Sophie Arthur is a 3rd year PhD
student at University of Southampton studying embryonic stem cell metabolism.
She is also involved in a variety of other scicomm activities – she is admin
for a science bloggers database which you can join on Twitter @SciBlogHub and
is also the publicist for the Pint of Science festival in Southampton this year
– all of which you can stay updated on through her social media accounts. In
today’s guest post, she shares some more tips and advice about doing a PhD in a
lab environment in addition to those found in Part One.
If you want to see more about Sophie’s
life as a lab-based PhD student, she writes a blog called Soph talks Science
and is often showing insights into everyday lab life and attempts to break down
those stereotypes associated with being a scientist on her social media
accounts which you can follow in the links below:
I’m
back with some more tips! After reading Volume 1, I realised I missed out some
crucial advice so I just had to write a second volume of my lab-based PhD
survival guide.
So,
what did we learn from the first volume? You need to stay social, get talking
about your research with anyone who will listen, do not be afraid to ask for
help and, probably the hardest one to accept, just come to terms with the fact
that experiments will inexplicably stop working more often than you think! If
you missed them, check out my lab-based PhD survival guide part one.
Be super organised and super flexible.
Organisation
is the key to doing a PhD – from organising your day, to organising your
samples to organising your results and files. If you’re about to embark on this
amazing journey that is doing a PhD – I implore you to start this right from
the beginning. Your final year self will thank you! Now when I say be organised
– I mean everything! I label every sample I get and number them, they are all
stored in various boxes which are all labelled too. I have a spreadsheet with
all the sample numbers, what those samples are and what box you will find them
in plus the page numbers of my lab book that I collected those samples,
processed those samples and used those samples in whichever experiment I needed
to. That might sound like overkill! And it probably is! But it makes your work
so much easier to follow! I also think it’s crucial to write down the lot
number and catalogue numbers of the reagents you use – especially antibodies if
you use so many like I do. It might explain an issue you encounter if you have
changed lot recently. Every buffer you make up to – make a note of that in your
lab book – it might explain a technical issue you’re having with your Western
as you might have got the wrong pH buffer. Basically, let your lab book be your
bible and keep it up to date! I usually do it at the end of every day before I
go home.
Flexibility
is not something every PhD student will have the luxury of – but it is one of
the joys of doing a PhD in an academic lab. If you fancy starting at 10am and
working later, or if you are an early bird and want to start at 7am and then be
out of there by 3pm then you have the option to. But obviously – get your work
done and don’t overdo it! There is no point in doing 10am-3pm every day and not
getting the most out of your PhD experience. You also have to be accommodating
for your lab mates needs too. You might need the same piece of equipment so
communicate so you can stagger your start times, or reschedule your work for
another day and do something else today!
A happy workspace is such a key
influence.
I’m
talking about your desk – at home or at work! Personalise it, surround it and
fill it with pretty, inspirational and motivational things. However you decide
you want your desk, maintain it! Because you don’t want to come out of the lab
and then be faced with a messy, unorganised desk if you’re a tidy person for
example. I try to keep my desk as de-cluttered as possible. All full lab books,
my transfer thesis and previous writing, as well as protocols and reagent
datasheets are all on the shelf above my desk. In the very near vicinity but
not piling up in my workspace. The edge of that shelf is laced with post it
notes of key things I need to reference quite often, like antibody dilutions
and calculations I often use. There’s some motivational certificates that I’ve
won and a few of my favourite photos to spur me on when those experiments have
failed inexplicably yet again!
Now
you will not be able to get through your PhD without a few desk essentials! I’m
talking coffee (I’ve heard this gets most
PhD students through the day although I don’t drink it myself!), a cute
water bottle, funky pens, pencils and diaries and of course a reliable
computer! Reliable is the key word there as it has got to last you 4 years in
my case! Put some snacks in your desks drawers that are going to keep you going
on those long late nights in the lab too! It is so important to have an area
that is your own even if it is surrounded by other people in the office that is
going to help you get to the end of that day and make the most of each and
every day – because trust me those days will quickly become fewer and fewer and
the pressure to finish and submit only gets bigger so you need an area that
will help you work!
Headphones will be your saviour!
