The ease of learning biology depends on the level of abstraction you're aiming for. I had a summer job working in a proteomics lab during my computer engineering undergrad. My basic background knowledge of the relation between genes and proteins was good enough for me to contribute to published research. Of course you also need to learn the details of whatever experiments you're studying, but that's not too hard to pick up. Basically, progammers don't need to memorize all the amino acids to effectively contribute to bio research. You learn the details of whatever bio niche you're studying, and the rest is problem solving, analyzing and programming.