What did YOU do as an undergraduate research assistant?

[FishyTheFish]

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What did you do as a research assistant in your lab? Is the position of research assistant considered to be a good quality research experience, or is it just performing small task (copying/faxing/filing/etc..) for the PI? (I already tried searching for this and it was not asked before)

 

[armybound]

You should ask the PI what your duties would be.

I helped out in a lab in an unofficial role in grad school. It was mainly helping run Westerns and such. It was a good learning experience about how to design and perform bench research, even if I didn't have any responsibility of my own.

 

[ur2l8]

Pcr gels westerns immunohistochemistry-sometimes busy work, but we have lab techs

 

[MangoPlant]

I'm kind of interested in this thread too. Is research assistant what most medical schools consider hands-on 'research' experience?

 

[pasiley]

I was in 2 labs and while different they both were very good learning experiences.

Lab 1 - I helped in several projects. I learned lots of new things and techniques. It made me very confident in a laboratory. I did not have a project of my own. Just helped others in a lab with theirs and while helping them they would teach me techniques and explain why we were doing this assay.

Lab 2- I had my own project that I completed from start to finish. Hypotheisis to outcome. The only thing I didn't do at the time was the statistical analysis (I didn't have stats yet) which the grad student did for me. I only performed one test over and over again on different animals but I learned how the process worked and got to trouble shoot my method.

At no time did I fax things or run errands for my PI. Undergraduate research should be about learning.

 

[mmmcdowe]

I counted the number of ants that entered and exited a nest over the course of 8 hours after a stimulus had been placed.

 

[carnelian]

I had my own projects; discussed goal with PI/superviser, came up with hypothesis, designed and carried out a series of experiments to test it, performed data analysis and troubleshooted experiments --> repeat. Very independent for this one; set my own schedule and wasn't really "told" what to do. Also helped out with others' projects when I had free time. Had some pretty nice results in the end; paper in review.

 

[FishyTheFish]

Oh wow, you guys seem like you had amazing experiences as research assistants! Do assistants normally get to do their own experiments or is it just the very lucky ones? Also did you guys get paid for your position as research assistant, or was it volunteer/ for credit?

 

[sciencebooks]

What did you do as a research assistant in your lab? Is the position of research assistant considered to be a good quality research experience, or is it just performing small task (copying/faxing/filing/etc..) for the PI? (I already tried searching for this and it was not asked before)

I'm in a health psych lab so it's a little different. Basically, I'm on one HUGE project and I do basic RA duties for that (coding, interviewing participants, etc.) -- basically we all do some of this to contribute to the most data overall. Then, a few of us are also independent researchers where we're running our own studies under the scope of the project.

I don't know many people doing copying/faxing/filing, but I do know that running basic experiments again and again is common. It's not a bad place to start, but don't be afraid to speak up if you want more responsibility in the lab after awhile.

 

[Amba]

Oh wow, you guys seem like you had amazing experiences as research assistants! Do assistants normally get to do their own experiments or is it just the very lucky ones? Also did you guys get paid for your position as research assistant, or was it volunteer/ for credit?

Depends on your PI. I got lucky and am able to present any hypothesis to my PI and he'll support (and fully fund) my testing of it.

Also, that lab is taken for credit. In my other lab, I get paid (like minimum wage haha).

 

[pasiley]

Oh wow, you guys seem like you had amazing experiences as research assistants! Do assistants normally get to do their own experiments or is it just the very lucky ones? Also did you guys get paid for your position as research assistant, or was it volunteer/ for credit?

At first it was volunteer but that is a stretch to call it volunteer work on our part, it really is volunteer work on the PI's part. I would follow them around while they explained what their lab did and the different projects going on in the lab. Then they would take the time to teach me the various techniques used in the lab. Once I became proficient they offered me jobs.

As for my project, for it to count towards my degree requirement, I was not allowed to be paid. Everything else I did to help in the lab, I was allowed to be paid for.

It depends on how much money they have to spare to pay you, there are other options like taking it for credit or getting undergraduate research grants.

My school required all Honors program students to have their own projects but I went to a huge research school. So it was very common to see people with their own projects. If you go to a big research school, it shouldn't be too hard to find a PI who will give you your own project. Don't expect to jump right in, you will first have to learn how the lab works and how to perform the tests.

 

[TheShaker]

Basically, the more you prove your potential, the more you get to do. Most people in my lab run their own projects after 1 or 2 semesters (designing, executing, troubleshooting) and look to the PI for guidance or when they're completely stumped.

 

[Ansar]

Writing MATLAB code for numerical simulations
Developing theoretical approach to results/hypothesis

 

[carnelian]

Basically, the more you prove your potential, the more you get to do. Most people in my lab run their own projects after 1 or 2 semesters (designing, executing, troubleshooting) and look to the PI for guidance or when they're completely stumped.

