Medical School Research Questions

[PB&Jam]

Hey all! I have a couple questions about research during medical school.

As I posted in a thread a while back, I won't be able to complete the research project I intended to do for my senior thesis due to my PI having serious health issues. Instead, I will be supplementing the small amount of hard data I was able to obtain with an in-depth discussion of exactly what I would have done, and what I expected to accomplish. Essentially, I will have an extremely detailed project proposal, backed up by success from the preliminary steps of the experiment. If I were able to find a lab with the appropriate equipment wherever I go for medical school, would I be able to complete the project there? If so, what would be the steps I need to take to do so? (Would I have to submit the proposal to somewhere, get grant money, etc.?) Do students in medical school take on these sorts of independent projects, or is it more like in most undergrad labs where you work on a project that was mostly developed by the PI? Also, would I run into intellectual property issues, considering that this project, while intended to be mostly independent, was mostly my PI's initial idea (though we developed it together)? Would sorting that out just be a matter of talking with her and obtaining permission to go forward with it elsewhere, or would it be a more complicated process? Thanks!

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[JustAPhD]

Sorry to hear about your PI's health.

Do students in medical school take on these sorts of independent projects, or is it more like in most undergrad labs where you work on a project that was mostly developed by the PI?

Depends on the lab and the student. Most med students work on existing projects in a lab. Primarily this is due to time constants on the student's side, many simply do not have enough time to carry their own project (which is fine). That's something that can vary though, and something to work out on a PI-to-PI basis.

Also, would I run into intellectual property issues, considering that this project, while intended to be mostly independent, was mostly my PI's initial idea (though we developed it together)? Would sorting that out just be a matter of talking with her and obtaining permission to go forward with it elsewhere, or would it be a more complicated process? Thanks!

Yes you would need to talk to her to make sure it would even be ok to carry on the project at another institution. Regarding intellectual property, maybe. If you developed reagents (like say a new transgenic mouse line) and you intend to bring that to whenever you end up you may need an MTA (material transfer agreement) between the two institutions. Or even if any of the reagents you currently use are protected by an MTA, you'd have to sort that out with wherever you got them from.

If I were able to find a lab with the appropriate equipment wherever I go for medical school, would I be able to complete the project there? If so, what would be the steps I need to take to do so? (Would I have to submit the proposal to somewhere, get grant money, etc.?)

Again, maybe. Totally depends on the PI and the lab. Your best bet would be to join a lab that does related work. If there's extra money laying around (lol) you might not need to get external funding to complete the project, depending on how expensive the project is. If not you might need to work with your PI to get external funding from some source. Again, totally PI dependent. I can see a lot of PIs shooting that idea down pronto.

 

[PB&Jam]

If you developed reagents (like say a new transgenic mouse line) and you intend to bring that to whenever you end up you may need an MTA (material transfer agreement) between the two institutions.

Thanks for the heads up! We did actually do something that would fall under this (developed a plasmid containing specific markers along with a tetanus toxin gene for insertion into a specific type of glial cell). I'll still be in contact with her, since she's still my thesis advisor, so I'll ask her what her thoughts would be on me continuing the project elsewhere and if we could have an MTA arranged, if she agrees.

 

[aldol16]

Also, would I run into intellectual property issues, considering that this project, while intended to be mostly independent, was mostly my PI's initial idea (though we developed it together)? Would sorting that out just be a matter of talking with her and obtaining permission to go forward with it elsewhere, or would it be a more complicated process?

This is an extremely complicated issue. You don't want to step on your PI's toes because academia is a small world. You will run into your undergrad PI again at national conferences, meetings, etc. - especially since it sounds like you're both in biomedical research. Since it was mostly your PI's initial idea, it would not be a good idea to take this project elsewhere. The preliminary results were most likely funded by one of your PI's grants, so you would run into a hairy situation very quickly. The best bet with this project is to make sure your PI has your data/results. In the future, most likely what will happen is another student will inherit the project and continue doing it. Since you had a substantial role in the design of the project and preliminary results, you would likely be an author anyway.

In med school, find an adviser whose work interests you and develop new ideas/hypotheses. No need to fixate on one idea when you can easily come up with 10 others.

 

[PB&Jam]

This is an extremely complicated issue. You don't want to step on your PI's toes because academia is a small world. You will run into your undergrad PI again at national conferences, meetings, etc. - especially since it sounds like you're both in biomedical research. Since it was mostly your PI's initial idea, it would not be a good idea to take this project elsewhere. The preliminary results were most likely funded by one of your PI's grants, so you would run into a hairy situation very quickly. The best bet with this project is to make sure your PI has your data/results. In the future, most likely what will happen is another student will inherit the project and continue doing it. Since you had a substantial role in the design of the project and preliminary results, you would likely be an author anyway.

In med school, find an adviser whose work interests you and develop new ideas/hypotheses. No need to fixate on one idea when you can easily come up with 10 others.

I know you're right, and there are probably better funded labs with very interesting projects in medical school (especially since I've been accepted to a very highly ranked program). I'm just hung up on this because I had a few false starts in research before this, and this is the first project that's looked like it would actually give me something to work with as far as results, a paper/authorship, and some sort of accomplishment in academia. I've been very torn up about this for a while; I really didn't want to settle for doing the thesis I'm now doing, but one of the ways I convinced myself to do it was the possibility of following up in the future. Anyway, not sure why I'm saying this here. Thanks for your advice. Hopefully I'll be able to find an interesting project to work on in medical school.