No research experience in college.

[UnderdogMD]

Is it possible to do research in medical school with no prior research experience. Anybody out there who has done so? It seems like every med student I talk to has done some research in undergrad. I'm about to start medical school and this is something I've been wondering about.

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[PRIMER]

I definitely think its possible, but it depends on what kind of research you would like to do. In general, professors love to have medical students working in their labs (at least thats my experience).

 

[Captain Fantastic]

Absolutely, you can participate in research with no prior background. Don't stress.

 

[Bushido416]

Did research for about 2yrs 1yr during college 1 yr after it before med school. The skills required to be a research scut monkey are about those of a normal monkey...not even the smarter chimpanzee variety. They're not going to require a whole lot of intellectual input from you. Usually the reason they get summer hires (at least it was this way in my old job) is to do a lot of mundane pipetting or a whole lot of iterations that their post docs and grad students don't want to have to do. My last summer working there I got my own college sophomore for that reason. So that's a lot of the bench top research for summer hires. Because really even a talented med student more than likely won't be able to put in a great deal of intellectual input after 4-8wks of pipetting and reading the literature into the progression of the project as a whole or the grant writing process. Not to say your contribution won't matter because it will and you might get thrown in the middle of 12 names if your PI liked you enough but trust me prior experience is NOT required. Just have good depth perception, steady-ish hands, and be able to follow simple directions. Those are the kind of people welcomed at the bench those who can't follow directions or carry out instruction without close supervision are the ones who are more of a pain than they're worth.


PS perhaps someone can comment on the clinical research aspect as the closest to a patient my research experience has come was several hundred guinea pigs.

 

[Trismegistus4]

Ha. I was in your shoes. I had no research experience in college, and am currently posting from the lab in which I'm doing summer research between M1 and M2.

I found no shortage of investigators who were happy to have even an inexperienced med student in their lab.

 

[Aaronkun]

I too had no research experience prior to med school and I also am posting this from the lab! I was upfront with all the PI's I talked to that I had no prior experience and I also told them I was a fast learner...hehe...I ended up getting a pretty sweet research fellowship through the school and I have had a good time doing research between MS1 and MS2. So yes, it is totally doable. In fact I would say that maybe 1/3 of my friends who are doing research this summer have had little to no prior experience.

 

[Elixir86]

I'm a rising M1 and I did not have any research experience during college. I've heard from a lot of people that it's not necessary if you still want to do research in med. school, but I was wondering how you would go about contacting someone for a research position. I'm under the impression that they would want a resume of all previous research experience (uh oh!). How did you guys ago about securing your positions (I'm asking those in the same boat as me....no research during college)? Also, for those of you who commented above me, are you all in a research lab that does more bench work or more clinical work? What is the likelihood that a med. student could get either job?

 

[Blade28]

Remember that there are two very different types of research in medicine - basic science (benchwork) and clinical (often chart reviews and case reports). Most people don't have experience in the latter, which is much of the research you'd do in med school.

 

[Aaronkun]

I am doing a combo of basic science and clinical. I am analyzing patient samples, doing mutation analysis for a disease called Morquio syndrome (MPS IVA). I do lots of "bench research" but then I also have to do genotype/phenotype correlation which involves lots of patient information. IN fact it looks as if I will be able to write up a nice case report on a new mutation that we found in one patient!

I have several friends who had no prior experience who are doing basic science research (biochem, pharm, micro, molecular genetics etc...) and I also have some who are doing clinical research (chart reviews, case reports, etc...) You may want to look to see if your medschool has some kind of sponsored fellowship program (mine does) which you apply for. If not just find some topic you are interested in and meet with the PI. Yes they may aske for a resume, but don't sweat it if you have no prior experience. They will work with you.

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

There may be certain labs that would like to have newcomers with some sort of research experience but I'm sure there will be plenty of PIs who do not assume a research background and help you out with the start out.

I had research experience in undergrad and my PI still helps me loads on my current project. Just let them know and they'll probably be more than happy to teach you.