Question about summer research

[addy]

For those of you who are doing or have been able to do 'substantial [bench] research' between M1 and M2---

Did you have significant research experience before hand?

I spoke with a bunch of PI's and none of them were particularly stoked about having me in the lab once I told them that I would need to be retrained in some of the basic lab techniques. Is it possible to learn the basic lab techniques over the summer and still produce some meaningful results over the summer?

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[koan]

Why not get involved in clinical research instead? Shorter learning curve, faster turnaround to publishing and usually some exposure to different parts of the hospital and real live (hopefully, unless you're doing path research lol) patients.

 

[addy]

Why not get involved in clinical research instead? Shorter learning curve, faster turnaround to publishing and usually some exposure to different parts of the hospital and real live (hopefully, unless you're doing path research lol) patients.

Well, I'd like to pursue academic medicine and it seems to me that basic science is perceived with more weight than chart reviews/case reports. Either way, I have some research interests now that lends to basic science as opposed to UG where I hated it because I had no 'big picture' view in what I was doing.

 

[addy]

With regards to what I said above, is it true that to pursue academic medicine you need bench research?

I found this document from Keck SOM---

www.surgery.usc.edu/clerkship/gsurg.pdf

It states: "Basic science research is always preferred over clinical research. Most important is to actually present your research and publish it. "

 

[addy]

bump?

 

[yehhhboiii]

you have ten weeks at the max. how much data do you think you can generate in that short time? if they have to teach you how to do things then you have even less

 

[Donald Juan]

2 things: don't expect to produce "meaningful" results over one summer, and don't go to a lab where the PI is going to be reluctant about refreshing you on lab techniques. You've been doing med school for the past year, of course you would need refreshing

 

[HatWobble]

With regards to what I said above, is it true that to pursue academic medicine you need bench research?

What do you mean by "pursue academic medicine?"

 

[addy]

What do you mean by "pursue academic medicine?"

Professor at an institution with some weight behind my name haha. I'm just wondering if you need to have bench work creds even if you plan on being a clinical academic in the future. A lot of surgical residents in their research years do bench work, too....

 

[HatWobble]

Professor at an institution with some weight behind my name haha. I'm just wondering if you need to have bench work creds even if you plan on being a clinical academic in the future. A lot of surgical residents in their research years do bench work, too....

Right. Being a professor is in the distant future. Sounds like step one is getting a surgery residency. So your goal in mind should be to maximize your attractiveness to residency programs, which means getting nice things to list on your ERAS. High-yield is the idea, here, since you're not going to have much free time during the year, unless you're really gung-ho about this research stuff.

If you wanna bust out some research quickly in your M1-M2 summer, then clinical research is the way to go, as the timeline is much faster. If you have no qualms about sticking with a project during M2 and even onwards, then yeah, getting a basic research gig would be nice, especially if that's the kind of research you enjoy. Running gels ain't for me, personally.

I'd say more importantly is to pick a research project that you're actually going to want to do. Are you going to devote the one hour of free time you have between when you finish studying at 10pm and bedtime to it, or will you watch Netflix instead because your project is boring?

I read that Keck PDF you linked too, and it sounded a bit over the top. Maybe I'm just naive, though.

 

[addy]

Right. Being a professor is in the distant future. Sounds like step one is getting a surgery residency. So your goal in mind should be to maximize your attractiveness to residency programs, which means getting nice things to list on your ERAS. High-yield is the idea, here, since you're not going to have much free time during the year, unless you're really gung-ho about this research stuff.

If you wanna bust out some research quickly in your M1-M2 summer, then clinical research is the way to go, as the timeline is much faster. If you have no qualms about sticking with a project during M2 and even onwards, then yeah, getting a basic research gig would be nice, especially if that's the kind of research you enjoy. Running gels ain't for me, personally.

I'd say more importantly is to pick a research project that you're actually going to want to do. Are you going to devote the one hour of free time you have between when you finish studying at 10pm and bedtime to it, or will you watch Netflix instead because your project is boring?

I read that Keck PDF you linked too, and it sounded a bit over the top. Maybe I'm just naive, though.

Thank you! I thought so too. That's what I was worried about mostly.

 

[evilbooyaa]

You're not going to get anything done in 10 weeks in basic science that is going to get a poster or a pub. Do a clinical project in 10 weeks (one that your PI just needs someone to do chart review on) and you'll hopefully get a poster/abstract out of it.

 

[911 Turbo]

There's breaks between M1, 2, 3 and 4? Why not just cut out the breaks and be done one year earlier?

 

[FutureDO2016]

I'm doing a summer project as part of a summer research fellowship and my school expects me to make a poster presentation. How can I also get published?

 

[evilbooyaa]

There's breaks between M1, 2, 3 and 4? Why not just cut out the breaks and be done one year earlier?

Legit Break between MS1 and MS2. MS2 to MS3 break (~4-6 weeks depending on school) is pretty much dedicated Step I time. Almost no break (2 weeks for my school) between MS3 and MS4.

 

[JJMrK]

I'm doing a summer project as part of a summer research fellowship and my school expects me to make a poster presentation. How can I also get published?

1) Talk to your PI and figure out if your project is fairly low-impact or likely to be published if submitted somewhere.

2) Write the manuscript.

3) Submit to a journal you/your PI thinks is likely to accept.

4) Revise as necessary.

5) Re-submit elsewhere if rejected.

 

[FutureDO2016]

Thanks I will look into those steps to getting published!