Finding a Research Lab to Work In
This is an excerpt from an e-mail that I wrote to Erik Hanschen while giving him advice on how to find a laboratory position to work/volunteer in as an undergraduate.
Why the heck do you want to slave yourself?
The first and most important thing is to know clearly and exactly why you want to work in a lab. For me, the reasons were very concrete and clear; I want to gain research experience and to learn different molecular biology techniques, in order for me to gain a step ahead when applying for top graduate school programs in cancer research. I’d encourage you to write down/type a statement of intent for yourself: why do you want to work in a lab? Once you’re done with that, further question yourself and ask why that reason is so important. Self-knowledge is very important when you present yourself to a PI for consideration; they want to see drive, passion and energy.
Early bird gets the worm, and maybe even two
Speaking of which, drive would lead you to search extensively and early. Typically, for a summer research stint between 2nd and 3rd year, a driven student would search widely at the beginning of 2nd year, have a short-list by the time his first or second mid-terms are over, and start contacting them at the end of the first term. My peers who did not search early were not driven enough, and as such found positions which were not necessarily within their field of interest. I contacted Dr. Ninan Abraham at the beginning of the term, and volunteered about 20 hours a week (his expectations were only 10) at his lab for two months before I requested to be put on payroll (I began thinking forward to my financial situation, and realized that I’d need to work for income soon). I wanted to continue in his lab for the summer, and brought that up at the beginning of term 2. But then he had a student coming back, so I couldn’t (seniority and prior experience counts); nonetheless, he helped me out by being my reference to Dr. Brett Finlay, for whom I work with right now. I contacted Brett around mid-February I think, which was pretty late already, but then thankfully I had Dr. Abraham as my reference, which helped greatly.
Get in contact
Now, for searching for a PI to work under, I’d suggest you make a long list of PIs whose work even remotely interests you. Or you can skip that entirely and list out only PIs whose work really interests you. After that, drop them an e-mail. Don’t worry about what words to use; every PI is different. Rather, focus on sincerely communicating why you’re interested in working in their lab, and focus on highlighting your credentials (for example, good marks are indicators of drive to succeed; prior experience in a lab is a good indicator of familiarity with a laboratory’s culture of research). Finally, if you feel confident enough to, tell them that you hope for a positive reply.
To find them, check out the departmental websites. For people who are doing bioinformatics specifically, you can check out the Michael Smith Laboratories; there are faculty who work specifically on such stuff. I’m not sure about biostatistics though.
Once you’re ordained as a labbie…
Keep up your dedication, passion and drive to succeed at work, and find ways to keep yourself motivated while doing the most mundane things like filling up carboys of water or aliquoting reagents. Or, if you end up like me in a virtual prison (just joking!) called the Microscope Room, where it’s really easy to fall asleep, bring your laptop or print sheets to record observations, in order to give yourself some positive distraction (that’s how I got past so many hours of repetitive motions of photography of immunofluorescently-stained slides dealing with cecal inflammation). Learn to think like a scientist, to be observant and to ask questions (always remember that the only stupid questions are the ones that go unasked). Best of all, learn to have fun with the lab and enjoy your time there!
