Hi! I'm Tommy Tang
I am a computational biologist with six years of wet lab experience and over 12 years of computation experience. I will help you to learn computational skills to tame astronomical data and derive insights. Check out the resources I offer below and sign up for my newsletter!
R, Python, or Unix? The Bioinformatics Toolkit You Need
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Whether you're just starting or deep into bioinformatics, one question always looms large:Which tools should you master first? R vs Python: Which Should You Learn? Many beginners ask me this, and honestly, the answer depends on your needs. Let me share my journey: I started learning Unix commands over a decade ago, followed by Python through Python for Absolute Beginners. While Python taught me programming fundamentals (like print("hello world")), it wasn’t...
It's here! end to end tutorial to replicate a genomics figure
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Ten days into 2025, how are you executing your goals? I am committed to posting a long-form post every day in 2025. Below you can find the links to the posts from the past week. I promised to write an end-to-end tutorial to replicate a genomics figure during the holidays. It is now here! https://crazyhottommy.github.io/reproduce_genomics_paper_figures/ If you are curious about what I used to make the website, it is workflowr https://github.com/workflowr/workflowr....
How to achieve your New year's goal to learn bioinformatics?
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Happy New Year! It is 2025 already. That means it is time to set up your goals. To achieve your goals, this is the framework: Eliminate the distractions, take actions, find an efficient way to do it, maintain the efficiency So, you need to get rid of the distractions and take action Now! For example, I have told you many times to build yourself a website to showcase your bioinformatics portfolio. How many of you have done that? (Thanks to those who sent me your...
Building Your Bioinformatics Journey, One Step at a Time
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoyed this time reflect on your learning in 2024 and have a plan for 2025. No skyscraper is built in a day. It takes careful planning, hard work, and the efforts of countless workers, floor by floor. Learning bioinformatics—or any skill—follows the same principle. Be eager to take action, but be patient with the results. Mastery often requires years of consistent practice. Take Unix skills, for example. It's an essential tool for...
The blueprint of reproducing a genomics paper figure
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Happy Holidays! We had a big snow in Boston. Early in the morning, my in-law told me our neighbor was helping us to remove the snow using a gas snow blower. I went out and said thanks. He told me that he liked helping others. I can tell the pure JOY from his words. Helping others is helping yourself. “Giving roses to others leaves fragrance on your hands.” Enough for the life-lessons :) How are you going to spend the holidays? For me, I am writing the end-to-end...
Good to great bioinformatician, how?
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Holidays are here! I hope you get some rest and recharge during the break! How can one become a great bioinformatician? I know many of you are beginners. If you want to know how to start, please read this blog post: My opinionated selection of books/urls for bioinformatics/data science curriculum. In summary, you need to learn Unix commands and R/python languages. Those are the basic skills you need to have first. But let's suppose you already know the basics,...
How to learn bioinformatics or any skills in life
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Christmas is at the corner. Are you starting to decorate your home? It is a perfect time to reflect on your 2024 and ask good questions about what you want to achieve in 2025. Today, I will lay out my framework for learning bioinformatics or any skills in life. Step 1: Documentation Read books, take courses, and ferociously take notes. See here for a list of books and courses I recommend...
up-level your bioinformatics skill: A leap in thinking about repetition
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, Happy Thanksgiving! I promise you will learn something about bioinformatics in the end :) But I want to ask this first: What are you thankful for? I am grateful for all the people who have supported me in my career; and also for the setbacks and failures that have taught me invaluable lessons. Most importantly, I am thankful to YOU, the reader of this newsletter. I started this newsletter to share the hard-learned experience and tips of my bioinformatics learning...
The number 1 tip for bioinformatics job seekers
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, This is Tommy. My 2-year-old Anna was begging me to read Peppa Pig stories to her. It is a little late for today's newsletter. Today, we are going to talk about my #1 tip for bioinformatics job seekers: Build your own website! Why? If people can not find you online, you do not exist. According to Yihui Xie, the author of Rmarkdown and many other awesome tools: You can include many other things that are not on your CV, such as invited talks and blog posts. Blog...
How to keep up with the fast advancing bioinformatics field
Hello Bioinformatics lovers, I have spent the last week at EMBL, Germany attending a panel discussion about data science training in industry. My first time to be at EMBL Heidelberg is beautiful Panel discussion We were asked this question: How do you ensure that what you learn does not become obsolete in 5-10 years? For example, single-cell RNAseq technology is advancing so fast that the commands may become obsolete in 1-2 years. Should you worry? This is my answer. Focus on things that do...
I am a computational biologist with six years of wet lab experience and over 12 years of computation experience. I will help you to learn computational skills to tame astronomical data and derive insights. Check out the resources I offer below and sign up for my newsletter!