Apr 15
Industry News, Tips for your lab 1 Comment
Watch Morgan, an associate professor from University of North Carolina, discuss why research labs should be run as small businesses and how the universities’ stupidity contributes to poor research management.
Thanks to American Biotechnologist for pointing this video out.
Apr 06
When I started BioData I had a clear idea where I was going. I’d seen science from the inside and knew what change I wanted to promote.
This blog post is my reply to a Science Careers paper that was posted a few years back. In short, the article suggests that young researchers do not believe in applying (PM) Project Management to research while veteran researchers do.
I disagree. Project Management in research has nothing to do with age. We (shameless self promotion here) have about 650 active projects on our BioKM platform. They are being used mostly by students – not by their managers. Why?
Our research project module was born after I saw there was just too much stuff in some of the accounts. There was no way to understand the research story – you had a plasmid but you couldn’t understand why it was there, if it was ever used, what were the results, which protocol, etc.
Since I don’t like to write software that no one uses, I decided to talk with a few researchers that were collaborating with us at the time. All said – “No project management in academia,” “it will never work,” “you can’t manage research,” “you can’t really plan ahead.”
We heard that, and yet all that discouragement helped us understand the real challenge. Project management in research is a totally new concept and should be addressed in a different manner and with a different set of tools. Ganntt Charts won’t work, constraints and other limiting factors are obviously there, meeting deadlines is there, but they are just not the point.
The point is to understand the path and the questions you are asking. The point is not to repeat yourself (well at least not too much), and to let your ideas and imagination thrive so you can see the progress of your research. A good tool (even a notebook) would be a place for you or any future researcher working on your project to understand what you did, share your ideas and pick it up to take it elsewhere.
A research project is different from an industrial projects since it is mostly a sequence of question and answers, not milestones and products.
Research can be managed it just requires attention and thought.
Feb 22
Uri Alon, a PI in the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, recently published an article in Molecular Cell where he discusses how to build a motivated research group.
Motivation in a research group is very important as that is the way that work actually gets done. Its not enough to go uninspired through the motions and conduct experiments because if it doesn’t work out – what is going to push you to keep trying? I personally have spoken to many involved in research asking what it takes to be successful in science and research, particularly for those in the academic field. The two words I have heard over and over again are perseverance and motivation. Now that we have established that motivation is important in the laboratory, how can we instill motivation in our students, lab members, and maybe more importantly – ourselves?
Dr. Alon presents a study done by psychologists Deci and Ryan who have been studying conditions that enable self-determined behavior (such as motivation) since the 1970s. You can read the specifics in Alon’s paper, however the result of the study were a “surprise” because it seems ”that money and other rewards in these types of tasks apparently act to reduce motivation. “
The question remains: What makes people motivated?
Deci and Ryan concluded from a range of studies that there are three conditions for self-determined behavior: competence, autonomy, and social connectedness. Alon explains how he implements each of the conditions in his lab and how it has been successful.
Instead of throwing new, fairly inexperienced students into complicated procedures, Dr. Alon strengthens his students’ competence by taking the time to gradually build competence and confidence. Alon explains that easy steps allow for positive reinforcement. His experience has been that once a student’s confidence was boosted, “his motivation skyrocketed.”
The second condition essential for motivation is autonomy. Alon explains autonomy as “the sense that the project emanates from the person and not from an external source.” Threats and punishment are obvious detriments, however Alon was surprised to learn that intimidation also lead to a decrease in autonomy.
Social connectedness, the third of Deci and Ryan’s conditions, is when a student or researcher is taken under the wing of someone else in the research group. Alon describes how his weekly lab meeting has become an event that enhances his group’s social connectedness. Discussing birthdays and the news helps bring the group together. “Our connection to a community and a culture,“ write Alon, “provides us context and empathy during our struggles, celebrations and acknowledgment during our successes. “
Dr. Alon concludes his essay showing how to choose an appropriate research project using a method that he says enhances self-motivation. A Venn diagram shows how it is important for students to combine their passion, talent as well as the objectives of the lab to find a suitable project. Alon explains this theory, “Being in the intersection of talent, passion, and scientific objectives is motivating, because talent is related to competence, passion is an ingredient of autonomy, and shared objectives enhance social connectedness.”
This essay is very important, not because it brings a new message, but rather because it touches both on personal and group motivation – something not all PIs consider. While each lab member being motivated on his own is great, working as a motivated lab team results in more success and a happier research environment.
References: Alon, U. (2010). How to Build a Motivated Research Group Molecular Cell, 37 (2), 151-152 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.01.011
Feb 02
John Bochardt recently posted tips for editing laboratory reports in the Lab Manager blog. In the article he quite correctly points out that many laboratory professionals have difficulty in writing reports and that the process often takes longer than it should with the result being a poorly written report.
As scientists we have “scientific methodology” ingrained in our blood. This has provided us with a rigorously structured approach to science and has given us a formula for working towards success. Unfortunately, scientific methodology has also created an insular environment that has enabled us to hide behind scientific jargon and poorly written pieces of literature. One area that we can focus on to improve on our written work is the area of context. Context is the way we organize disparate pieces of information and random thoughts into fully developed ideas that flow. Context has become increasingly important in the scientific community. Years ago, biologists would often focus on their favorite gene and perform a million and a half different experiments to define the gene’s transcriptional and translational activities. While this was very useful in creating publishable results it was quickly discovered that it is much more effective to study a gene in context of it’s biological surroundings than in isolation. This gave rise to the field of genomics and proteomics and to the advent of microarrays, multiplex bead arrays and various other differential display technologies. Everyone now understands that while protein X may behave a certain way under one condition (i.e. acidic, basic etc) it likely behaves very differently under a different set of conditions and that the interplay between the multitude of biological materials (DNA, RNA, Proteins etc) is the key to our biological responses.
Just as we have discovered the importance of studying of our favorite gene in the appropriate biological “context,” we must define the organization of our experimental methodology and results in their appropriate “context.” This will provide us with more clarity and assist us formulating our written thoughts in the same structured manner that we approach scientific experimentation.
Jan 05
Industry News, Tips for your lab No Comments
BiteSize Bio’s Suzanne Kennedy has put out a list of upcoming conferences in the life sciences located in the USA.
She points out that it is important to attend any conference, whether it is one of the more popular ones or be it a smaller local one, as conferences “invigorate your mind and rejuvenate your passion for your work.”
See Suzanne’s list of the bigger, more popular life science conferences at Bitesize Bio’s blog.
Comprendia also has a comprehensive calendar of Bioscience Marketing Events.
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