How to get started

[Vaillant]

I emailed various professors at local universities concerning the possibility of working on one of their laboratories. I am now at one of the universities' pharmaceutical sciences center. As of now, I'm slowly learning how to use the various tools and perform various techniques related to molecular biology. I would like, however, to begin my own research project. The task at hand is to convince the principal investigator to be my mentor and guide me through the process.

How should I approach this? Should I formulate my own idea for a research project and propose it? Or should I simply ask him about the possibility of even conducting my own research project in his lab and go from there?

Thank you.

[deleted-71841]

Hi Vaillant,

I would say it depends on your situation. Some labs are not well equipped to run many small independent projects, or are restricted by funding sources (in other words, the money that pays for the equipment and materials might be assigned to specific projects). In addition, your PI might need you to continue focusing on the work you are doing now. However, it is not uncommon for labs to allow side projects, particularly small-scale ones that can be done in addition to your other work, or projects that build on an aspect of the main research. It would probably be best to start by asking if doing an independent project is feasible.

If you have an idea in mind that you are very excited about, it can't hurt to ask if your PI about it. But it's possible that the lab won't be equipped for the project, or your PI won't think it's a realistic project, so I would check with him before you put too much work into designing it. If you don't have any ideas, I would start by asking your PI if he has any ideas for you, and if not, tell him you'll look into a few different options. Finally, I would do a bit of research into a few possibilities, present them to him, and get his input on which one he thinks is best.

If you are very gung-ho about a particular idea but are constrained by funding, there are probably a few different grants geared toward funding high-school student projects. Here is a link to an NSF grant geared to high schoolers: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2006/nsf06027/nsf06027.jsp

Hope this helps!
Tricia

[deleted-71884]

I emailed various professors at local universities concerning the possibility of working on one of their laboratories. I am now at one of the universities' pharmaceutical sciences center. As of now, I'm slowly learning how to use the various tools and perform various techniques related to molecular biology. I would like, however, to begin my own research project. The task at hand is to convince the principal investigator to be my mentor and guide me through the process.

How should I approach this? Should I formulate my own idea for a research project and propose it? Or should I simply ask him about the possibility of even conducting my own research project in his lab and go from there?

Thank you.

Hi Vaillant,

The best way to approach this is to ask the PI if you can start helping out with projects or start doing mini-independent projects for a project that a postdoc or a grad student is working on. That way, once you start producing nice results, you will be able to convice your PI that you are ready to start your own project, but be patient. In the process, you'll learn a lot about one research project along with a lot about biology.

Another thing is that PIs also prefer that the project ideas come from you yourself. If you work with a postdoc on a project, you will have loads of information at your hand and you can think about new ideas for advancing those projects which can turn into independent projects for you.

Hope that helps!

-Sam