irst on any researcher's mind." What will be first, he says, "is getting the right tool set together to answer the question at hand."
Assembling the tool set
No university offers a graduate training program in metagenomics per se; instead, just as molecular biology has been incorporated into many disciplines, metagenomics is also being added to a wide range of fields. Those seeking training in metagenomics should search for an ideal research adviser -- in whatever field they're most interested in -- working in an excellent environment. The best training programs have several faculty members who are involved in metagenomics research, in different disciplines.
Metagenomics research requires deep disciplinary training in microbiology -- with particular focus on molecular biology, systems biology, and genomics -- and expertise in bioinformatics and statistics. Computer skills are likely to be especially marketable as sequencing technologies advance. The third generation of sequencers, expected soon, will increase the rate of data collection, putting computing even further behind than it already is, predicts microbiologist Julian Marchesi of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. "It is definitely a barrier, and if I were looking to employ someone, it would be an advantage if they were able to write code for a computer to aid in processing the DNA data being processed."
Although keeping abreast of rapidly evolving sequencing technology is critical to doing metagenomic research, it's even more important to be able to ask rigorous questions; in other words, you need a strong disciplinary grounding. Ravel says, "I tell my grad students that you have to be a good bench scientist first, and if you can combine the bioinformatics and the biology, your chance of getting a job is already twice as much."
The job market
Compared with other academic life-science fields, the metagenomics job market already looks strong, but it's impossible to quantify -- and too soon to know what the future holds, says Matthew Kane, director of ecosystem science in the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Division of Environmental Biology. "Metagenomics is a term that was known only to microbial ecologists until about 5 years ago, so I think we're still on the cusp of the big impact." He compares the field's current state to the early days of bioinformatics: In the 1980s, he says, bioinformatics skills were seen to be useful but "you couldn't point to all kinds of people getting jobs in bioinformatics. Today, people who are at the intersection of computer science and biology are very competitive in the job market."
Wooley is more bullish. Scientists with metagenomics skills, he says, are in demand in a wide range of settings: microbiology and bioinformatics departments; medical schools; the bioenergy, biotech, food, and agricultural industries; national labs (including Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, and Oak Ridge); and major sequencing centers (DOE's Joint Genome Institute; the J. Craig Venter Institute; the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University; the Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis; and the Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center).
The strongest candidates for those jobs, Wooley says, will know something about several aspects of their field, they'll know statistics and microbiology, and they'll be prepared to make a strong contribution in a specific area of inquiry, such as population evolution, protein diversity, species diversity, or understanding pathways and networks in microbes.
A sense of adventure
In addition, succeeding in metagenomic research requires a certain mindset. "You have to be able to stand back and observe the pattern and how all the pieces fit together," says Sharlene Weatherwax, director of the Department of Energy Office of Science's Biological Systems Science Division. That way of looking at science isn't for everyone, Weatherwax says. "Not everyone wants to do a jigsaw puzzle."
It also helps to be comfortable with not knowing, 