Best research experience to have as an undergrad?

[Macromind101]

I was wondering, for an undergraduate student who is planning on applying to MD-PhD programs, what kind of research experience is best to have as an undergrad. I know that as an MD-PhD hopeful, research experience is the most important extracurricular but I was wondering what kind is best. I was debating between clinical research and basic research.

I initially thought that clinical research was the best to have because it combines hospital experience and research which is what I thought that a good portion of MD-PhD holders do: a combination of clinical work and scientific research. But then I started asking people and a majority of them told me that MD-PhD holders mostly do basic science research as the research part of their career. They also told me that it's much better to have an extremely serious and hardcore research position rather than a lax position. At the university that I'm about to attend, there is a clinical research program at the campus hospital that I was planning on applying for. Since I have both hospital volunteering experience and bench lab research experience from my summer internship, I think that I have a pretty good chance of getting the clinical research position and doing well in it. For basic science research, on the other hand, I still have yet to find an opportunity that works with my schedule.

So I was wondering which type of research you guys would say is best for an MD-PhD candidate: basic science research or clinical research. In my case, if I am successful in obtaining an MD-PhD dual degree, then I would probably do neuroscience/neurobiology research on the side of my physician career. In my first year at college, the clinical research position is probably more within my reach and if I am successful in getting it, then I hope to do it all four years in which I am in undergrad. But I was also wondering if it's possible to double-down on research beginning sometime in the summer of my sophomore year or the beginning of my junior year by emailing one of the professors that I had for class and asking to work in his lab (hopefully one of my neuroscience professors). If I do pursue the latter, then that would be basic science research.

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[ratherbefishing]

I think he better question is what kind of research do YOU want to do. If you like clinical research, then you should do that. Along these lines, if you want to do clinical research you probably don't need the PhD. Most people who do MD PhD want to do basic science research as the primary focus of their career (at least going into the program; for various reasons people may wind up doing less than 50% research).

 

[Patros]

Broadly speaking, MD-PhD programs are meant for basic science training, meaning laboratory (bench or computational) work. Most clinical research does not require PhD-level training; research-oriented MD students get involved in clinical research in the summers or at most, spend 1 extra year doing a fellowship. So the question to ask yourself is: why MD-PhD? When you say "research," what do you have in mind? Drug trials, outcomes of new healthcare practices, prevalence of diseases, etc? Or molecular genetics, biochemistry, etc? An MD-only is likely best for the former (maybe an additional master's degree at most), and a MD-PhD is better for the latter.

To answer your question, a productive experience in a basic science lab would be better for MD-PhD, "hardcore" if you will. This is generally a 2-3 year long commitment for around 20ish hours a week. I imagine a clinical research gig would be helpful to your resume, but I've never met a MD-PhD student who did not have lab experience.

@Fencer is a successful neurologist and neuroscientist, his input will be invaluable.

 

[URHere]

A term you'll hear a lot in MD/PhD circles is "translational medicine/research". The major goal of translational research is to observe some phenomenon or problem in the medical field, take that problem into the lab to try to understand or fix it, and ultimately provide insight to clinicians who can then change the way they care for patients.

Although not all MD/PhD graduates do that sort of work, most programs are interested in training students who could.

If you only have clinical research experience, you only understand half of the picture - you can detect the problem, but probably not fix it (or you can test an intervention, but probably not completely understand why it does or doesn't work). As others have said, clinical research really doesn't require a PhD, so you'll have a hard time convincing MD/PhD programs that you genuinely want the PhD (for reasons other than free tuition or prestige). Ultimately, you can think about it like this: medical school will teach you the clinical side while the PhD teaches you the experimental/basic science side. If you want to be accepted to MD/PhD programs, you should show them that you are committed to both of those things. In my opinion, you'll need at least 2-3 years of basic science research.

 

[Fencer]

You should pursue bench research, which will make you a stronger candidate for MD/PhD programs. Having said that, if your core interest is to pursue clinical research, you will need to work at it for a bit longer to be able to produce a presentation or a manuscript. Humans as subjects have independence and can easily drop out of the experiment all together as compared to bench research, where you have greater control of variables. You goal as an undergraduate student pursuing neuroscience research is to present a poster at SFN. You might be lucky and get a publication or two if you follow the previously stated goal. From the standpoint of shadowing, we are not looking for more than 100 hours of physician shadowing.

 

[Noctámbulo]

@Fencer, what are your thoughts regarding the undergraduate research symposium at SfN?

 

[Fencer]

Undergraduate students who are: a) MD/PhD applicants with competitive scores and academic achievements and b) who present at this symposium, typically are among the ~ 42% who are admitted. I attend the SFN graduate fair and every one of the applicants presenting that I recall meeting in the past 2-3 years were admitted into MD/PhD programs. Just as this SFN activity, there are other similar large national conferences in other fields.