What's your research topic/interest?

[Richter915]

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So now that many of us have heard some good news, I'd like to know what you guys intend on doing your research in. What sort of graduate program would you like to enter (physics, chem, bio, etc...)? Does your future research line up with past research? What labs are you looking into for your rotations?

As for me, I'm going to continue doing research in the same lab I've been in for the past 2 years. It's a neuroscience/electrophysiology lab focusing on the structure and function of glutamate receptors.

 

[j-weezy]

So now that many of us have heard some good news, I'd like to know what you guys intend on doing your research in. What sort of graduate program would you like to enter (physics, chem, bio, etc...)? Does your future research line up with past research? What labs are you looking into for your rotations?

As for me, I'm going to continue doing research in the same lab I've been in for the past 2 years. It's a neuroscience/electrophysiology lab focusing on the structure and function of glutamate receptors.

can someone in neuro explain how toluene ellicits a dopamine-response in "huffers"? Does it bind to a dopamine-receptor or can it pass through the cell membrane and mess up transcription factors or something?

 

[Richter915]

toluene is able to stimulate dopamine release which is pretty much how many drugs work. My guess is that toluene binds to a receptor which will either directly lead to an increase in shuttling of dopaminergic vesicles to the membrane or it will activate a receptor that leads to increased calcium influx into the pre-synaptic cell.

in general, neurotransmitters are "pre-packaged" in vesicles and are just waiting for the action potential and calcium influx to go to the membrane. Toluene works too fast to be able to effect any kind of transcription.

 

[seraph524]

Huffers use toluene? What's next? A wide diverse array of benzene derivatives? 😀

As for my research, I hope to be involved in infectious disease or cancer biology (extension of my current projects), and to have a medicinal chemistry twist to them. Either that or anything involving pathophysiology and the potential of small molecules in treating them.

Some labs I have my eye on include Dr. Haslam's lab at WashU, and Dr. Greenbaum's and Dr. Sweeney's lab at Penn.

 

[magwi11]

I'm going into neuroscience. I've been working in a lab studying affective processing using fMRI (and other things); my main project has been studying children with psychopathic traits. While our little psychopaths are charming (and make very interesting interview conversation) I want to get into work related to depression or bipolar disorder.

 

[MNIkid87]

I will probably end up in neuroscience as well. I find the brain just way too fascinating. It's not a hundred percent in line with my past research experience (all my pubs and talks are in clinical psychology/psychiatry and psychosocial oncology), but meh 😛

 

[LunderKind]

As an ex-neuroscience person, I've been interested in the number of MSTP students who want to go into neuroscience (and have debated whether or not I would go back into it). For any of you interested in neuroscience at more the cellular or systems levels, can you have a clinical practice that relates to what you do in the lab?

Currently, I'm interested in cardiovascular research, in particular ion channelopathies. However, I could see myself going into either the molecular mechanisms of heart failure or cardiac development. Also, protein misfolding and its links to disease, something that's an issue with ion channels, has interesting application in cardiovascular, neuro, and many other fields.

 

[rddoms]

can someone in neuro explain how toluene ellicits a dopamine-response in "huffers"? Does it bind to a dopamine-receptor or can it pass through the cell membrane and mess up transcription factors or something?

I read that Huffed vapors, like volatile anesthetic gases, bind GABA receptors, and indirectly cause the release of dopamine.

Investigating a possible interaction of M3 receptors and L-type calcium channels in the feline lower urinary tract. 😎

 

[Ariodant]

Leaning towards neuro development/stem cell. And gee, so many fellow neuro-ers...makes me worry about job market🙂

 

[DeadCactus]

Trying to find the right mix between computational biomedical engineering, imaging/optics, and fluid flow dynamics. Leaning towards something along the lines of getting into research developing imaging/optics technologies (I mean, it's lasers! What more could you want?!) and using that to study the other topics that interest me.

It seems diverse enough to hold my interest for an entire career while still building a steady expertise...

 

[OncDoc19]

History of science and medicine!! Specifically history of cancer in the 20th century with a public health policy focus. Yay for social sciences!

 

[seraph524]

There's always one in every group 😛

 

[skillmatic]

Molecular/Structural Biology of macromolecular complexes. You know, the same ol' crap. RNA ftw.

 

[OncDoc19]

There's always one in every group 😛

Lol, thanks!

 

[Ariodant]

Better: there's always need for one in every group😛

 

[seraph524]

Better: there's always need for one in every group😛

👍

 

[jlamacc1]

My research interests have co-evolved with faculty/papers I've encountered in the past several months: structural aspects of host-pathogen and pathogen-pathogen interactions.
Structural bio FTW, but T cells for the kill!

 

[Maxprime]

Neuro here too - surprised by how many others there are in this thread. +1 for an electrophys lab (epilepsy) - my thesis will involve a combination of fancy MRI techniques and, if I feel crazy, some gene therapy. 🙂

 

[sternum17]

For my research interests, please consult j-weezy.

 

[Ariodant]

Fellow pre-neuros, any of you considering neurosurgery? I heard it's not recommended for mudphuds.

 

[Jorje286]

Neuro here too - surprised by how many others there are in this thread. +1 for an electrophys lab (epilepsy) - my thesis will involve a combination of fancy MRI techniques and, if I feel crazy, some gene therapy. 🙂

wow. Sounds like a very interesting (yet crazy 😉 ) combination.

