About Scientist in Progress
A resource for life scientists written by a working PhD scientist.
What this site is
Scientist in Progress is a resource for researchers, PhD students, and life science professionals navigating an ever-expanding landscape of tools, platforms, courses, and career paths. The content spans wet lab science and bioinformatics through to clinical research, diagnostics, and career development across the life sciences.
Our goal is to cut through the noise — to give researchers and practitioners something they can actually act on. Every review, tutorial, and comparison on this site is written by someone who has run the pipelines, used the platforms, and worked in the field. The bar is accuracy, not volume.
Who this is for
This site is written for people doing real scientific work who need reliable signal, not the noise of hype. Specifically:
- PhD students and postdocs navigating tool choices, skill gaps, and the transition to industry
- Wet lab researchers moving into computational work and learning the landscape
- Bioinformaticians evaluating pipelines, platforms, and learning resources
- Clinical researchers and diagnostics professionals tracking developments in life science tooling
If you're trying to do better science or build a better career in science, this is for you.
What you'll find here
The site covers six areas. Tool Reviews are in-depth assessments of bioinformatics software, lab management platforms, and research tools. Courses covers honest evaluations of learning resources across Coursera, DataCamp, Udemy, and similar platforms. Tutorials are step-by-step guides for real workflows, from GATK pipelines to scRNA-seq analysis in R. Career provides practical guidance on landing industry roles, navigating the PhD, and transitioning between disciplines. News covers notable developments in life science tooling and research infrastructure. Research covers high-impact papers in life sciences — what was published, why it matters, and what it means for scientists and patients.
Affiliate disclosure
This site contains affiliate links. When you purchase through these links, a small commission may be earned at no extra cost to you. That revenue is what keeps the site running and the content free.
Affiliate relationships do not influence editorial decisions. Tools with serious drawbacks have those drawbacks described clearly, regardless of whether they pay a commission. Several of the most-referenced tools on this site (open-source tools like Nextflow, Snakemake, GATK) pay nothing. They're recommended because they're the right tools. Read the full affiliate disclosure policy.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or collaboration enquiries: thescientistinprogress@gmail.com.
If you find a technical error in any post, please flag it. Accuracy is the whole point.