Top 12 Biochemist Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a strong biochemist resume means broadcasting the blend that matters: rigorous technical chops and the soft skills that keep projects moving. Spotlighting the top 12 biochemist skills signals you can wrestle with complex data, troubleshoot messy experiments, and push research forward without flinching.
Biochemist Skills
- PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
- HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
- Western Blotting
- ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
- CRISPR-Cas9
- Mass Spectrometry
- NMR Spectroscopy (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)
- Flow Cytometry
- Bioinformatics
- Gel Electrophoresis
- Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence)
- RNA-seq
1. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
PCR amplifies specific DNA sequences so you can analyze tiny amounts of genetic material with precision.
Why It's Important
It’s the backbone of molecular biology workflows: rapid, specific DNA amplification for cloning, genotyping, pathogen detection, and countless diagnostics.
How to Improve PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills
Tune the essentials and the signal sharpens.
Primer design: Use reliable tools like Primer3. Aim for 18–24 nt, Tm within a tight window, GC 40–60%, minimal secondary structure or complementarity.
Template integrity: Start with clean, intact DNA. Purify away inhibitors; quantify and standardize input.
Master mix chemistry: Typical starting points: MgCl2 at 1.5–2.5 mM, dNTPs 200 μM each. Adjust gradually.
Annealing temperature: Run a gradient to strike the sweet spot between specificity and yield.
Extension time: Roughly 1 min per 1,000 bp at 72°C for standard polymerases; tweak for high-fidelity enzymes.
Hot-start enzymes: Reduce nonspecific background and primer-dimers.
Cycle number: 25–35 cycles is typical; too many cycles boost artifacts.
Verification: Confirm size and specificity by gel electrophoresis; sequence when it matters.
For deeper troubleshooting, consult comprehensive PCR troubleshooting guides from reputable suppliers or methods books.
How to Display PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills on Your Resume
2. HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
HPLC separates, identifies, and quantifies components in complex mixtures with pressure-driven precision. Proteins, peptides, metabolites—cleanly resolved and measured.
Why It's Important
It’s a workhorse for purity checks, method development, pharmacokinetics, and metabolomics. High sensitivity. High specificity. Reproducibility when tuned well.
How to Improve HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills
Small tweaks, big wins.
Column choice: Match stationary phase, particle size, and dimensions to analyte and matrix. Consider UHPLC for speed and resolution.
Sample prep: Clarify and clean—protein precipitation, SPE, filtration. Compatible solvents prevent peak distortion.
Mobile phase: Optimize pH, ionic strength, and organic modifier. Gradient elution for complexity; isocratic for robustness.
Temperature control: Stable column temperature tightens retention time and peak shape.
Flow rate: Balance resolution and runtime; avoid exceeding column backpressure limits.
System care: Routine maintenance, degassed solvents, clean frits, and guarded columns keep baselines calm.
Method validation: Linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD/LOQ, robustness—documented and defensible.
How to Display HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills on Your Resume
3. Western Blotting
Western blotting resolves proteins by size, transfers them to a membrane, and detects targets with antibodies. Specific. Informative. Familiar.
Why It's Important
It quantifies expression, verifies size shifts, checks post-translational modifications, and confirms target engagement in one clean snapshot.
How to Improve Western Blotting Skills
Load and normalize: Quantify with a robust assay. Prefer total protein normalization or stain-free methods over variable housekeeping proteins.
Gel choice: Pick acrylamide percentage to match your protein’s size. Run conditions that avoid smiling and blown-out bands.
Transfer quality: Choose PVDF or nitrocellulose appropriately; optimize time and current. Wet transfer helps with large proteins.
Blocking and antibodies: Use BSA or milk depending on antibody and target; titrate primary and secondary antibodies. Include proper negative and positive controls.
Detection: Chemiluminescence for sensitivity; fluorescence for multiplexing and linear quantitation.
Strip/reprobe carefully: Gentle stripping maintains integrity for multi-target workflows.
Troubleshoot methodically: High background, weak signal, or nonspecific bands each point to specific fixes—buffer composition, washing stringency, antibody dilution.
Quantitation: Use reliable analysis software such as ImageJ; ensure signals are in the linear range.
How to Display Western Blotting Skills on Your Resume
4. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
ELISA detects and quantifies antigens or antibodies using enzyme-linked detection and a colorimetric or fluorescent readout.
Why It's Important
It’s sensitive, scalable, and quantitative—ideal for biomarkers, cytokines, hormones, and quality control.
How to Improve ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills
Antibody pairing: Validate capture/detection pairs for affinity and specificity. Titrate to the sweet spot.
Blocking: BSA, casein, or serum—optimize to reduce nonspecific binding without masking epitopes.
Washing: Adequate volume, dwell time, and cycles to drop background noise.