 

[Myempire1]

Fellow pre-neuros, any of you considering neurosurgery? I heard it's not recommended for mudphuds.

i'm a mstp ms3 considering neurosurgery vs. neurology. i will most likely go into neurosurgery (but am still keeping an open mind for my upcoming neurology roation). i have gotten a little bit of negativity for being intereted in nsg. but not too much. it's alother long road though, so you have to love it (just like you have to love research do to a phd). i did plasticity and learning basic neuroscience research for my grad stuff.

 

[Ariodant]

i'm a mstp ms3 considering neurosurgery vs. neurology. i will most likely go into neurosurgery (but am still keeping an open mind for my upcoming neurology roation). i have gotten a little bit of negativity for being intereted in nsg. but not too much. it's alother long road though, so you have to love it (just like you have to love research do to a phd). i did plasticity and learning basic neuroscience research for my grad stuff.

Does neurosurgery have the fast track residency, and does the fellowship+1yr research also count as a postdoc? The five-year residency looks a bit intimidating.

 

[Myempire1]

Does neurosurgery have the fast track residency, and does the fellowship+1yr research also count as a postdoc? The five-year residency looks a bit intimidating.

Most nsg programs are 7 years. This includes 1 to 2 years of a of pretty-well-protected research time. The more research-oriented programs offer 2 years of research time. A few programs are 6 years total (with less reseach) and a couple are 8 years total (with 2 years research).

If you do cardiology, that's 3 years of medicine plus several years of cardiology. So if you want to do something specialized, it takes a lot of years.

 

[Richter915]

Neuro here too - surprised by how many others there are in this thread. +1 for an electrophys lab (epilepsy) - my thesis will involve a combination of fancy MRI techniques and, if I feel crazy, some gene therapy. 🙂

i need to get into the imaging business. That's the big thing in neuro, i feel like electrophys is old news now.

 

[GWD]

My PhD department is Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, although my fellowship appointment is in the Department of Surgery, Division of Transplantation.

My P.I. is a transplant surgeon (as I likely will be), so we study transplant biology. In particular the therepeutic use of mesenchymal stem cells in ameliorating allograft rejection, graft-vs-host disease, etc. It's pretty immunology intensive, but we do a lot of molecular stuff too.

We work in mostly murine and nonhuman primate models. The idea is (and many of our grants require us) to proceed to clinical trials with a lot of this stuff, so it's pretty in vivo oriented. I operate on a lot of monkeys 🙂

 

[Ariodant]

GWD, does your PI do transplant surgeries on any regular basis? I always wonder how does a surgeon keep his skills sharpened and compete with other surgeons while maintaining a lab.

 

[jsg1985]

I have not completely decided yet. I still have to apply to program, so I have a while to decide about my future. I have been very interested in mechanism of gene expression (PhD), and oncology (MD). Well...now only thing I have to do now is to get into one school. 🙂

 

[GWD]

Ario: Well, I can't speak for her, but I'll tell you what I know.

She is an extremely talented physician, a brilliant mind, and incredibly driven. She went to med school when she was 19, and was the first women accepted into a residency in transplant at Mass General (Harvard).

However, after her second child (who I believe is about 3 now), she realized that the lifestyles of being a transplant surgeon, as well as a mother and wife, did not jive together too well.

She continues to consult on the wards, and maintains her status as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, but to my knowledge she hasn't been a practicing surgeons (on humans) in a couple of years now. That's not to say we don't spend plenty of time in the O.R. though. As part of our research, we still do plenty of transplants on nonhuman primates, which I imagine is not terribly unlike operating on homo sapiens, except you are only out $10-20k for the animal if you mess up as opposed to facing a potential malpractice suit.

That brings up a good question though. We have a 5 year grant right now, with the first 3 years being pre-clinical on monkeys, and the final 2 years we are supposed to proceed to phase I trials. I haven't thought to ask her who will be doing the Tx once we hit the clinic.

The short answer to your question, though, is that I'm pretty much convinced at this point that she is actually an android and doesn't require sleep

 

[GWD]

Btw Ario, after reading some of the other threads here, I realized where you are training.

Interestingly, I just had dinner with Nancy Ascher not too long ago.

Small world.

 

[Ariodant]

Btw Ario, after reading some of the other threads here, I realized where you are training.

Interestingly, I just had dinner with Nancy Ascher not too long ago.

Small world.

And the world of medicine even smaller😛 I don't know Nancy personally, but definitely have heard of her. I wonder if she's still practicing nowadays. Though I like surgery, if MD/PhD surgeons eventually abandon surgical practice for research, I may well just go with neurology or radio-onco...

 

[MedRower]

How much do you think research interests should play in picking a school? Research interests can change over time, right?

 

[Maxprime]

i need to get into the imaging business. That's the big thing in neuro, i feel like electrophys is old news now.

Yes and no. The resolution in imaging is still bad enough that I don't see many revolutionary discoveries happening that we haven't seen in histology. The one area where I think this isn't true is tractography - but I'm biased b/c that's what I'm most interested in.

Electrophys still tells us so much more about what's really happening in firing cells. It's old technology, but is pretty tough to beat. Even the computational groups use electrophys to get data for creating their models.

wow. Sounds like a very interesting (yet crazy 😉 ) combination.

You know how it goes - start out with big hopes and dreams, then settle into reality.

How much do you think research interests should play in picking a school? Research interests can change over time, right?

I bet this is a case-by-case basis - people either know going in or have no idea beyond what field they want to do. Personally, I'd take a great PI at a less impressive institution than an okay PI at a more impressive institution. Grad school is a lot of hours in close quarters - I can only imagine how much worse it'd be if you didn't like the other people in your lab or your PI.