4. How do you choose the “right” bioinformatics service company/team?

he single most important thing you must do when considering outsourcing your bioinformatics work is to thoroughly vet the bioinformaticians. Think about it: you will be spending thousands of dollars (or more) letting someone who is not local and whom you likely have not met before complete a component of your research project. You need to carefully examine their credentials, related experiences, ask for references, and talk with them about your project - not just the bioinformatics portion, but the entire project - and probe them with questions to determine whether they actually understand what you are saying. You should not agree to have them do the work just because they say they can do it or because they offer a heavily discounted quote. It is true that mistakes made in hiring an outsourcing bioinformatics team are not as bad as those made in hiring a local person on your payroll. However, be aware that hiring a wrong bioinformatics team can not only waste your research funds, but also potentially cause devastating delays in the progress of your project.

There is another reason to thoroughly vet bioinformatics service teams: bioinformatics expertise is in high demand, and bioinformatics training programs all over the nation are having a hard time producing enough qualified bioinformaticians. It is not uncommon for some teams to use underqualified people. I know of more than one institutional sequencing core facility equipped with "bioinformaticians" who are essentially young people with a recently obtained bachelor's degree in biology followed by a few weeks of bioinformatics training. Seriously, you might be better off having your own students do the bioinformatics work than "outsourcing" the work to those kids… I also know of a few local bioinformatics companies headed by young guys who are so inexperienced that they would barely qualify to be assistants to a Lead Bioinformatician at AccuraScience. I have no doubt that over time, these young guys will become more experienced and confident in what they do. But I do have serious doubts about what would come out of a bioinformatics project led by these young guys at their current stage - without oversight by a more senior person.