How to identify productive lab in medical school / Getting into research M1?

[Lawd]

Hi,

I am matriculating at a T25 medical school this fall and think that I want to pursue a competitive specialty so I imagine research will be an important part of my residency application. I have some research experience in undergrad (1 pub, a couple presentations) but was mostly in an unproductive lab that didn’t give me much responsibility and hence I gained few concrete skills (this part is definitely mostly on me). From the many current students I have spoken to, finding research is not much of an issue, I just don’t want to get stuck in a lab that isn’t very productive.

In medical school, I want to be able to identify productive labs that will help me get more research experiences and publications under my belt and more fully immerse myself in research. I also am anxious that my lack of concrete lab skills will make it more difficult to find a lab willing to take me on.

Basically, these are my main questions:

1. What are the best strategies for assessing which labs will be the most productive? Are there certain types of labs that will be more valuable to my application (bench vs. clinical)?
2. Do medical students (mostly those pursuing competitive specialties) typically work in multiple labs concurrently to boost productivity?

Caveat: I am attending my undergrad institution’s medical school and so my old lab could be a potential connection to me.

I know this might be a little all over the place, but any advice/insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[howdidienduphere]

I worked in a bench lab all through medical school and was pretty productive with 3 first author pubs. I already had a lot of bench research experience from undergrad, and I found some good ways to assess a lab's productivity:
- Look up the lab/PI's website. They should list all their recent publications, and check how frequently they publish. My lab published about 5-6 articles per year, which I felt was pretty good since it's a pretty small lab. Also look at who the authors are on these papers - if they're also medical students in your school (especially as first and second authors), that's a good sign.
- Talk with the PI and be upfront. They need to understand the reality of a med student being in their lab, including the time constraints of your school schedule, as well as the expectation that publications are important for residency apps. A good PI who understands this can prioritize your needs, and get you placed on appropriate projects that maximize productivity given your schedule. For example, my classmate also in my lab started to fall behind on their studies and had to drop their lab work - my PI was really understanding and instead had them work on a review article which they got published as a co-author.
- Ask around the upper classmen in your school during first-year, and see what labs they worked in and which were productive. Sometimes they may even need some help on an existing project and can get you set up with the PI to join.
- Your pre-clinical lectures during first year will likely be given by PhD's who are lab PI's in your school, so during lectures find what interests you and don't be afraid to email them if they have any projects they need help with.

Other things to consider:
- Clinical research is usually more productive than bench research in medical school, solely because doing a chart review is way less time intensive than working in the lab. If productivity is your goal or you want to go into a competitive specialty, you may want to consider focusing on clinical research. I personally love working in the lab, which is why I decided to pursue it. However, I knew I was going into a less competitive specialty from the start, so I didn't have the pressure to pump out tons of papers.
- I didn't know of any other students working in multiple labs concurrently, because doing bench research for one lab already takes so much time, and you're not going to have much free time in medical school. However, to supplement my bench research I did a couple clinical research projects simultaneously (simple chart reviews), which was helpful in terms of increasing productivity.
- You need to have a lot of motivation/commitment to see through a basic science project to publication during medical school. It can be easy to let your research take a back seat to your studies, and vice-versa. Take your time during first year to scope out some labs, find what you're interested in, and most importantly focus on school before throwing yourself into research. No amount of research will help if you fail your classes of Step 1.

Hope this helps!

 

[AJS59]

Hi,

I am matriculating at a T25 medical school this fall and think that I want to pursue a competitive specialty so I imagine research will be an important part of my residency application. I have some research experience in undergrad (1 pub, a couple presentations) but was mostly in an unproductive lab that didn’t give me much responsibility and hence I gained few concrete skills (this part is definitely mostly on me). From the many current students I have spoken to, finding research is not much of an issue, I just don’t want to get stuck in a lab that isn’t very productive.

In medical school, I want to be able to identify productive labs that will help me get more research experiences and publications under my belt and more fully immerse myself in research. I also am anxious that my lack of concrete lab skills will make it more difficult to find a lab willing to take me on.

Basically, these are my main questions:

1. What are the best strategies for assessing which labs will be the most productive? Are there certain types of labs that will be more valuable to my application (bench vs. clinical)?
2. Do medical students (mostly those pursuing competitive specialties) typically work in multiple labs concurrently to boost productivity?

Caveat: I am attending my undergrad institution’s medical school and so my old lab could be a potential connection to me.

I know this might be a little all over the place, but any advice/insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

To answer your main questions:
1. I'd look into group size and number of participants/recent productivity. Labs with a high track record of productivity will naturally be inclined to pump out more.
2. Bench research looks great on paper (and from what I know, 1 basic science publication generally carries more weight than 1 clinical publication) but the trade off is huge in terms of time and effort. Some of my classmates in M1 are basically compelled to skip all their lectures and work on really tight timeframes (mice can't do everything themselves) and that can add a lot of stress and detract from the most important part of M1, which is studying. Plus, while its possible to do some clinical research while on rotations, its damn near impossible to do the same with basic science research, because of the above requirements and need to be in person for those.
3. As an M1, I have my hands on quite a few different clinical research projects — I try to have 1-2 to actively be working on and then others that are waiting for things like IRB or edits or what not.

I think my biggest advice in the process is start slowly (I'd take a maximum of 1, maybe 2 projects total your fall of M1, and ideally not in basic sciences) and ramp up as you build more comfort with studying.

 

[Lawd]

I worked in a bench lab all through medical school and was pretty productive with 3 first author pubs.

Thanks so much for the super detailed reply, I really appreciate it!

 

[Lawd]

To answer your main questions:

Thank you for the advice! Are there any skills (stats, coding, etc.) that I could familiarize myself with or learn that would help me to be more marketable/useful/productive in research and to PIs? I've got time to kill before school starts and would like to learn something that'll be helpful in school. Thanks!

 

[AJS59]

Thank you for the advice! Are there any skills (stats, coding, etc.) that I could familiarize myself with or learn that would help me to be more marketable/useful/productive in research and to PIs? I've got time to kill before school starts and would like to learn something that'll be helpful in school. Thanks!

Stats are helpful for everything. Coding is a good skill in general but hard to say exactly what you need. But honestly, the best practice comes by working on research with others.