing what others can’t.

Bioinformaticians are detectives of biological complexity. You sit at the intersection of innovation, using tools that can shape public health, medicine, agriculture, and ecology. Few fields give you such direct impact on the world.

Your Contribution Matters

As you work on your script, pipeline, genome, or model, remember:

Somewhere, your analysis might contribute to:

A new therapy

A faster diagnostic test

A better understanding of a pathogen

A more resilient crop

An open-source dataset that helps thousands

A discovery that rewrites textbooks

Your code may be small, but its ripple effect is powerful.

The Future Is Bioinformatics—And You Are Part of It

The world is shifting. Wet labs are integrating AI. Hospitals rely on genomic insights. Farmers use gene-level predictions. Governments monitor disease in real time. Students launch pipelines that become global tools.

This is a golden era—and you are not late.
You are exactly where you need to be.

Keep Pushing. Keep Learning. Keep Discovering.

Bioinformatics is a journey filled with challenges, but also with unmatched rewards.

So the next time you feel stuck, frustrated, or overwhelmed, remember:
You’re building the science of tomorrow.

Be proud. Stay curious. Keep going.
Your work matters more than you think.

Pay scale: Pay Band of Rs. 37400-67000 with AGP of Rs. 9000.

i. Educational Qualification: Good academic record with a Ph.D. Degree in the concerned/allied/relevant disciplines.

ii. A Master's Degree with at least 55% marks (or an equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed).

iii. A minimum of eight years of experience of teaching and/or research in an academic/research position equivalent to that of Assistant Professor in a University, College or Accredited Research Institution/industry excluding the period of Ph.D. research with evidence of published work and a minimum of 5 publications as books and/or research/policy papers.

iv. Contribution to educational innovation, design of new curricula and courses, and technology - mediated teaching learning process with evidence of having guided doctoral candidates and research students.

v. A minimum score as stipulated in the Academic Performance Indicator (API) based Performance Based Appraisal System (PBAS), set out in UGC Regulation.

Download application form from website: http://www.allduniv.ac.in/

Send your application to the Registrar, University of Allahabad, Allahabad-211002 (U.P.) on or before 30th April 2014

For more details: http://www.allduniv.ac.in/images/adv/backlog/advt-details.pdf OR http://www.allduniv.ac.in/images/news/extension-notice.pdf

Last Apply Date: 30 May 2014

Address of the bookmark: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-021-00407-0

Can't locate XML/parser.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0 .)

Manual Method of Perl Module Installation

• Install Perl Modules Manually

This manual method is very useful when your computer or server is not connected to the Internet.

Download Perl module:
Go to CPAN Search website and search for the module that you wish to download. In this example, let us search, download and install XML::Parser Perl module. I have downloaded the XML-Parser-2.36.tar.gz to /home/download

# cd /home/download
# gzip -d XML-Parser-2.36.tar.gz
# tar xvf XML-Parser-2.36.tar
# cd XML-Parser-2.36

Build the perl module:
Build by running Makefile.PL, remember the case sensitivity, make and make test.

# perl Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for XML::Parser::Expat
Writing Makefile for XML::Parser
# make
# make test

Install the perl module:
Now your package is ready to install.

# make install

As a newbie it looks pretty simple, and one go. But, luckily this is a very simple one module with no dependencies. Typically, Perl modules will be dependent on several other modules. Just imagine chasing all these dependencies one-by-one, thinking ... oh ye I got it. That will be very painful and annoying task. I recommend the CPAN method of installation as shown below.

Install Perl Modules using CPAN automatically

Logically, you should must have the CPAN perl module installed in your server or computer before you can install any other Perl modules using CPAN. I know you  are laughing, "to install a perl module you need another perl module"  ;)

Lets verify whether CPAN is already installed:

To install Perl modules using CPAN, make sure the cpan command is working. Following are the error message when CPAN module is not installed.

# cpan
-bash: cpan: command not found

# perl -MCPAN -e shell
Can't locate CPAN.pm in @INC (@INC contains:
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.0 .).
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.

Install the CPAN module using yum:
If CPAN in not installed in your system, you can use "yum" for the rescue. Dont worry biological data cruncher, this is true we are now dependent all these tiny magicians :).

