How to choose a wet lab?
“I came to the dean’s office, where they asked me if I was afraid of brains as a research model. I answered no, and two years later I left biology, because I was tired of such an attitude, ”- it would be wise not to start the article with a negative, but this experience helped me at one time find my own career path, with what I want to help you. Today we will talk about how to choose a wet lab, what you should pay attention to, as well as red flags.
Model objects and methods
Once, one person told me that I need to choose either a model object or a method with which I want to work. The statement is controversial, but in the absence of a clear understanding in which area you want to develop, advice can be useful. Model objects — organisms which you will study and work with. It can be cells: protozoa, bacteria, eukaryotes. These can be plants or fungi, lichens, vertebrates and invertebrates. There are classic model objects, such as Drosophila, mouse, rat, Arabidopsis, etc., but you can also meet unusual naked mole rats or lampreys.
Depending on the task of the study, the most suitable model, or even several, is selected. If you do not want to work with vertebrate animals, for example, mice or rats, due to ethical reasons, you have allergies, or you are simply not interested, no one forces you to choose a laboratory that deals with them. Even if you like a lab that does research on animals, you can find out if there is an opportunity to work with another model object as part of the research.
At the undergraduate, even graduate level, it can be difficult to formulate a scientific problem that interests you, and therefore it can be useful to gain experience with different model objects. In addition, the above examples are very general, when, for example, a model object can be a separate tissue, cells of malignant tumors, a gene, and so on. Try to start from the general and come to the particular, what will be of interest to you.
Methods — research methods that you use in your scientific work. Why is it possible to focus on methods in choosing a laboratory, you ask? Many methods can be found in different areas of research, working on different model objects. Studying mice, cells and plants, you can use the same kit: western-blot, real-time PCR, sequencing, histology. This, in my opinion, is the methodological basis of the wet laboratory. However, there are more complex, narrowly focused methods. Mass spectrometry, MRI, epigenetic methods — a small list of what you can focus on when choosing a direction. An important aspect may be the desire to work with a specific method on a model object that does not suit you. In this case, you can ask to delegate the work by hand to one of your colleagues, and take over the data processing.
Publication activity
The number and level of publications is one of the main criteria for assessing the scientific success of a researcher and his laboratory. If the laboratory published several articles per year in decent international journals, then this is already considered a good indicator. You can view a list of publications on the lab website, or you can search NCBI or Google scholar to see the latest publications directly from the head of the lab. Read the latest articles, evaluate the level of data, representativeness, methods and objects that are presented there — all this will help you determine how interesting the laboratory is to you, as well as how good it is.
What is your overall impression of the laboratory?
Go scout. If you have the opportunity, ask your supervisor for a personal meeting to chat with him offline, see the laboratory, and meet potential colleagues. So you can evaluate the equipment of the laboratory, its convenience, and the attitude of employees towards it. How spacious is it, is the office where you can do data analysis and the wet part separated, how far apart are they, are there work computers or will you need to carry a laptop with you? Also, technical support correlates well with the financial support of the laboratory. If there is an old laminar in it, and the microtome saw the beginning of the twentieth century, then potentially, the ability to pay you a salary, finance participation in conferences, schools, publish in expensive journals, in the laboratory is low.
What do potential colleagues say?
Be sure to ask the opinion of someone who has been working in the lab for some time. You can find out how long he has been working on, what projects he has, how he handles work-life balance, how paperwork and communication are built in the laboratory both with colleagues and with the head of the laboratory.
If you are greeted with the words that 10 people left in a year, do not think that it will be different for you. If one person left because of internal conflicts, then this may not be an indicator, but 10 people are almost a statistic. You can also talk to the laboratory secretary, if there is one, a technician / laboratory assistant, or other students.
What if you ask Alumni?
What do graduates say? This is an excellent indicator of the success of the head of the laboratory as a leader. On the website of the university or laboratory, you can search for the Alumni section, which lists graduates of different years. You can most likely find them on ResearchGate or Linkedin. Write a letter, tell them that you are considering a laboratory for work on a master’s or candidate’s thesis, ask their opinion, ask how long it took them to defend and whether they reached it. You can also ask their general impression, the pros and cons that they have identified for themselves during their studies, what nuances you should know and advice they can give you. Be polite and clearly state the reason why you are writing. The scientific community is friendly to polite and interested students. And don’t be shy!
Choose wisely, don’t hesitate to ask the opinion of acquaintances, colleagues and alumni! And remember, it is OK to leave a lab where you are not comfortable, not interested, not happy!
Author: Alena A. Kozlova
Edited by: Timofei Ryko
