Jobs / Science and research / 19-1029.01
Bioinformatics Scientists
Conduct research using bioinformatics theory and methods in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. May design databases and develop algorithms for processing and analyzing genomic information, or other biological information.
- US jobs
- 55,850 (SOC 19-1029 group, "Biological Scientists, All Other")
- Median wage
- $98,920 a year
- Job family
- Science and research
Can agents do the work of bioinformatics scientists?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Science and research:
- Task levelPartialThin evidence. CORE-Bench asks agents to reproduce the results of published papers in computer science, social science, and medicine from the authors' code and data. Princeton's HAL team declared it solved in December 2025: Claude Code with Claude Opus 4.5 scored 95.5% after manual regrading. No benchmark in our collection tests new experiments or lab work.
- Project levelNot yetThin evidence. On PaperBench, where agents replicate machine learning papers from scratch, the best official result is 26.0% (o1, April 2025). On a small subset, ML PhDs scored 41.4% against o1's 26.6%. No newer official results exist, and no benchmark tests research projects in other sciences.
Benchmarks for this occupation
- 95.5%Claude Code + Claude Opus 4.5 (after manual regrading) · 3 Dec 2025Solved
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in science and research, not always this occupation's tasks.
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Consult with researchers to analyze problems, recommend technology-based solutions, or determine computational strategies.
- Provide statistical and computational tools for biologically based activities, such as genetic analysis, measurement of gene expression, or gene function determination.
- Analyze large molecular datasets, such as raw microarray data, genomic sequence data, or proteomics data, for clinical or basic research purposes.
- Create novel computational approaches and analytical tools as required by research goals.
- Compile data for use in activities, such as gene expression profiling, genome annotation, or structural bioinformatics.
- Communicate research results through conference presentations, scientific publications, or project reports.
- Test new and updated bioinformatics tools and software.
- Design and apply bioinformatics algorithms including unsupervised and supervised machine learning, dynamic programming, or graphic algorithms.
- Develop new software applications or customize existing applications to meet specific scientific project needs.
- Manipulate publicly accessible, commercial, or proprietary genomic, proteomic, or post-genomic databases.
- Develop data models and databases.
- Keep abreast of new biochemistries, instrumentation, or software by reading scientific literature and attending professional conferences.
Other job titles for this occupation (19)
Bioinformaticist · Bioinformatics Programmer · Bioinformatics Research Associate · Computational Biology Scientist · Research Associate · Research Scientist · Scientist · Bioinformatician · Bioinformatics Associate · Bioinformatics Computer Scientist · Bioinformatics Developer · Bioinformatics Engineer · Bioinformatics Research Scientist · Bioinformatics Research Specialist · Computational Biologist · Data Analyst · Genetics Bioinformatics Analyst · Lab Bioinformatics Analyst (Laboratory Bioinformatics Analyst) · Oncology Bioinformatics Analyst