DDS/PhD at UMich

[thewobblytooth]

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Hello, I was accepted into the DDS/PhD program at UMich, and I have already decided that I will be attending that school. One of the things that kind of bums me out is that there are so few students in dentistry that pursue a DDS/PhD. I was wondering if the MD/PhD students could give me advice about things.

How should I choose my first lab rotation?

Are there any grants/fellowships that I should be aware of and should try to apply for?

Are there any research projects that I should definitely avoid (breeding mice, etc) or is anything a go?

I plan to stay in academia when I graduate and I was also wondering what the funding situation would be like? It's not pretty now, and I'm not sure if it will get any better.

Luckily, throughout my time at UMich, everything will be paid for, tuition. health insurance, stipend/living support, so I won't have to worry about that or securing grants/fellowships to pay for anything. However, I will be taught to right these grants/fellowships to gain experience for if and when I decide to start a lab.

Should I be asking professors about their funding situation?

At UMich, they are doing lots of interesting tissue regeneration, oral cancer research, and dental stem cell work. I find this to be very interesting, but how do you MD/PhDs choose labs to rotate through and what are some things that I should be wary of?

I've committed myself to this program and there are so few DDS/PhD students that I can really ask any advice for on these forums! Sorry for so many questions all jumbled together!

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[SBR249]

Here are the advice that I've been given on some things:

1) How to choose first rotation: find some potential professors online, then talk to some of them during revisit and find one that you think you like.

2) The NIH offers F30/F31 grants for predoctoral students during graduate training

3) I was told by people in my lab that if I stuck with immunology, I should avoid mouse labs because breeding mice takes a long time and you could be up the creek without a paddle of your KO mouse has no phenotype or something goes wrong 3 years into it.

4) Right now NIH funding rates are in the single digits, 7-8% from what I hear and it certainly isn't going to get better in the next year or so. Beyond that, it's highly dependent on who gets elected, economic landscape, etc.

5) You should ask professors whose labs you are seriously considering joining how secure their funding sources are, whether you could support you for the entire duration of your PhD, and whether there may be the possibility that they will be moving in the middle of your PhD

At UMich, they are doing lots of interesting tissue regeneration, oral cancer research, and dental stem cell work. I find this to be very interesting, but how do you MD/PhDs choose labs to rotate through and what are some things that I should be wary of?

Didn't you already ask those questions above?

 

[thewobblytooth]

Hey thanks for the response!

Sorry for asking the same question again, I guess I should have read over what I typed down. As far as the research that I'm going to be entering, I think the first lab I'm rotating through does lots of in depth research in oral cancer angiogenesis. It sounds really interesting and I did meet him during my interview. I will definitely ask the professors if they have secure funding! Thanks again!

 

[sakata8242]

Greetings fellow Wolverine

Do DDS/PhD students have a program director like the MSTP? If so, ask him/her about which labs to AVOID and don't waste your time with those. Our MSTP director has always been candid about labs and PIs to avoid.

External grants/funding are often dictated by what field your PI is in. You should talk to your PI about your interest in seeking other sources of funding when you rotate and ultimately join.

Mouse projects can work out to be timely if they are organized and have a clear cut goal. You do not want to be breeding mutant mice for a year, just to see if there's a phenotype, and you most definitely do NOT want to have a project that involves MAKING a mutant mouse. Stay away from projects where the goal isn't defined, or is too open ended. Be wary of labs where the PI wants you to head up a brand new project that has no history in the lab (in other words you're starting from scratch, and there's little to no preliminary data), or one where nobody else in the lab has any expertise in either the science or techniques you'll be doing. (Yes, I've seen both)

Make a short list of labs you might be interested in based on what they work on. Run them by your program director (if you have one) then start meeting with the PIs.

When you meet with potential rotation lab PIs, some things to ask about:
1.) Does the PI have funding for a full time PhD candidate? If they don't, don't bother rotating and wasting your time doing free labor for a PI who's not interested in taking you as a student.

2.) What projects are available in the lab? Ask for specifics. What are the goals of the project? Has there been any work done on it previously? Can you realistically get anything worthwhile done during that rotation? Is there a senior student, post-doc, or technician in the lab who can help you? One of my rotation PIs wanted me to start work on generating a BAC for a transgenic mouse. Nobody in the lab had any experience with that kind of work, nor did I. Needless to say it went nowhere in 3 months. A good rotation project might be helping a senior student finish up data for a paper, or to work on a side project stemming from a main body of work in the lab. It's a lot easier to jump right in and start producing results, you might get added as an author, and should you decide to join the lab, your project could develop off those results.

3.) Ask to talk to graduate students past and present - without the PI around. Let's face it; the PI can't and/or won't be honest about what really goes on in lab. Ask students what the PI is like. Slavedriver or nice guy? (Sometimes the nice guy is worse than the slavedriver) Does he/she come into lab at all, or do you only see your PI weekly at lab meetings? Do they have lab meetings? (I know of some PIs who don't keep regular meeting schedules; terrible) Do the current students and lab members seem happy, or is there an air of misery that seems to permeate the lab space? Do students get decent mentoring/advice from the PI when they speak with him/her, or do they come out of meetings feeling more confused by hare-brained ideas or unhelpful suggestions? Do students even meet on an individual basis with the PI regularly?

When you do settle on a rotation lab, pay attention to what goes on, and keep in mind there are two main quasi-constants in picking a lab: The PI, and the science. These are the 2 things that will be the least likely to change significantly. Everything else should be secondary. Also, don't get caught up over how prestigious the PI is or isn't (HHMI, Nobel Laureate, whatever it may be). If he/she is a piss poor mentor and is never around, you'll struggle and feel lost, regardless of his/her pedigree. Couple that with a bad project and you'll be miserable.

A lot of this I've learned the hard way in my PhD experience. If someone had sat me down and had this discussion before I joined my lab, I'd have done things differently. Be confident that you can get along with your PI on a professional level (notice I said professional, not personal), and that he/she can give you the mentoring you need. Be able to secure a project you're interested in that has clear-cut goals and can get you out in ~4 years. That's all that's important.

 

[thewobblytooth]

Hey sakata,

Sorry for a late reply,

Yes, the DDS/PhD does have a program director. She's super nice. I've been asking about which lab gets funding, and she's been pretty candid about it. So far, I've chosen my first rotation based off my initial interview with him when I was interviewing for the DDS/PhD spot. Also, I think I've been seeing a general trend in avoiding mouse breeding projects, KO mutants, etc. I don't think I'll ever go anywhere near those.

Have you heard of the Angiogenesis Lab by Dr. Nor at the dental school? That's my first rotation. I haven't had a chance to talk to people in his lab, but I should definitely email them to get a feel of him as a PI. He seems to publish frequently, at least according to his webpage. My pd told me that he has funding so I don't think I need to worry about that issue. Also, the UM dental school recently renewed their F30 grant, so I definitely will have funding. I sort of lucked out because I've heard of other d-schools recently have not renewed theirs. On a side note, he's also my academic advisor until I choose a lab and dissertation advisor.

My only complaint is that the number of students that enter my program is very few and there aren't many people I could talk to when I join. A camaraderie I suppose.

Thanks so much for responding! This gives me a better insight.