Research Lab experience - discuss plans with PI?

[Ihave Nonamè]

Hello - I joined a lab in the spring just before labs shut down. I reached out to my PI today and he shared that they would indeed like to allow me to return. He requested a zoom meeting to "discuss how I would like to proceed and to talk about my plans". Frankly, I'm still relatively new to the lab and was not finished with training. Previously I was doing some work independently at the cryostat, some PCR and was about to learn mouse surgeries. I would not be able to design a project on my own yet. I want to ensure I go into this meeting prepared, and want to more explicitly define these plans that he has actually brought up in the past (to which I replied simply that I would like to take away as much as I could from the experience and to learn whatever they were willing to teach me). He did in the past promise that I could work on my own project at some point. Is he asking me to come forth with an independent project idea? Please give advice. To take utmost advantage of this opportunity, how should I go about this? Thanks guys.

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[LunaOri]

Are you in an academic program, or is this a job? Talk about when you would like to return to the lab and finish your training. Ask whether there are any specific projects you can work on, or any ideas the PI might have for a project for you. Ask how you can be of help to the PI and the lab.

 

[Ihave Nonamè]

Are you in an academic program, or is this a job? Talk about when you would like to return to the lab and finish your training. Ask whether there are any specific projects you can work on, or any ideas the PI might have for a project for you. Ask how you can be of help to the PI and the lab.

I am a volunteer in the lab. So it sounds like I'm not expected to have any specific project in mind and should rather just follow the flow...Perhaps I can suggest finishing training/contributing work for others this quarter and then pursuing an independent project of my own in the winter and spring quarters.

 

[JAK2-STAT3]

A lot of this is going to come down to the exact situation that lab is in. Where are they in terms of all of their grants/projects? Breeding mice? Analyzing data? Did someone just leave the lab? Is there a gap that needs to be filled? Is a particular postdoc or grad student swamped and need a hand? As the previous poster suggested, ask the PI what needs to be done. I can guarantee that there's something they want done but don't have the personnel to do, which is where you come in. And an independent project doesn't have to be anything crazy. You mentioned a cryostat, which makes me think the lab is probably doing some sort of immunohistochemistry. You could propose looking at a different marker/protein/whatever that's still related to what the lab does. For example, if they look at Microglia you could see if they'd let you look at Astrocytes, or something like that. If you know the basic physiology behind what the lab does you can probably think of something to look at that's related to what they do but still your own idea. Anyways, keep hanging out around the lab. The more you know, the more you'll be able to get in there and find your own niche.