PhD student with questions regarding long term HF planning

Current PhD student exploring a specific field of HF as a career. My PhD program is in biomedical engineering at a great university. I am almost at the end of year one (four years total), and I am committed to finishing. Prior to starting the PhD, I had strongly been considering VC, but the career progression, compensation structure, and impact seem to be considerably more attractive in HF.

Specific funds I am looking at are RA Capital, RTW, Baker Brothers (very little public info), Deerfield Management, and Orbimed. As a generalization, these funds hire PhDs directly, usually to do equity research. These funds are all specialists in the life sciences and invest at multiple stages of companies (including private in many cases).

Some questions I have are:

1. I have no computational background, but I could integrate this into my thesis. At this stage, the project is mostly hardware and wet lab.

   Could this feasibly set me up for a role as a quant? I have always been good at math, but I think this is probably an entirely different league from my ability. My undergrad was in biotechnology, so not related. Is quant learnable or innate?

   I realize quant trading is entirely different from what the funds I mentioned above do, but I am interested in weighing this path as a completely separate option.
    

2. I am curious about what starting my own life sciences specialist HF would look like and what steps are most important for making it possible. This has important implications on my next career moves.

   I know that starting a HF requires a multiple year investment track record, a strong network of potential LPs, and good market timing. I'll be 26 when I finish my PhD, and I'll want to start my own fund as young as possible when the timing is right.
   
   With that goal in mind, what is the most reasonable career move for when I graduate my PhD? I have read that consulting and IB are popular segues into HF, but given my position and goals I think it would be better to go directly to a HF. 

3. When I do go to a HF, should I target the specialists I mentioned above, or am I better served at a MM where a bigger brand could make me more attractive to LPs later on?
    
4. If I go directly to a HF, should I expect to be put on the sell side (equity research), or is a buy side role achievable out of the gate? Are there things I can do before finishing my PhD that would make this more possible (e.g. HF internship or some way to demonstrate an investing track record)?

Apologies for the long and specific post. Any insight is welcome