I'm currently in my fifth year of my PhD in a molecular biology lab, and I have since last year decided to transition to computational biology field.
My advisor is very much into molecular biology and wasn't happy about my transition. We have fundamental differences in research approaches and he would always force his idea on me. He constantly threatened me not to sign my thesis or to refuse to write a recommendation letter if I don't do exactly as he says. And at this point, I'm just trying to survive grad school, but I'm wondering about the possibility of not having him in my reference list as I don't expect his letter to be very helpful.
My advisor is not very well-known in our field, let alone in any field related to computational biology. Currently I'm trying to improve my programming skills and at the same time fulfill my phd task. I'm thinking that perhaps I can try asking for references from our lab collaborators, my committee or other professors in our department who are much more aquainted in bioinformatics field.
Any suggestions?