# yum install perl-CPAN

Output of yum install perl-CPAN command:

Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
updates-newkey                       | 2.3 kB     00:00
primary.sqlite.bz2                   | 2.4 MB     00:00
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments

Resolving Dependencies
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      5 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 1.0 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/5): perl-ExtUtils-ParseXS-2.18-31.fc9.i386.rpm     |  30 kB     00:00
(2/5): perl-Test-Harness-2.64-31.fc9.i386.rpm         |  70 kB     00:00
(3/5): perl-CPAN-1.9205-31.fc9.i386.rpm               | 217 kB     00:00
(4/5): perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.36-31.fc9.i386.rpm   | 284 kB     00:00
(5/5): perl-devel-5.10.0-31.fc9.i386.rpm              | 408 kB     00:00

Installing     : perl-ExtUtils-ParseXS                             [1/5]
Installing     : perl-devel                                        [2/5]
Installing     : perl-Test-Harness                                 [3/5]
Installing     : perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker                           [4/5]
Installing     : perl-CPAN                                         [5/5]


Installed: perl-CPAN.i386 0:1.9205-31.fc9
Dependency Installed:
  perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker.i386 0:6.36-31.fc9
  perl-ExtUtils-ParseXS.i386 1:2.18-31.fc9
  perl-Test-Harness.i386 0:2.64-31.fc9
  perl-devel.i386 4:5.10.0-31.fc9
Complete!

Configure cpan the first time:
Once the CPAN is installed, you need to configure it by executing cpan, you should set some configuration parameters as shown below. I have shown only the important configuration parameters below. Accept all the default values by pressing enter.

Note: Make sure to execute “o conf commit” in the cpan prompt after the configuration to save the settings.

# cpan

Sorry, we have to rerun the configuration dialog for CPAN.pm due
to some missing parameters...

CPAN build and cache directory? [/root/.cpan]
Download target directory? [/root/.cpan/sources]
Directory where the build process takes place? [/root/.cpan/build]

Always commit changes to config variables to disk? [no]
Cache size for build directory (in MB)? [100]
Let the index expire after how many days? [1]

Perform cache scanning (atstart or never)? [atstart]
Cache metadata (yes/no)? [yes]
Policy on building prerequisites (follow, ask or ignore)? [ask]

Parameters for the 'perl Makefile.PL' command? []
Parameters for the 'perl Build.PL' command? []

Your ftp_proxy? []
Your http_proxy? []
Your no_proxy? []
Is it OK to try to connect to the Internet? [yes]

First, pick a nearby continent and country by typing in the number(s)
(1) Africa
(2) Asia
(3) Central America
(4) Europe
(5) North America
(6) Oceania
(7) South America
Select your continent (or several nearby continents) [] 5

(1) Bahamas
(2) Canada
(3) Mexico
(4) United States
Select your country (or several nearby countries) [] 4

(2) ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/CPAN/
(3) ftp://cpan-du.viaverio.com/pub/CPAN/
(4) ftp://cpan-sj.viaverio.com/pub/CPAN/
(5) ftp://cpan.calvin.edu/pub/CPAN
(6) ftp://cpan.cs.utah.edu/pub/CPAN/
e.g. '1 4 5' or '7 1-4 8' [] 2-16

cpan[1]> o conf commit
commit: wrote '/usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/CPAN/Config.pm'

cpan[2]> quit
No history written (no histfile specified).
Lockfile removed.

• Install Perl Modules using CPAN

Hey smile please, now you are ready with CPAN and can download modules in one line command.

You can use one of the following method to install a Perl module using cpan:

# perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::BioPerl'

(or)

# cpan
cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.9205)
ReadLine support available (maybe install Bundle::CPAN or Bundle::CPANxxl?)

cpan[1]> install "Bundle::BioPerl"

In the example above, CPAN will check for Bundle::BioPerl dependencies and automatically resolves and installs Bundle::BioPerl with all the dependent Perl modules.

• Quick Ways

Oh, look at your face.. smily hmm :). This is what your are looking for, a quick and best way to install Perl modules, Bioperl. Following are the the steps to download BioPerl in your server/computer.