Sample handling: Keep within linear range; standardize dilutions and matrices.
Coating conditions: Concentration, buffer, temperature, and time all matter. Consistency is king.
Incubations: Control time and temperature tightly for step-to-step reproducibility.
Substrate choice: TMB for HRP is common; tune development time for signal-to-noise.
Calibration: Verify plate reader performance and run standard curves every time.
Data treatment: Four-parameter logistic fits, replicates, controls, and sound statistics.
How to Display ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills on Your Resume
5. CRISPR-Cas9
CRISPR-Cas9 edits genomes with guide RNA–directed precision, enabling targeted knockouts, insertions, and more.
Why It's Important
It accelerates functional genomics, disease modeling, and therapeutic development—fast iteration, programmable targeting, broad applicability.
How to Improve CRISPR-Cas9 Skills
Guide design: Use high-scoring sgRNAs, avoid off-target motifs, and consider truncated guides for added specificity.
Delivery format: RNP delivery curbs off-targets and improves temporal control; choose viral vectors for hard-to-transfect cells when stable expression is needed.
High-fidelity nucleases: eSpCas9, SpCas9-HF1, HypaCas9, or Cas12a can reduce off-target editing.
Editing modalities: Deploy base editors or prime editors for precise changes without double-strand breaks; leverage CRISPRi/a for modulation without altering sequence.
Temperature and culture conditions: Optimize for cell type and nuclease variant; small tweaks can lift efficiency.
Chemically modified guides: Stabilize sgRNAs and boost activity, especially in primary cells.
Off-target assessment: Validate with targeted sequencing; consider unbiased methods like GUIDE-seq, CIRCLE-seq, or DISCOVER-seq in demanding applications.
How to Display CRISPR-Cas9 Skills on Your Resume
6. Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectrometry identifies and quantifies molecules by their mass-to-charge ratios, revealing composition, structure, and interactions.
Why It's Important
From proteomics to metabolomics, it unlocks pathway mapping, biomarker discovery, and detailed mechanism insights with exquisite sensitivity.
How to Improve Mass Spectrometry Skills
Sample prep: Remove salts and detergents; enrich targets when needed (SPE, immunoaffinity). Clean in, clean out.
Ionization strategy: Match technique to analyte—ESI for peptides/metabolites, MALDI for imaging or high-throughput spots.
Separation upfront: LC-MS or GC-MS improves dynamic range and reduces ion suppression.
Acquisition modes: DIA for comprehensive coverage, PRM/SRM for targeted quant, DDA for identification depth.
Technology add-ons: Consider FAIMS/TIMS to declutter spectra and sharpen selectivity.
Quant approaches: Label-free LFQ or isobaric tags (e.g., TMT) depending on multiplexing and precision needs.
Data analysis: Robust pipelines, stringent FDR control, careful normalization, and transparent reporting.
Maintenance: Routine calibration, clean sources, and monitor performance metrics to keep mass accuracy tight.
How to Display Mass Spectrometry Skills on Your Resume
7. NMR Spectroscopy (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)
NMR interrogates magnetic properties of nuclei (1H, 13C, and others) to reveal structures, dynamics, and interactions of biomolecules in solution or solid state.
Why It's Important
It offers atom-level resolution, native-like conditions, and kinetic/thermodynamic insights that complement crystallography and cryo-EM.
How to Improve NMR Spectroscopy (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Skills
Sample quality: Increase concentration, ensure purity, and use deuterated solvents. Stabilize pH and temperature.
Field homogeneity: Careful shimming transforms resolution; revisit after temperature or sample swaps.
Advanced methods: 2D/3D experiments, non-uniform sampling to cut time, cryoprobes for sensitivity, and DNP for challenging systems.
Processing and analysis: Use reliable software for phasing, baseline correction, referencing, and assignment; automate where it helps but verify.
Hardware choices: Higher field magnets improve dispersion and S/N; match probe selection to nucleus and application.
How to Display NMR Spectroscopy (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Skills on Your Resume
8. Flow Cytometry
Flow cytometry rapidly measures physical and chemical properties of cells or particles in suspension using lasers and detectors. Count, phenotype, sort.
Why It's Important
It dissects complex populations, quantifies expression, and tracks functional responses—indispensable in immunology, oncology, and cell engineering.
How to Improve Flow Cytometry Skills
Sample prep: Keep cells healthy, single, and at 1×10^5–1×10^6 cells/mL. Use viability dyes and DNase if clumping strikes.
Panel design: Minimize spectral overlap. Pick fluorophores by antigen density and instrument lasers/detectors.
Calibration: Daily QC with beads to track alignment and sensitivity; record metrics over time.
Compensation: Proper single-stain controls; check spillover spreading to keep gates clean.
Controls: FMO, isotype (when appropriate), and biological controls increase interpretability.
