How to Get Started in Research?

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PA_dud3

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Hey Guys,

Looking for some advice. So I am looking into getting some lab/research experience. My school has a lab which does biological research on cancer cells, but I'm not sure about if there is any active chemistry research going on now. My lecture teacher, who is one of my favorite professors, is a peptide chemist (I think?) and I was going to ask her if there would be any possibilities of helping her with research, but I'm kinda lost about what/how to ask. Do professors usually just let students participate in their research if they show interest? Should I just mention to them at the end of class one day? What would chemistry research usually consist of?

Thanks for any help you can provide on this!

Dd3

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I'm starting in a research lab this week. I emailed the PI expressing my interest in his research and asked if he had any room for an undergraduate researcher. I showed genuine interest by looking up specifically what kind of research he was conducting and made sure to mention it in my emails to him. This ensures that it doesn't look like I wrote a generic email to a bunch of researchers and hoped someone would take me in.

I found my PI by going to my school website and clicking on the research link and narrowing it down to which field I was interest in. This made finding research opportunities really easy so hopefully your school does the same.

You should either go to her after class or during her office hours. She may have room for you or she might not. There are a lot of variables that go into that sort of thing like funding, a full lab, or she is looking for a specific quality in a student, etc.
 
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Research sounds “cool” but it’s boring as hell. I did research with my Biochem professor and he had me do gene integration and it was a lot trial and error. It’s the same steps over and over again. It was a good experience though and I got the gig for showing aptitude during lab and lecture. I was a TA in organic and general chemistry in my science department too so I had a lot of lab skills already to offer. I doubt your professor would let you do research without any prior skills
 
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Hey Guys,

Looking for some advice. So I am looking into getting some lab/research experience. My school has a lab which does biological research on cancer cells, but I'm not sure about if there is any active chemistry research going on now. My lecture teacher, who is one of my favorite professors, is a peptide chemist (I think?) and I was going to ask her if there would be any possibilities of helping her with research, but I'm kinda lost about what/how to ask. Do professors usually just let students participate in their research if they show interest? Should I just mention to them at the end of class one day? What would chemistry research usually consist of?

Thanks for any help you can provide on this!

Dd3

Shoot them an email or talk to them after or during class. That's what I did during undergrad/pharmacy school.

Chemistry research usually involves working whatever machine they need you to operate to run tests and stuff. In undergrad I helped develop protocol and run the HPLC machine. I also got to do some work on the mass spectrometer.

In pharmacy school it's different because it varies from what your professor is working on from doing physical lab work to seeing patients and writing treatment protocol.

Step 1 though is always just go up and ask.
 
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Thank you all for the help and advice. I went ahead and sent her an email, hopefully she will get back to me soon with good news.

Thanks again!
 
Also, if you get the job of dishwasher or some other trivial and menial job, that's the appropriate job if you are completely green. Yes, you're going to be washing and cleaning glassware, but the point is also to learn what the equipment in the lab is and how the staff conduct themselves in there and get you used to the procedural monotony of wet lab work. I started there myself.

Also, for normal pharmacists, you are not expected to conduct wet lab research in the field, period. That has always been a voluntary and unusual assignment.
 
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I also started doing research as an undergrad as a dishwasher. I did a lot of odd jobs around the lab, but also had a chance to participate in some of the research protocols with the PhD students.
 
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