Undergrad Research Tips: Lab Work
Transitioning from academic research to industrial research has been an exciting experience. Of course, I suffered from imposter syndrome when I started my first job—but at some point, I realised: Oh my god, I actually have the skills to do my job.
I went from studying anemone toxins to characterising antibodies. My undergrad research experience helped me transition into my new job. A lot of the soft skills, core knowledge, and technical skills came in handy. In my first post on undergrad research, I mentioned there were three main parts: literature review, lab work, and writing. I've covered the literature review section, so I will pick up from last time and talk about lab work.
You can read my previous undergrad research tips here:
https://lifesciencepotluck.tumblr.com/post/174020398950/undergrad-research-tips-the-big-three
https://lifesciencepotluck.tumblr.com/post/178247479510/undergrad-research-tips-literature-review
Have an actual plan: I can't emphasise the importance of planning your undergrad research project. It's frustrating to meander around for a year and then rush writing a report or thesis at the last minute. Sit down with your mentor to come up with a flow chart of experiments and a timeline for your project. Set deadlines for data collection, data processing, and writing the first draft of your thesis. You will always need more time to write than you think. Sometimes, your strategy or experiment won't work. Discuss a backup plan with your PI for your project.
Maintain a good lab notebook: Keeping a good lab note is the first step to doing proper research. Every time you run an experiment or learn a new technique, write it in your lab notebook. You should include the date, the aim, the method and the results in your entries. Make clear notes on how you analyse your data, general observations during the experiment, and any deviations from the procedure. For example, maybe you saw a few particles in your protein sample, which could impact your results—write that down. If you're not a fan of pen and paper, OneNote or Evernote is a good alternative. I recommend you read this post on lab notebooks: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/09/how-keep-lab-notebook
Back up and document everything: Computers crash; thumb drives vanish. If your data is that precious, then you should back it up. Maybe you're using a mass spec, and you spent hours analysing your data. Don't think to yourself, 'I'll take the final processed spectra, it's not like I'll need the raw mass spec data.' You will need the raw data if you misinterpreted the data or you processed the raw data the wrong way. Keep copies of the raw and processed data just in case.
Double-check your calculations: Sometimes, something as small as calculation errors and preparing the wrong concentration of reagents can screw up your experiments. Always double check your calculations. Did you use the right volume or formula? Did you convert the units properly? If you can't calculate things on the spot and start your experiment right away, it's okay. If you're preparing tonnes of samples, use an excel sheet. Instead of, you know impatiently jamming numbers in the calculator, forgetting something or accidentally erasing something and then recalculating things for the fifth time.
Read and annotate the SOPs: A lot of labs will have their own SOPs, which give you step-by-step instructions for conducting specific experiments. You can highlight important conditions like incubation temperature and times. You can also and make notes on why the SOP has specific reagents and steps. You can include a flow chart to summarise all the steps in the experiment. Most importantly, you can use pretty colours!
Prepare for each experiment: When you use a machine or do an experiment for the first few times, you will have to refer to your notes, and that's okay. It's safer to check your notes than accidentally wrecking expensive equipment. I like to make a checklist of things of the critical steps, and I tick them off as I go along, so I don't forget anything. It's a good idea to make a 'do not' list, where you list possible things, which would damage the equipment or the ruin experiment. Keep referring to list, until it's lodged into your subconscious and you have vivid nightmares about forgetting to balance the centrifuge, before pressing start.
Do things the proper way: There is a difference between doing something and doing something properly. There is a proper way to weigh things; there is a proper way to pipette samples. Pipetting errors can ruin experiments, especially when getting concentration of your sample right is critical. The gist of pipetting is you press the plunger thingy, suck up a bunch of junk, press the plunger again and dump your junk in another tube. Of course, there's more to pipetting, from your speed to pipetting angle. Students should learn good pipetting practices early on, so proper pipetting becomes a habit. There's are tonnes of websites with GPP tips. Here's one of my favourites: https://www.biosistemika.com/blog/tips-to-improve-pipetting-technique/
Read the manual and learn about the technique: It takes months, sometimes years of practice to master a technique or instrument. Hands-on training is vital for learning any lab technique, but it's crucial to understand the theory as well. Start with the manual, understand the anatomy of the machine, and screenshot the troubleshooting guide. Once you know the basics, you can read papers, which dive into the strengths, limitations and blind spots for each technique. There's someone out there who has dedicated their entire life to developing and optimising one method. I may not have the same of expertise with CD spectrometer as a physicist. However, having a deeper understanding of the physics behind the technique, will help me with interpreting the data and making most of the technique.
Play with the software: A lot of instruments like mass spec or HPLC, have snazzy software, which allows you to run experiments and analyse data. One of the best ways of learning how to use these kinds of software is by playing around with the tools and exploring all of the options and icons. If you get stuck or you're curious about a specific feature, you can use the help option. Most technical software will have help guides within the software, with an index containing a variety of topics. Ask your mentors if there are spare data files, which you can use for practising data analysis. The first few times you analyse data, it's easy to have a lot of doubt and uncertainty about your data interpretation. As you analyse more data, you become more confident and better at spotting very subtle details. Sometimes, the manufacturer will have a series of videos on how to use their software. When I was learning how to analyse data for DSC, the TA instruments YouTube channel was a lifesaver.
Take care of yourself: I have seen a lot of students joking about how they stay overnight in the lab, skip lunches, and spend every spare waking moment running experiments on a daily basis —none of this is healthy. It's so easy to isolate yourself from your support system and neglect your wellbeing as you become engrossed in your project. The most important thing you have as a researcher and a student is your mind and your body—take care of yourself.
Initially, I was going to write one post about report writing, but I have really gotten into scientific and technical writing. So, you can expect more posts about scientific writing.













