How to get the most out of lab experiences
Once you land a coveted research position, how do you ensure you are gaining the most from your experience?
Throughout my undergraduate degree I worked in two labs. When first starting in these positions, I found I easily fell into the pattern of doing exactly what I was told and not go out of my way to learn more than the basic steps of the protocols I was doing. These are the tips that I found helped me grow as a scientist and as a person.
Learn a variety of new techniques
Many undergraduates get pigeonholed into doing one assay over and over again. While this can be beneficial as you learn the intricacies of the technique, as well as how to troubleshoot when things go wrong, learning a variety of things is very important. This makes you a better candidate for other positions and can help you identify what you like doing in the lab. It also shows your eagerness and drive to learn, which is a very important attribute of a scientist.
To do this, ask to shadow other lab members as they perform different assays. You may also volunteer to complete experiments for a a busy member of the lab, if they are willing to teach you and let you.
Repeat each technique multiple times
Although I previously stressed the importance of learning new techniques, you want to do each technique you learned more than one, wherever possible. The first time you are learning a new protocol, you often focus on where reagents are found, how to do everything correctly and other important, big picture pieces of information. However, you often miss all the small details, like understanding the significance of each step. Repeating techniques also makes you more familiar with the protocol. While the next time you do it you will still need to refer to written instructions, the more familiar you become, the easier it will be to preform the technique in the future.
Understand the science
It can be easy to add a few milliliters of this to a few milliliters of that, pop it in a machine, and bata bing bata boom, you have results. But do you really know what is happening? Why do you add each reagent, and why in those concentrations? To truly understand science, and your own experiments, you need to really understand what each step is and why you are doing them.
Understanding the actual science behind experiments you may be given is important for several reasons. Firstly, if the experiment is failing, or not optimized, understanding each step is critical for effective trouble shooting. It can help you narrow down at which part of the procedure the issue may lie, and identify potential solutions. Additionally, it can help you understand exactly what your data is showing. For example, it is easy enough to say a DAPI staining allows you to visualize all the cells of a tissue under a microscope . Knowing that DAPI is a nuclear stain, targeting adenine-thymine rich regions of DNA, you can more correctly say that all nucleated cells are illuminated by the stain. Cells such as human red blood cells would not be stained by the dye. Knowing the science behind all your steps is also important when presenting, as you may get asked questions on why each step is done. You better know the answer. You have been warned.
Learn what steps happen before you get a sample
Students, especially undergrads, are often given a sample, and told to perform a specific experiment on it. Even if you understand all the steps of the protocols you yourself are completing, what happened prior to you getting these samples. Who or what did they come from? How were they preserved? What other data has or will be obtained from them. What experimental conditions have they been under?
Knowing the answer to these and other questions will help you fully understand the science that is being completed. By broadening your knowledge of the overall project, you are getting more out of your experience, and can also prove yourself as an inquisitive and eager scientist.
Find opportunities to work on your soft skills
It can be so easy to see lab experience as a way to hone only the hard, laboratory skills. You will learn how to learn very specific scientific techniques and how to use various apparatus. Lab experiences, however, are the perfect time to work on soft skills. For example, public speaking and other communication skills are required for most jobs, even if you leave the sciences. Take every opportunity to present, such as journal clubs or conferences, and work on your academic writing, often in the form of reports.
Other skills gained through lab opportunities may include data analysis, organization (of literature, samples, or experiments), reading scientific jargon, and networking. These skills are often better transitioned to other labs or fields, so make sure to take every opportunity to improve yourself. No task is too small.