How to do well in a researcg project.

[misplacedshadow]

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Just thought I would ask the pre-med doing research for some advice. I just got into a position at a medical college to do research that studies inflammation, angiogenesis and remodeling during wound healing in cell culture and wild type and diabetic mice. In this lab I will be doing cell culture, western blot, q-RT-PCR, flow cytometry, genotyping, and
immunohistochemistry processing. Honestly to tell you the truth I dont know how to do any of these techniques, and I told my mentor that. I told her also that I was willing to work for free and full time if I could research experience and a publication. My mentor who hired me said she will teach me everything as long as I am energetic and motivated. She printed out a couple of publications for me to read and my first day is on Monday. Also you guys should note that I am an undergrad who just graduated with a BA degree in biochemistry working in a research lab filled with medical students and post-docs. How can I do well in this research lab and not screw it up?

 

[Iso4ane]

Well if you can figure out the science behind each technique and what each one is supposed to tell you in the big picture that goes a long way. The rest is looking to other people in the lab to see if they have protocols for each technique you will use (which is very common). If they are all new techniques for the lab (very rare) then just search for protocol online and test each one empirically (This is where the science comes in, if you know how things (chemicals, processing techniques, etc.) work you can modify it for your experiment). And its possible to do all this as an undergrad.

 

[misplacedshadow]

Well if you can figure out the science behind each technique and what each one is supposed to tell you in the big picture that goes a long way. The rest is looking to other people in the lab to see if they have protocols for each technique you will use (which is very common). If they are all new techniques for the lab (very rare) then just search for protocol online and test each one empirically (This is where the science comes in, if you know how things (chemicals, processing techniques, etc.) work you can modify it for your experiment). And its possible to do all this as an undergrad.

Thanks 0kazak1, thats really good advice.

 

[MDOnlyWillDo]

Well if you can figure out the science behind each technique and what each one is supposed to tell you in the big picture that goes a long way. The rest is looking to other people in the lab to see if they have protocols for each technique you will use (which is very common). If they are all new techniques for the lab (very rare) then just search for protocol online and test each one empirically (This is where the science comes in, if you know how things (chemicals, processing techniques, etc.) work you can modify it for your experiment). And its possible to do all this as an undergrad.

👍

Your purpose there will be two things: learn protocols and techniques (not important for med school, but important for this job and a future paper) and learn the right questions to ask with the right tools of getting you the answer. Learn how to pour gels and operate the flow instrument, but also learn WHY the PI is performing genotyping and flow. What specific questions are they trying to answer?

Are those papers written by the PI or someone else? If they're from the PI, that's their work- get yourself up to speed as what they've done and what future questions they posited in the end. If the papers are from someone else, find the tangent that relates to what your lab is studying. Someone else may have written about a better protocol and you can try and replicate the results in your lab- that's a paper right there.

Grill the senior lab techs- these are the people with the knowledge of the protocols, and if they've been there a long time, they'll also know a good history of the study design, giving you a background in the 'why' of the protocols you're doing. As long as you are hardworking and ask lots of "why are we doing that?" questions, you'll do fine.

 

[Renaissance Man]

If you aren't 100% sure about how to do something, ask about it (even if you think you are being annoying). Also write down where important samples, reagents, etc. are so that you won't forget, and more importantly if your PI needs something specific you know exactly where you put it.