Genetics msc - non science background (archaeology and economics)

Durz0 Blint

Hi everyone

I,m currently finishing my second year studying economics and archaeology in UCD with another year to go after that. I'm extremely interested in archaeology and would love to do academic research. However, despite my strong grades (I believe I am top of my class in both subjects - 4.2 gpa in economics and 3.9 in archaeology) I am put off doing an MA in archaeology due to the poor job prospects.

I have been reading into research into ancient dna studies (archaeogenetics) and have seen several interesting talks from post-doctoral students in UCD doing research in the field, and it is an area of research I am interested in and one I feel would give me decent job prospects in the (likely) chance I don't manage to secure work in academia.

I am wondering if anyone knows of any colleges (it can be outside Ireland) where it would be possible to take a masters in genetics having not done a BSC - with possibly an extra year to pick up the required skills. I have taken classes in mathematics and statistics and have 2 years previous experience previously studying computer science, which i have been told are useful for population genetics. I have been researching academics in this area and unsurprisingly they mostly come from biology backgrounds although I have found a few with anthropology backgrounds that did their masters in genetics which gives me some hope.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Stoneking

I would love to find out more about this area (maybe start getting some lab experience to see what its really like) and if it would be feasible to do a masters in it.

Any advice on how to make this transition would be greatly appreciated.

All the best

Durz0

J.O. Farmer

I don't know of any particular masters but given that you have done some computer science and you want to look at population genetics and presumably how they have changed over time would bioinformatics be more suited to you.

Durz0 Blint

Thank you, I will look into it

Do you know any good textbooks to get started with?

anto3473

Look at the NCBI website you will be using this quite a lot if you are doing anything genetics related.

As regards textbooks I would highly recommend Molecular Cell Biology by Lodish since you do not have a biology background. Its a great core biology textbook that goes into quite a bit of detail on a wide range of topics. Its a very useful quick reference guide and well worth buying. Skim through it and try to gain a basic understanding of chapters before actually trying to read it though it's pretty dense reading material.

An older version is also available free online, the national institute of health consider is a core textbook, and my college library had several reference copies that could never be removed from the library: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21475/

As for the bioinformatics, its not my thing so I have no idea about texts for that.

lockman

Arthur M. Lesk's Introduction to Bioinformatics is a very comprehensive and highly readable introduction to the area.

Durz0 Blint

Thanks everyone. I have been into the trinity genetics department inquiring about doing a masters and they have been very helpful (I was even offered a few weeks of work in there). Fingers crossed they consider me as I really enjoyed my visit there.

Would anyone know what their reputation would be internationally for genetics?

Also what are the job prospects like at the moment. Obviously they are a lot better than in archaeology, but are there many jobs available for someone with a genetics masters?

robp

Durz0 Blint wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I have been into the trinity genetics department inquiring about doing a masters and they have been very helpful (I was even offered a few weeks of work in there). Fingers crossed they consider me as I really enjoyed my visit there.

Would anyone know what their reputation would be internationally for genetics?

Also what are the job prospects like at the moment. Obviously they are a lot better than in archaeology, but are there many jobs available for someone with a genetics masters?

Quite a few people well known scientists have made this exact transition. TCD are relatively solid for genetics.

lorimc

Yes Smurfit Institute in Trinity would be very well regarded. Dan Bradley seems to be really excellent in this field. I went to talk he gave recently and have heard talks from his students and they were all very interesting. They use modern biological methods such as next gen sequencing but combine that will anthropology to get the story behind the evolution.

Durz0 Blint

I'm currently in my second week of my internship and loving it (the potential of aDna research in archaeology is mind-blowing and hugely underutilized). Not sure if I would be considered suitable for a research degree at the moment as I have so much to learn and I worry about being overwhelmed (so far so good). Maybe a taught msc but I can't find any.