Starting Life in the Lab

1
Starting Life in the Lab

• Dr. Gail P. Taylor
• Hon 3253 Summer Research Mentoring Program

2
References

• At the Bench A Laboratory Navigator. Kathy
  Barker. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
  1998.
• Personal Experience

3
Your Goals for Program

• Experience scientific research
• Enrich your undergraduate education
• Prepare for doctoral education
• Gain required experience
• Build network/references/letters
• Build up CV with presentations/pubs
• Learn techniques
• Familiarity with field

4
On the Job Training

• Sink or Swim?
• Common to feel like fish out of water
• Learn by Osmosis
• Important to know
• Who is in the lab
• What to wear
• Who will teach you
• What to ask
• How do you fit in
• How NOT to annoy people
• How you will be evaluated.

5
Who is in the Lab?

• The Principal Investigator (P.I.)
• Research Scientists
• Technicians
• Postdocs
• Graduate students
• M.S. (UTSA graduate means M.S.)
• Ph.D.
• Undergraduate students

6
Dress Code

• Generally relaxed at UTSA
• Shoes/shorts
• ? cost of clothes, ? chance of spilling
• UTHSCSA tends to be more formal
• Industry more formal
• Lab Coats

7
Laboratory Instruction

• Some done by observation
• Generally a laboratory member will instruct
• Take copious notes!!!!
• Names
• Equipment settings
• Incubation times and temps
• Locations of chemicals and reagents
• Instructions
• Ask questions during instruction times
• Be polite about subsequently interrupting
• Do NOT mess up by not asking question

8
Things to ask about

• Dress code
• Time others are in the lab
• Eating in laboratory or food storage
• Computer use policies
• Chemicals location, who makes stock solutions,
  pH measurement, weighing conventions
• Trash disposal sharps, biohazard, recyclables,
  glass
• Glassware policies where found, washing,
  autoclaving
• Laboratory coats required, provided, cleaning
• Lab notebook provided, format, copies,
  non-removal
• Photocopying and printing

9
Things to Do Early On

• Read papers that you are given
• Cooperate with university requirements
• Laboratory/radiation safety
• Animal care and use
• Learn what is expected of you
• Learn techniques
• Do an experiment
• Learn the Unwritten Laboratory Rules

10
How to Annoy People I

• Work fewer hours than the average lab member
• Leave when experiments are unfinished
• Leave a mess
• Use someones pipettors, buffers, reagents
  without permission
• Move common use chemicals/reagents
• Use something up and not tell anybody
• Hide mistakes and things you break

11
How to Annoy People II

• Ignore alarms or phones
• Bad phone etiquette
• Ignore sign-up sheets
• Be loud, engage in horseplay, when others are
  trying to focus
• Read a novel, newspaper, or play a computer game
  in the lab
• Keep comparing this lab to a prior one
• Skip laboratory meetings

12
Fitting In

• You are a part of laboratory family
• Participate in laboratory socialization
• Tea
• Coffee
• Sports
• Complete laboratory responsibilities

13
Societal Microcosm

• Variable levels of maturity
• Variable strengths
• Variable social skills
• Variable insecurities
• Your goal
• To be mature and hardworking
• Key Communication!

14
What Your Mentor is Looking for

• What do you want on LOR for Grad School?
• Excitement about research
• Hard Working
• Teachable
• Learns from mistakes
• Thinking, not just performing (Ideas!)
• Digging into literature
• Problem solving
• Designing experiments
• Mature

15
Rewards

• Greatly enriched science education
• Insight into career
• New friends and network (letters)
• Leg-up for attending doctoral program