[nvn1]

Coming from having done a Bioinformatics PhD and Post-Doc, I reckon getting in touch speculatively with people in Bioinformatics should work. You might get a lot of knock-backs but there's definitely a need for people with IT skills and a genuine interest in Biology. I'd also say that a strong grounding in statistics would be the biggest selling point - probably greater than a knowledge of biology. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

[stevenbedrick]

I'll second the "strong grounding in statistics" point. Most computational bioinformatics ultimately boils down to statistics in some form or another...