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Bioinformatics Technicians

Apply principles and methods of bioinformatics to assist scientists in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, computational biology, proteomics, computer information science, biology and medical informatics. Apply bioinformatics tools to visualize, analyze, manipulate or interpret molecular data. May build and maintain databases for processing and analyzing genomic or other biological information.

$81,490 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).

now
17%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 97%
  • 3%
  • 0%
48%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
November 2027

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 97% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 12%. Today's estimate: 17%.

0%5%10%15%20%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 0% within reacho3, April 2025: 1% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 1% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 2% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 2% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 3% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 3% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 12% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 17% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

The tasks

Sorted by . 19 tasks from .

TaskKind
Develop or maintain applications that process biologically based data into searchable databases for purposes of analysis, calculation, or presentation.Done several times a day by most who do it. AI observed on this task.23%2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.7 work weeks1%Half by Sep 2028
Analyze or manipulate bioinformatics data using software packages, statistical applications, or data mining techniques.Done more than weekly by most who do it. 13%3.3 h1.3 h to 1.7 work days27%Half by Mar 2027
Extend existing software programs, web-based interactive tools, or database queries as sequence management and analysis needs evolve.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task.11%6.7 h1.7 h to 3.3 work days7%Half by Nov 2027
Design or implement web-based tools for querying large-scale biological databases.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task.9%4.2 work days6.7 h to 3.3 work weeks0%Half by Apr 2029
Develop or apply data mining and machine learning algorithms.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task.8%2.1 work days3.3 h to 1.7 work weeks1%Half by Sep 2028
Participate in the preparation of reports or scientific publications.Done more than yearly by most who do it. 7%6.7 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days9%Half by Jul 2027
Write computer programs or scripts to be used in querying databases.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task.5%2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h46%Half by Oct 2026
Create data management or error-checking procedures and user manuals.Done more than yearly by most who do it. AI observed on this task.4%5 h1.7 h to 2.1 work days15%Half by Jun 2027
Test new or updated software or tools and provide feedback to developers.Done more than yearly by most who do it. 3%2.5 h50 min to 1 work day40%Half by Dec 2026
Enter or retrieve information from structural databases, protein sequence motif databases, mutation databases, genomic databases or gene expression databases.Done more than yearly by most who do it.2%50 min13 min to 3.3 h69%Half by now
Conduct quality analyses of data inputs and resulting analyses or predictions.Done more than monthly by most who do it. AI observed on this task.2%1.7 h50 min to 6.7 h65%Half by now
Perform routine system administrative functions, such as troubleshooting, back-ups, or upgrades.Done more than weekly by most who do it.2%1.3 h25 min to 4.2 h69%Half by now

Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.

Jobs that share skills with this one

From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

Where this job works

The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.

Where the most of these jobs are

The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.