Trying to figure out what I'm doing/when to switch research fields?

[Dandine]

I started at a cognitive neuroscience lab about a month ago. The research that I am currently involved with seems more clinical to me, as I will probably be working with various mental patients. However, I have also been reading up on several papers related to what we have been doing in the lab, and I have become fascinated with how things interact on a neuroendocrine level (particularly regarding brain-body interactions). The work I'm involved in is not currently investigating neuroendocrine interactions, but there may be one or two faculty members in the lab is focusing on them, although I'm not sure of the extent of involvement in the projects I'm involved with.

I'm signed onto the lab for at least two years, which for me works because there are questions that I think I could answer with the experience I gain. However, suppose I decide that I want to really look into these neuroendocrine interactions. Would it be possible for me to do so if I decided to apply to an MD/PhD program even though my research isn't heavily involved with that at the moment? Or should I take time off to do more cellular-related research after studying?

On a side note, I'm not really sure about the distinction between basic and clinical research anymore. I had thought that basic meant more bench work with cells and clinical meant more patient interaction, but then I also became familiar with the idea that basic research means to investigate some kind of question regardless of whether cells are involved. Is this a correct assumption?

Anyone have any thoughts on the subject, especially those who had done one kind of research and switched to another? Thanks for any feedback!

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[meowkat444]

Simply -- you won't have any trouble at all switching to neuroendocrine focus during your PhD with your background. It's pretty common for people to come into an MD/PhD program with a plan for a phd in one department and then to join a totally different department, and you are proposing a less drastic change than that. Admissions committees will want you to thoroughly understand the work you are doing now, but they don't care as much that you keep up work on the same topic later.

Clinical research tends to directly involve patients (i.e., divide cancer patients into 2 groups. try 2 treatments. pick the better one). Basic usually doesn't, and it is more about answering 'how does X work?" but it doesn't have to involve cells. It can be non-clinical fMRI or whatever else you want ot imagine. Translational is usually taking things you learn in basic science and moving them towards a usable form in humans (maybe trying a treatment in mice that would eventually be used).

This is a little bit of a simplification -- the boundaries are fuzzy, and others might disagree.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dandine]

Your differentiation between basic and clinical research seems to make sense to me--thank you for your clarification! I think right now I am dwelling within that fuzzy region, as I have questions that don't exactly require treatment of patients, but there's that possibility of how those answers to the questions can be used to help patients as well.

So I shouldn't have any problem switching into a new department? How about in terms of lab techniques? I'm assuming, if I were an MD/PhD, that I would get a window of training in whatever lab I initially join.