Story about me

The Beginning🤨

I graduated from Shandong Agricultural University. After one year of study, with the help of Prof. Aijun QU and Prof. Fangqiang ZHENG, I got a chance for 2-year joint education at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science. At first, my job entailed doing basic ecological and molecular experiments (e.g., raising cotton bollworms to detect Cry1Ac toxin resistance; DNA/RNA exaction; RT-PCR). Until December 2017, I received a 15-sample RNA-Seq analysis project from my senior fellow, and then I began self-learning RNA-Seq analysis (without reference genome).

It is never a smooth ride. As the only bioinformatics learner in my lab, I have no programming background, no concept about NGS, no computing resources, etc. But what I have is patience and perseverance. I started by learning NGS sequencing development and knew how the raw data was produced. I read R and Shell tutorials to learn how to program. Thanks to Bioconductor for providing helpful vignettes about RNA-Seq downstream analysis and visualization. At last, the study was completed in 40 days, and I made my first heatmap using codes (I still remember the exciting moment)!

Move on🧐

I found the love of diving into the bioinformatics field from then on. At such a moment, I felt that I was a magician and could help others to turn a fussy file into a fancy figure. On June 21, 2019, I graduated with a master’s degree with a dissertation on Helicoverpa armigera RNA-Seq analysis.

From June to December 2019, I worked in Jimmy’s company (JM Bio) in Zhuhai, of course, with my girlfriend Xiaojie (she is the R programming lecturer). I focused on single-cell analysis and kept track of the development in this cutting-edge field.

On Jan 10, 2020, I applied for a research assistant at the University of Macau, focusing on epigenomics (ChIP-Seq + RNA-Seq) while pursuing a doctorate. I gained experience handling the RNA-Seq (with or without reference genome), ChIP-Seq, scRNA analysis, and public database use like GEO and TCGA. Also, I have a great interest in WES, microarray, and ATAC-Seq.

Currently, I am pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with a focus on multi-omics analysis, as well as web tool and database development.

Care & Share🤓

I care much about open bioinformatics communication and sharing community according to my own learning curve. I frequently share my ideas, tips, and knowledge on my Jianshu Web (started on 2018.6.5). For now, I have written 350+ articles and over 700,000+ words. But unfortunately, due to the improper management of Jianshu, I have to give up this platform with mixed feelings.

To record our learning progress, my girlfriend (Xiao Jie) and I (Yunze) started the Wechat Official Account “ 生信星球"(Bioinfoplanet) on May 11, 2018, and that is why my website’s domain is called “jieandze1314”. Now, she is my wife. Hand in hand, till growing old with you.

We insist on publishing nearly every day to our 24,000+ followers and know how hard to step into the bioinformatics palace. To better spread the bioinformatics skills, we have hosted 140+ online trainings for almost 1000 newbs and met lots of hard-working and lovely trainees. Their favorable comments also make us feel more responsible and happy. ( comment1, comment2, comment3)

Stay hungry, stay foolish.