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I am a student deciding between two labs at NIH. Please help me decide which lab might be better for me. My goals for the future is either going into medical school or DMD Ph.D program, and I would like to be involved in research area that are highly relevant to both medicine and dentistry. Dental research areas are mostly neuroscience, microbio, immunology, cranial developmental biology, genetics, tissue regeneration, and biomaterials.
Lab 1
Pros:
- Research Area is relevant to my previous research exp at my undergrad institution, and I will be performing similar lab techniques
- The lab is focused on neuroscience and structural biology and aimed to solve structures of glutamine receptors in CNS. Neuroscience is one of the major areas in DMD PHD programs as well, but I am more interested in tissue regeneration and biomaterials.
- PI publishes many papers at cell and nature journals.
-Current postbacc student who was industrious and stayed in lab for 1.5 years got a 1st author and 2nd author pubs in journals with pretty high impact factors
- Can start working on my own project even when learning new techniques and adjusting to lab
Cons:
- 9-7 work schedule and even on weekends
- Won't be able to prepare for MCAT if I feel that I need to retake it. (Will take DAT before moving to Bethesda)
- May not be able to take courses offered at NIH
Lab 2
Pros:
- May have more time to either prepare for MCAT retake or take courses
- Opportunity to learn methods of bioinformatics
- May be able to take bioinformatics and biostatistics courses at NIH
- PI has strong ties to my country (South Korea) and all postdoc students are Koreans as well.
- If I stay at his lab for 2 years, there is an opportunity to publish
Cons:
- Research area focused on transcription factor governing cell differentiation (stem cell, progenitor cells in mice turning into many diff cells)
Is this research focus relevant to DMD PHD research programs?
- Not related to my previous research exp and need to learn everything from scratch
Lab 1
Pros:
- Research Area is relevant to my previous research exp at my undergrad institution, and I will be performing similar lab techniques
- The lab is focused on neuroscience and structural biology and aimed to solve structures of glutamine receptors in CNS. Neuroscience is one of the major areas in DMD PHD programs as well, but I am more interested in tissue regeneration and biomaterials.
- PI publishes many papers at cell and nature journals.
-Current postbacc student who was industrious and stayed in lab for 1.5 years got a 1st author and 2nd author pubs in journals with pretty high impact factors
- Can start working on my own project even when learning new techniques and adjusting to lab
Cons:
- 9-7 work schedule and even on weekends
- Won't be able to prepare for MCAT if I feel that I need to retake it. (Will take DAT before moving to Bethesda)
- May not be able to take courses offered at NIH
Lab 2
Pros:
- May have more time to either prepare for MCAT retake or take courses
- Opportunity to learn methods of bioinformatics
- May be able to take bioinformatics and biostatistics courses at NIH
- PI has strong ties to my country (South Korea) and all postdoc students are Koreans as well.
- If I stay at his lab for 2 years, there is an opportunity to publish
Cons:
- Research area focused on transcription factor governing cell differentiation (stem cell, progenitor cells in mice turning into many diff cells)
Is this research focus relevant to DMD PHD research programs?
- Not related to my previous research exp and need to learn everything from scratch
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