# sudo apt-cache search perl BioPerl

Output will be like as follows:

bioperl - Perl tools for computational molecular biology
bioperl-run - BioPerl wrappers: scripts
libbio-perl-perl - BioPerl core perl modules
libbio-perl-run-perl - BioPerl wrappers: modules
libbio-samtools-perl - Perl interface to SamTools library for DNA sequencing
libbiojava-java - Java API to biological data and applications (default version)
libbiojava3-java - Java API to biological data and applications (default version)
python-biopython-sql - Biopython support for the BioSQL database schema
libbtlib-perl - library for basic sequence manipulation

# sudo apt-get install bioperl

If it is installed then flash the following message:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
bioperl is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.

In it is found not installed in your server or system them install all with dependencies.

You can use the same approach to install all the modules, and packages if required.

Thanks for reading. Best of luck for your research.

1. Cancer Genomics

2. Microbial Genetics and Metagenomics

3. Human Infective Diseases

4. Computational Drug Design

Interested candidates may apply to Dr. Ranjith N. Kumavath, Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Genomic Science, School of Biological Sciences, Central University of Kerala, Padannakad (PO), Nileshwar, Kasaragod-671328,Kerala. Email: RNkumavath@gmail.com

I google it and found that Strawberry comes with additional dev tools to compile CPAN modules if necessary. Whereas ActivePerl has a lot of prepackaged modules which are easier to install with PPM. In addition, DWIM Perl contains the standard Perl and a lot of extension and Citrus Perl is a binary distribution of Perl created for GUI application developers. 

Now, I wonder what should I pick to get started? 

Note: I am going to use BioPerl in near future.

http://dwimperl.com/

http://www.activestate.com/activeperl

http://www.citrusperl.com/

http://strawberryperl.com/

Applications are invited for the position of Senior Research Fellow for the following time-bound sponsored project as per the details given below:

1. BTIS project on, “Bioinformatics Center-National Infrastructural Facility in the Area of Immunology” funded by DBT

Senior Research Fellow (P) (One Position only)

Dr. Debasisa Mohanty
Staff Scientist-VI
deb@nii.res.in

Qualifications: M.Sc in Biological Sciences or Biotechnology with at least 04 years of Research experience in Bioinformatics or computational Biology after the master’s degree is essential.

Emoluments: The selected candidates will draw consolidated emoluments as per Institute Rules, depending upon qualifications & experience

Rs. 18,000/- per month consolidated plus 30% HRA if Leading to Ph.D/NET/GATE Qualified otherwise Rs. 14,000/- per month + 30% HRA.

Job description: The candidate should be well versed in programming in PERL/C++/HTML/CGI, web server and portal development, computational analysis of
protein structure & function, molecular dynamics simulations and use of high performance computing systems.

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS:-

1. The candidates selected for the above posts will be on contract for one year or duration of the project whichever is shorter, at a time.
2. No hostel/ housing facility will be provided.
3. Number of posts may vary and shall be need based. Advertisement is no commitment.
4. Applicants may clearly mention the category they belong to i.e. SC/ST/OBC/PH and attach documentary proof of the same.
5. No TA/DA will be paid for attending the interview, if called for.
6. Apart from sending application in the prescribed format given below, candidates should send complete Curriculum Vitae along with the names of three referees. Curriculum Vitae should contain details of the experimental expertise.

HOW TO APPLY Interested candidates may apply directly, STRICTLY IN THE PRESCRIBED FORMAT GIVEN BELOW, through e-mail, to the Investigator of the project, clearly indicating the name of the project along with their complete C.V., e-mail id, fax numbers, telephone numbers. Only Short listed candidates will be called for interview and they required to submit attested copies of all their certificates and a Demand Draft of Rs 100/- drawn on Canara Bank or Indian Bank payable at Delhi/New Delhi in favour of the Director, NII (SC / ST and PH candidates are exempted subject to submission of documentary proof), at the time of interview.

LAST DATE OF RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS: 06th June, 2014

Advertisement

www1.nii.res.in/sites/default/files/projectappointment-Dr.Mohanty-6June2014.pdf

Followings are the quick way to check if a value exist in an array.

do_something if 'flour' ~~ @ingredients   # ~~ operand.   BEWARE: it is broken.

do_something if grep {$_ eq 'flour'} @ingredients # grep (slower than 'any')

do_something if any {$_ eq 'flour'} @ingredients # List::MoreUtils / Util::Any

do_something if any(@ingredients) eq 'flour'   # use syntax 'junction';

do_something if @ingredients->contains('flour')   # added with autobox