So, two quarters into doing bench research, I assume as a student for credit, doing maybe 10-15 hrs a week...and you want to do what? Start writing grants...papers...giving presentations...maybe cure cancer??? What it sounds like your doing is a big part of research. And, two quarters is barely anything, let alone enough time to show the PI that your going to stay in the lab long enough for it to be worth his/her while to train you to do more difficult tasks. While it might be "basic", it is not uncommon for people to do the same thing over and over again, for months or even years, until they get enough samples/data or get the process to work correctly. I spent nearly seven days a week, for almost a year working on getting a tricky PCR and DGGE procedure to work correctly during my graduate studies. Even once I got the procedure to work correctly, I ended up having to use it nearly every day for another 4 or 5 months to collect the actual data...Even today I do protein extractions and Westerns on a daily basis, the tedium is just part of research.
Unless your a graduate student or putting in significant time - meaning, >30 hrs a week (maybe >20 if your awesome) and possibly showing interest in going to graduate school and/or pursuing research long term, there is no way you should expect to have more than a "technician" type job in any type of bench research lab...it just requires too much time/money and as an undergrad, you likely dont have a great understanding of how to write a paper or present research without someone holding your hand through it...most graduate students dont, and are forced to take classes on this stuff. Hell, your lucky you arnt stuck washing dishes for a graduate student. And really, if your PI wanted someone who could write papers, an undergrad would be the last person they would get - thats what Post-Docs and Graduate students are for. And, yeah I have met a few undergrads in my time that were first authors on papers, but they were also in special programs (Howard Hughes, etc) or in a lab for a significant amount of time and put in their dish washing time as well.
As someone who has been in research for the past ~7 years, my suggestions would be this:
1) Buck up and continue doing your extractions because at some point, if your still in the lab, you will have done enough extractions and the next step of the process will need to be carried out...which will likely be your next job. If a paper does come out of it, and you were the main one doing the bench work, your PI will likely put your name on it if he/she isnt an ass. But, dont expect papers to just come flying out of the work you do, especially in academic research (where the professors have responsibilities other than research) and especially a field like Parkinson's disease, where there is a lot of researcher going on, and funding is limited. In the field I am in, a fairly popular research topic - cancer drugs - my lab (me and the PI) probably had >10 projects going on throughout the year, between the two of us, and both of us work full time (~50 hrs/week). Of those projects, the majority didnt produce any significant findings or hit major dead ends, hence we only put out 3 papers for the entire year, and one wasnt even really a paper, just a note.
2) If there are graduate students in the lab, then tell them you want to get a better idea of how research works outside of the lab. Ask them if you can work directly with them, read papers they read and see if they will show you how they analyze the data they get..etc. Learn how they find papers etc. If there isnt a graduate student in your lab, then ask your PI if you can read some of the papers he has; I would start with reviews specifically. Pull the articles that the review's cite, then pull the articles that are cited there-in..etc. Once you have read a decent amount of the literature, you'll know you have read enough when you can explain what your research topic is and actually cite papers to people while you explain it, start asking your PI questions...such as could Protein XX be involved with this process? This is how pilot studies are developed...And, it shows that you have a decent amount of knowledge of the topic, which may show the PI that you can handle presenting a poster or something.
3) If you enjoy what your doing, then stick with it...if not, then get out because what your doing makes up a large portion of research, and it wont be worth your while to continue.
Sorry if I come across as harsh in some of this...I admit after being a graduate student and spending a lot of my time teaching undergrads how to do research, who then decide to quit the following semester because their idea of research was curing caner and not having to do tedious, boring bench work...despite me being there beside them, doing the same thing over and over again...that it is frustrating to hear people ask if they should quit their lab because they dont think they are doing anything significant. What you are doing is part of research and you shouldnt go in to a lab as an undergrad expecting to get anything but experience out of it. If you happen to get your name on a publication or poster, you should be forever grateful to your PI/grad. student, because as an undergrad your generally not in a position to put in enough time to truly earn authorship.