Analysis discipline: Exclude debris, dead cells, and doublets; document gating strategy. Spectral cytometry? Use unmixing carefully.
How to Display Flow Cytometry Skills on Your Resume
9. Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics applies computation to biological data—sequences, structures, omics—so patterns emerge and hypotheses harden.
Why It's Important
It turns torrents of raw data into answers: gene function, pathways, variant impact, drug targets, and beyond.
How to Improve Bioinformatics Skills
Programming fluency: Get comfortable in Python and R. Data wrangling, stats, visualization, and scripting pipelines.
Core tools: Sequence alignment, motif finding, annotation, enrichment, and structural prediction—know the usual suspects.
Reproducible workflows: Version control with Git, workflow engines like Snakemake or Nextflow, and containers (Docker) to lock environments.
Data stewardship: Solid metadata, FAIR principles, tidy formats, and rigorous QC.
Practice on real datasets: Public repositories supply scale and variety; build end-to-end analyses.
Community and currency: Read the literature, join forums, and keep an eye on evolving methods and benchmarks.
How to Display Bioinformatics Skills on Your Resume
10. Gel Electrophoresis
Gel electrophoresis separates DNA, RNA, or proteins by size and charge using an electric field across a gel matrix.
Why It's Important
It verifies amplicons, checks fragmentation, monitors purification, and supports cloning and expression workflows.
How to Improve Gel Electrophoresis Skills
Gel percentage: Match gel concentration to target sizes—higher for smaller fragments, lower for larger.
Buffers: Pick TAE or TBE (agarose) or appropriate running buffers (PAGE) to balance resolution and heat.
Casting and loading: Fresh solutions, bubble-free gels, and consistent loading with proper dye density.
Voltage and time: Lower voltage improves resolution but takes longer; avoid overheating.
Staining: Use safer alternatives to ethidium bromide when possible; optimize exposure to prevent over-saturation.
Sample care: Protect nucleic acids from nucleases; reduce salts and detergents that distort bands.
Equipment upkeep: Clean electrodes and tanks; replace worn combs and trays.
How to Display Gel Electrophoresis Skills on Your Resume
11. Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence)
Fluorescence microscopy labels and lights up molecules in cells; confocal rejects out-of-focus haze for crisp optical sections. Together, they map structure and dynamics with flair.
Why It's Important
They localize proteins, trace pathways, and track interactions inside living systems—evidence in pixels.
How to Improve Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence) Skills
Resolution and sampling: Match objective NA and pixel size to the Nyquist criterion. Use super-resolution (STED, SIM) when needed.
Signal-to-noise: Choose bright, photostable fluorophores; anti-fade mounting media; minimize background with proper blocking and washing.
Specificity: Validate antibodies; consider FRET, FLIM, or biosensors for interaction and dynamics.
Acquisition settings: Optimize laser power, gain, dwell time, and pinhole size to limit photobleaching without starving the signal.
Spectral challenges: Plan for spectral overlap and apply unmixing when fluorophores crowd.
Post-processing: Deconvolution carefully applied can sharpen images; document all processing.
Maintenance and stability: Clean optics, align regularly, control temperature, and use autofocus to curb drift during time-lapse imaging.
How to Display Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence) Skills on Your Resume
12. RNA-seq
RNA-seq profiles and quantifies RNA molecules across the transcriptome, exposing expression levels, isoforms, and editing events.
Why It's Important
It reveals gene regulation under changing conditions, maps pathways, and informs biomarkers and mechanisms of disease.
How to Improve RNA-seq Skills
RNA integrity: Use clean isolation methods, protect from RNases, and verify RIN scores before committing to library prep.
Library strategy: Pick poly(A) selection vs rRNA depletion appropriately; strand-specific kits maintain orientation; UMIs reduce PCR bias; single-cell approaches unlock heterogeneity.
Depth and design: Match read depth to goals—often 20–30M reads per sample for standard differential expression; more for splice-aware or low-abundance targets. Replicates beat extra depth for DE power.
QC and preprocessing: Run quality checks, trim adapters, and filter low-quality bases.
Alignment and quantification: Use fast, accurate aligners or pseudoalignment tools; quantify at gene or transcript level with robust annotation.
Normalization and stats: Apply methods like DESeq2 or edgeR; correct batch effects; control FDR; visualize with PCA and MA plots.
Validation: Confirm key hits with qRT-PCR or orthogonal assays.
Common tools and guidelines to know (no external links included): TRIzol, Illumina TruSeq stranded kits, ENCODE RNA-seq standards, FastQC and MultiQC for QC, Trim Galore for trimming, STAR or HISAT2 for alignment, Salmon or Kallisto for quantification, featureCounts for counting, DESeq2 and edgeR for differential expression, and MIQE guidance for qPCR validation.
How to Display RNA-seq Skills on Your Resume