Yep, exactly. I started out learning techniques and helping out, but got to work on my own project later. This is common for most long-term research students I think. If you're doing a short summer-term research program, like SURF or REU, I think you get your own project from the start.

I did part of it for pay, part for credit, and part via a research grant. It varied, depending on which one I needed/had atm, lol. My PI was flexible.

 

[arresteddev]

I only have freshman year under my belt, but I did a lot of PCR and running gels. Essentially, all I did was gene cloning. It got monotonous, but I learned a lot. Anything that could go wrong with my PCR reactions did go wrong, so I got to troubleshoot and really experience science. My PI emailed me over the summer telling me to start thinking of my own project. So far, I'm not having much luck with that. In the fall, I'm going to continue with the project I'm helping with by creating DNA probes. Should be interesting to learn that. I'm excited! It's more about what I'm learning and mastering to me than the exciting titles of the experiments.

 

[sciencebooks]

Oh wow, you guys seem like you had amazing experiences as research assistants! Do assistants normally get to do their own experiments or is it just the very lucky ones? Also did you guys get paid for your position as research assistant, or was it volunteer/ for credit?

I guess technically paid as I got a grant through the school... Plus it feels like volunteering since that was a one time thing, 😛.

 

[Praefectus]

Pipetting 🙁

 

[TipToad]

RT-PCRs, Westerns, flow cytometry

 

[MangoPlant]

I only have freshman year under my belt, but I did a lot of PCR and running gels. Essentially, all I did was gene cloning. It got monotonous, but I learned a lot. Anything that could go wrong with my PCR reactions did go wrong, so I got to troubleshoot and really experience science. My PI emailed me over the summer telling me to start thinking of my own project. So far, I'm not having much luck with that. In the fall, I'm going to continue with the project I'm helping with by creating DNA probes. Should be interesting to learn that. I'm excited! It's more about what I'm learning and mastering to me than the exciting titles of the experiments.

I also have only freshman year finished (gen chem 1 + 2 and bio), do most PI's hesitate to take people who have not taken organic chem into their labs?

 

[tiedyeddog]

I got paid to cut tissue on a cryostat, fix it, and stain it. I think took pretty pictures. This was almost a year after I started on a volunteer basis.

 

[Narmerguy]

It depends on the PI. My PI expected the undergrads to work on a project assigned to them. You could mostly do what you thought it took to get the project done, but you had to be ready to defend your results and your rationale. It was fun but challenging (I also did computational research so that's different from most).

Probably easiest to find other students in the lab and ask what kind of stuff they do.

 

[coughsyrup]

I counted the number of ants that entered and exited a nest over the course of 8 hours after a stimulus had been placed.

srs?

 

[Josh7]

fabrication of biosensors. basically I am going to make "tatoo" circuits that stretch around the heart (of rabbits to test) and it sends back data to a computer about temperature etc. I have to use a clean room to make the microcircuits too so I get to wear one of those strange white outfits so there isn't any contamination 😉 Should be fun

 

[msamp]

dissected blaberus cranifer to obtain ganglia... what fun!!! Also did some work with Ascaris suum to monitor effects of NO.

 

[phonyreal98]

I worked in a lab in the Dept. of Psychiatry at my university

-Gave research participants experimental tasks
-Consented research participants
-Coordinated administrative issues
-Performed/assisted with clinical evaluations of research participants
-Collected neuroimaging data
-Analyzed behavioral and neuroimaging data using a variety of software packages (SPSS, SAS, Matlab, FSL)
-Helped prepare manuscripts/presentations
-Wrote an honors thesis
-Prepared a fellowship application

 

[lt1196]

If I wanted to do experiments of my own design, and I found it best to, for instance, visit thirty businesses and distribute a questionnaire I made, (the purpose of the example is to illustrate that it would be done most effectively outside of the school) is it necessary that the project be overseen by a university "academic official" of some type, like a department chair? What if I am no longer in school?

Sorry to thread jack... I think this is relevant, at least somewhat...

 

[HughMyron]

I remember watching mice run on a treadmill and noting down their progress.

For 4 hours.

 

[IndianaGirl13]

I started out learning PCR, running gels, imbedding tissue and cutting it, then taking pictures and doing cell counts. About a year into it I learned to do surgery on mice and rats as well as cell culturing with rats. Cell culturing involves killing the rat, decapitating it, dissecting the wanted organs and then breaking the parts down to test different chemicals on the fura machine. It's really cool! I definitely feel like an important part of this lab. This is a paid position.

 

[mmmcdowe]

srs?

Srs

 

[Miss Terious]

I also have only freshman year finished (gen chem 1 + 2 and bio), do most PI's hesitate to take people who have not taken organic chem into their labs?

