Starting first undergrad research lab experience in Fall; need some general tips

[Sinclaire]

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So my education goal is to get a MD/MPH in Nutrition and possibly a research fellowship after, but for now, I am a senior graduating in the summer w/ BS in biology and anthropology double major from UNC, and have registered for an extra year of classes in a smaller university in NC(Fayetteville State). I just agreed with a chemistry professor though e-mails that I can work in his lab (on chromatography with micelles to separate biologically important molecules) for two semesters for course credit while I take other bio/biochem/public health courses I've registered for as a full-time visiting student before applying for NIH IRTA postbac program and med school next summer.

This professor seems so far like will be a good supervisor/mentor (in the e-mails he seemed eager for me to join his lab, and his site has a lot about his past undergrads/grad students/post-docs/high school students). I would like to know general etiquette for working with PI's/mentors from your experiences; the do's and don'ts.


Also, does med school care if you don't finish a second bachelor's? Fayetteville State has a 30 credit hour limit before the school automatically makes you degree-seeking, and I may need to go beyond that to make up for a bad junior and senior year.

 

[Build]

Two points:

1) generally speaking, lab etiquette really comes down to good communication. If you're new to research, you are not going to do much more than watching or running experiments designed by the PI or grad students. I think it's helpful to make it clear to the PI what your goals are for working in the lab (i.e. learn more about the research topic of the lab, learn basic lab skills, learn how to do science, get ready for an MD/MPH). As long as the PI feels like you're going to be around long enough to pay back to the lab in skilled work, talking will help get everyone on the same page. Be enthusiastic and proactive. Get a feel for how the PI likes to keep in touch with students and then stay in communication with the PI. It can be a challenge to keep someone new busy all the time, so plan on doing some amount of reading too.

2) While I'm a huge fan of analytical chemistry myself (I work with micelle electrophoresis too 🙂 ), I'm curious, why this lab if you want to go for an MD/MPH? My initial response to your situation would be to do some public health research or nutrition research or clinical research if that is where you want to end up. Of course any research experience is great and ultimately how you present it makes all the difference, but this seems like more of a stretch to me.

 

[Sinclaire]

1) generally speaking, lab etiquette really comes down to good communication. If you're new to research, you are not going to do much more than watching or running experiments designed by the PI or grad students. I think it's helpful to make it clear to the PI what your goals are for working in the lab (i.e. learn more about the research topic of the lab, learn basic lab skills, learn how to do science, get ready for an MD/MPH). As long as the PI feels like you're going to be around long enough to pay back to the lab in skilled work, talking will help get everyone on the same page. Be enthusiastic and proactive. Get a feel for how the PI likes to keep in touch with students and then stay in communication with the PI. It can be a challenge to keep someone new busy all the time, so plan on doing some amount of reading too.

That's good to know. For the first 3 weeks of lab I'll still be reviewing for the MCAT; I'll probably ask him after I've discussed everything else you've said with him first.

2) While I'm a huge fan of analytical chemistry myself (I work with micelle electrophoresis too ), I'm curious, why this lab if you want to go for an MD/MPH? My initial response to your situation would be to do some public health research or nutrition research or clinical research if that is where you want to end up. Of course any research experience is great and ultimately how you present it makes all the difference, but this seems like more of a stretch to me.

There's no one in Fayetteville state currently doing any public health or clinical research, so I looked at biochemically related research instead, and found his research was related to that. Plus, analytical chemistry is an important part of the nutrition field. You need to use analytical chemistry to come up with nutrition facts, nutritional analysis, or create food and dietary supplements.