Is it possible?

[Treg]

If I go to med school in the US, it will be after I finish my PhD. Am I crazy to think that I could do a part-time post-doc while in med school, maybe during the first two years? I am most interested in schools with flexible curriculum, i.e. Yale, Cornell, etc.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

-Treg

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[coldchemist]

Just about any first or second year med student would say you are nuts. If you can do a post-doc without spending ANY time in a lab, then you might be able to pull it off.

 

[Neuronix]

I agree. There are really two reasons why this is impossible. First, you want to start your career in your post-doc and you want to be as productive as possible. This requires a more than full-time commitment. That's pretty hard to do considering that med school is already a full-time commitment. The second reason is that any PI is going to expect a heck of alot of commitment out of you as a post-doc, and is not going to be sympathetic to outside requirements like that. You'd also have to interrupt your post-doc for 3rd and much of 4th year, and that would be bad to restart like that as well, again because a post-doc should be where you start being consistantly productive.

Don't forget residency also. Don't you want to do one of those? If you go to residency your field is going to change too much by the time you return. If not, that's fine, but why do you want to attend medical school?

Good luck!

 

[Treg]

I have a friend here who is MD/PhD and said that he spent ~10 hrs./wk in the lab during MS1. This is kind of what I am hoping for, with full-time lab work in the summer.

I know that a lot of med schools encourage their students to do research; in fact, Yale requires a thesis. When do they do the work?

Just curious.

 

[Habari]

i don't quite agree with 'impossible'. my roomate spends about 25 hours a week in lab, and could spend more if his work warranted it. essentially, if you goto class here you're done at 1pm - and if you don't - both of us don't - we're done at 9:30AM [we have to attend pbl - which is definately worthwhile]. once anatomy/phys starts in january, i plan on going to class and lab - which still end at 1pm.

both of us are satisfied with our performance - and though i expect to study more come january, i still don't think the time committment is or will be onerous.

if you did a post-doc you would have to work almost all the time - and have a very understanding PI [i don't know anyone at rockefeller that would be ok with a ~10 hour a week postdoc]- which you may or may not find in your field. if you're at cornell you have sloan kettering/cornell/rockefeller/hospital for special surgery around you with regards to options - but of course no guarentees.

if you're committed to doing it, it's going to be tough - but those who say it can't be done are just waiting to be proven wrong [look up the story of dr. paul farmer - he spent a majority of his time in med school in haiti! - 6 weeks at a time - he was at hms].

 

[pathdr2b]

My old lab at UNC-Chapel Hill has a post-dco that's in medical school. He works a few hours duirng the week and all of the summers, I think what we're talking about is a "play on words". In other words, one person's "research opportunity" is another person's "post-doc". Once you matriculate in medical school, I'm sure you'll find PI's willing to have someone with your experience in their lab but perhaps summers between year 1 and 2 are the best times to do this.

 

[Neuronix]

I still think it's a bad idea that should not be attempted. I don't think any PI is going to be okay with a ~25hour/week post-doc. If you were to actually do it, it would not be so much of a post-doc as it would be tooling up to do a post-doc someday. I can't imagine a PI would fund you to do this. But, if you want to spend some time in a lab while in med school, I'm certain you would be able to do that.

 

[ImmunoANT]

Originally posted by Treg
If I go to med school in the US, it will be after I finish my PhD. Am I crazy to think that I could do a part-time post-doc while in med school, maybe during the first two years? I am most interested in schools with flexible curriculum, i.e. Yale, Cornell, etc.

One of my friend went to Cornell (MD only). He told me that the first year was quite mellow. They are usually done with lecture by 1 pm and with the exception of Tuesday and Thursday (PBL sections), the rest of day is wide open for personal interest (many med students use such time frame for some lab experience too). Maybe that's what you are shooting for. As for second year, he told me there was only one block that was hell-like. After that, it's pretty smooth sailing too. GOOD LUCK!

BTW, Treg, uh? I guess you are in immunology as I am. Well, I study T cells too. One quick question, for some reason I did a proliferation assay (CFSE dilution) on CD25-depleted total T cells (supposedly getting rid of all suppressor T and some activated T) on CD3-coated plate. Surprisingly, CD25-depleted T cells proliferate less than their counterpart (ie total pan T, CD25+ and CD25-). Any thought on that? Or is this just some abberation? which is what I am more inclined to believe.

 

[Treg]

Hmmm...

I would think the opposite, since the CD25+ cells should inhibit, and thus CD25+ depleted T-cells populations should proliferate more, not less.

Also, there are some PIs here that do a lot of T-cell work, and they have shown that T-cells respond quite differently to anti-CD3 stimulation depending on whether the Ab is coated vs. in solution. Look up H. Ostergaard et al.

I am no an expert in this area, although I have read quite a bit about it since Tregs are a "hot" topic in autoimmunity right now (my field is Type 1 Diabetes).

I do like the idea of being a "regulator." (hence my screenname)


Good luck!

Treg