It deoends on the lab. In my experience as someone who got into a lab after gen chem and bio, heavy biochemistry based labs wouldn't take me. I got into my current lab through the medical school associated with my school. That said, many labs like people to start out early in their career so they can train them extensively.



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[FishyTheFish]

Thanks for the responses everyone, I have one last question: If an undergraduate student were to work in a lab for credit (3 credits), would AdComs look negatively if they were only taking 13 credits without the research? In other words, would an AdCom frown upon someone taking 16 credits with 13 in classes and 3 in research?

 

[bluebillion]

^No.

 

[PreMedOrDead]

What did YOU do as an undergraduate research assistant?

Your mom.

 

[mehc012]

Junior year in highschool I primarily made buffers, gels, etc...

Senior year I worked in a cancer research lab...I had my own mini-project making a new fusion protein and getting a cell line to express it. It was mostly vector building, PCR, cloning, transfection, and cell culture. I didn't get to do much flow cytometry, but I got to interpret a lot of FACs data, so that was useful.

Freshman fall in college I did primarily fruit fly work.

Then there was an independent honors orgo lab where we were responsible for determining the structure of an unknown molecule, its precursors, and the mechanism of the reaction which formed our molecule. The profs gave us no input; they were there only to say if our arguments were logical and to stop us from hurting ourselves. We came up with our own procedures, implemented them, had lab meeting once a week to synthesize all of the individual results and figure out future directions, etc...it was very enlightening! While this was the most intense, I never had a upper-level chem lab without at least 1 quarter of independently-researched projects.

Senior year I did a chemistry thesis, so...my own project/data/etc.

You can get into a lab without course experience (I got in in HS). Honestly, it's not hugely relevant to how well you perform in a research setting!

 

[Ansar]

Junior year in highschool I primarily made buffers, gels, etc...

Senior year I worked in a cancer research lab...I had my own mini-project making a new fusion protein and getting a cell line to express it. It was mostly vector building, PCR, cloning, transfection, and cell culture. I didn't get to do much flow cytometry, but I got to interpret a lot of FACs data, so that was useful.

... in high school? 😱 Only people I ever heard doing research in high school ended up at MIT or Caltech or of those genius schools.

 

[thelullaby99]

I worked for a statistics professor.

- systematic review
- define research questions
- help the undergraduate who is supporting me
- write paper
- come up with something to discuss with oncologists (our research is related to cancer)
- etc.

I get paid.

 

[Fivo]

What did YOU do as an undergraduate research assistant?

Your mom.

 

[arresteddev]

I also have only freshman year finished (gen chem 1 + 2 and bio), do most PI's hesitate to take people who have not taken organic chem into their labs?

My PI actually was willing to take me in. He sees it as an investment for the future since everybody else in the lab was leaving that year. Granted, his post doc was the one training me. The PI got to leave and play golf all day

 

[PreMedOrDead]

.

👍

 

[mehc012]

... in high school? 😱 Only people I ever heard doing research in high school ended up at MIT or Caltech or of those genius schools.

Haha, thanks? I did end up at a really good school - not a research institution, since I thought those actually had fewer undergrad research opportunities, but exactly what I wanted: a small school with a no-loan financial aid policy, good science departments, UG research opportunities, and small class sizes (got to take several 2-student writing and primary literature intensive tutorials!) so I guess it helped!

I definitely had an advantage...my mom was a graduate student when I was in highschool, so I already knew most of the microbiology research faculty pretty well and had spent a lot of time in the lab by then!

Then again, while that made it more comfortable for me to request an internship, I was still accepted as a completely untrained highschool student. I think most PIs are less concerned with the courses you've taken and more concerned with your work ethic and critical thinking abilities. If you're willing to take the chance and personally ask them for a position, that initiative goes a long way.

 

[yankee4life]

How did you guys go about getting your positions as assistants?

 

[XCourtSmash]

What you do in a lab will REALLY depend on the field, the PI, and other fellow students in the lab (grad/post/undergrad/techs).

My first lab was a blast. Mix chemicals, almost free design. Run comparisons, do my own experiments. Got to do so much **** on my own. Published in couple of journals. Played guitar. Sleep in a cubicle. Work with photoshop. All as an undergrad. I honestly loved the experience.

I've also been in other labs where you do more paperwork, more programming, stuff like gels or animal care. Animal extracts, tissue analysis, tissue culture, etc. You really have to either ask to shadow or watch what they do to get a feel of it.

Some PI's expect you to devote your life to them. LOL. Yea sorry, but my goal in life isn't to be your slave. Avoid those.

Most PI's require dedication. Some want to see you daily working. Others are a bit better and know as long as you get **** down they don't care. Hell I show up at 10pm to do stuff. Might sleep all day in the lab, but I still got work done. So really it boils down to the PI and what they deem is required to work in their lab.