Clinical research as an undergrad, feasible?

[Skarl]

Hi,

I'm currently an undergrad at university affiliated with a research-heavy medical school. I have been working in a Neuroscience wet lab for ~2 years and looking for a new position as my mentor is leaving to pursue a postdoc in another state. For a while I thought I was going to join a similar lab doing similar things (working with mice, optogenetics, etc.), but after some ignored emails from faculty despite my previous experience/productivity, I had a thought: why not look for clinical research positions instead (doing case reports, review papers, etc.)? Realistically, this type of work is what I will be doing as a medical student and thus will be more beneficial in the long run. With that being said, I have some questions:

1. Is this feasible as an undergrad? I know faculty tend to take medical students more seriously than undergrads, so I'm not sure how I would go about doing this. Should I just cold-email MD faculty affiliated with the medical school? For what it's worth, I have experience as a clinical research associate through a program at my university. For example, I screen patients by looking through their charts via the hospital's EMR system, consent patients for our studies (although most of our studies are MD-consented) and am comfortable in a large, academic hospital setting. I also have an email address affiliated with the medical school/hospital as I'm part-time employed by the Department of Surgery as a research associate, which may help for cold-emailing?
2. I have zero experience/skills related to clinical research. For example, I vaguely know what case reports/review papers are, but don't really have any experience with literature reviews, statistics, or much clinical knowledge as an undergrad. Would this be something that would be held against me or would faculty just be happy to have someone do grunt work for them?
3. Overall, is it fine to pursue clinical research over wet-lab research at this stage? I feel like this is very uncommon among my peers as most are involved with wet lab research.

Thanks for any help and advice.

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[smukke]

1) Yes, it's possible for undergrads, my old PIs hired/found volunteers all the time. You already have an in, you're working in Surgery department. I'd start there, ask your supervisor if there's any other projects you could help out in, with or without compensation. I'd be careful cold emailing with your hospital email address, this doesn't sound work related and all it takes is one person to complain.

2) Work with whatever research skills you have. You've spent 2 years on the bench, you've picked something up, even if only "great at following directions".

3) You've put in 2 years in benchwork, it's ok to try another field or look at switching. Doesn't your old mentor have someone they've been collaborating with that they're willing to recommend you to?

In short: work the contacts you have.

 

[Skarl]

1) Yes, it's possible for undergrads, my old PIs hired/found volunteers all the time. You already have an in, you're working in Surgery department. I'd start there, ask your supervisor if there's any other projects you could help out in, with or without compensation. I'd be careful cold emailing with your hospital email address, this doesn't sound work related and all it takes is one person to complain.

2) Work with whatever research skills you have. You've spent 2 years on the bench, you've picked something up, even if only "great at following directions".

3) You've put in 2 years in benchwork, it's ok to try another field or look at switching. Doesn't your old mentor have someone they've been collaborating with that they're willing to recommend you to?

In short: work the contacts you have.

Thank you for the advice! I definitely did not think of the possible ramifications of cold emailing with my work email, thank you for bringing that up.

I actually do have some contacts that my previous mentor gave me to continue with neuroscience bench-type work. I suppose my main question would be, do you think it is more beneficial for me at this stage to further explore bench research or clinical research? I have done some reading online and the common consensus seems to be that medical students, for the most part, do not really conduct bench research in medical school simply because it is more difficult to produce publishable/meaningful findings. Knowing this, I just find it difficult to see the value in continuing with bench research as someone pursuing a MD (no PhD), even though I am interested in it and it is still enjoyable for me. I am certain that I would not be at a disadvantage if I did not pursue clinical research, but would it be an advantage to start earlier in UG?

Also, I am interested in/have the resume/stats for a "research powerhouse" medical school. I know a mission of these schools is to train physician-leaders/scientists (which I also consider a career-goal at this stage), but do they distinguish between bench and clinical scientists in reviewing applicants?

 

[benjamin94559]

Very feasible and probably more likely to get pubs with your name on it even!