These
are an essential part of being a PhD student in the lab, or even in the office
if you need to shut out your noisy colleagues. Whether it’s music, podcasts or
audiobooks you listen to, it can make even the most dull and tedious of tasks
like loading a 384-well plate for qPCR or aliquotting 100 plus vials of that
new growth factor that was delivered a breeze. Ideally, invest in some wireless
headphones to avoid dragging your beakers, pipette tips and nasty chemicals
across the bench and causing spillages and breakages all over the floor. I love
listening to language podcasts whilst working to try and improve my linguistic
skills so you can often find me wandering around the lab speaking French,
asking where I can find the train station and ordering some roast beef!
Noise-cancelling headphones are also useful for drowning out your lab mates
when they’re being annoying – just kidding, I never do that I swear!
Keep your supervisors and lab mates on
side!
Speaking
of lab mates, keep them on Team You! That goes for all your supervisors too –
no matter how difficult that may be!
The
vast majority of lab mates will help you out you just need to ask them! They
will also be the ones that train you in all the different experiments you need
to learn – so please, please, please listen to them and I mean actually listen
and take in what they are saying. They don’t expect you to know everything after
just one time, but if you are asking them the same question for the sixth time
in a row when they’ve asked you to write things down – they are going to get a
bit peeved off! Also, make sure you do your lab chores to keep in your lab
mates’ good books whether that is making up the Western blotting buffers,
refilling the ethanol bottles, emptying the bins or restocking the stripettes
drawer – just do it! It will make your life easier when it has all been
restocked before you want to use it and your lab mates’ life easier! Keeping
them on side will maintain that support network that they offer you. You can
keep asking them questions about things you’re unsure of and they will share
those tips and tricks for the experiments so you can keep those precious results
coming – as well as all the non-lab advice about where the best restaurant is
in town as they have been there longer than you!
If
you have that support network, you must talk to them if you have any problems.
No one can help you if they don’t know about an issue and then they think you’re
a) not listening to them or b) not doing anything in the lab if you’re not
producing any results – whether those results are good or bad it doesn’t matter!
That tip extends to your relationship with your supervisor.
Your
relationship with your PhD supervisor is undeniably one of the most important
aspects of your PhD journey. Great supervisors are supportive and inspiring,
and push you to grow and shape you into the scientist you were born to be! But
as with most relationships – it’s a two way street! If you’re not pulling your
weight in the lab to progress, then they are not going to stick their neck out
to help you decipher a problem, discuss your work or give you advice on how to
nail that conference abstract or get that dream job.
Luckily
I only have two supervisors which makes my life far easier as they are less
likely to disagree on which path to follow and what experiments to do next –
and so it is easier to keep them all on side. But I still pull my weight and
keep them updated on what I’ve been doing in the lab whether I have good news
or bad news to share! Your supervisor will appreciate the communication and
being kept in the loop. After all, they did all the work to write the grant and
get the funding for you do to your research and they chose you to be a part of
their lab! Don’t make them regret it!
It is hard!
You
will be pulling your hair out! You will be questioning why you started and you
will be questioning if you can actually do it! Once again it is a normal part
of the PhD journey. There are highs and there are lows, but unfortunately
mainly lows. But when you get that one high and you get that break through, it
is so incredibly worth all the hours, blood sweat and tears and you forget
about all the dark days that got you to that point. Trust me!
The
first few months of my PhD was testing out all the different antibodies I
needed and optimising them for Western blots and immunocytochemistry. I didn’t
feel like I was getting anywhere because there were so many that didn’t work.
But since then I’ve just got on with it and generated lots of interesting data
which I’ve written up into a 220 page transfer thesis recently! You need to
manage actually being in the lab, with reading to make sure you know about what
advances there are in your fields of interest while trying to maintain your
mental health and have a social life and any writing you may need to do for
reports or theses or publications! There is always something you need to be
juggling. You will panic at the beginning but by the end you will be a pro at
prioritising and time management!
That
support network I’ve mentioned before – it is essential to surviving a PhD.
Colleagues, friends and family are all going to be there for you. So spend some
time with them, take your mind of all things lab and listen to how much they
want you to succeed and how much they are supporting you!
Never compare yourself and your PhD to
others
Much
like your DNA is unique to you, your PhD is also unique to you! Each student,
even within your own lab group, has different experiments to do and some of
those experiments may take longer than yours or maybe not as long as yours.
They might be doing an optimised method that is routinely used whereas you are
developing a new technique from scratch. They seem to have so many more results
than you. They have been to more conferences than you! The thoughts of
self-doubt mounting and mounting!
All
of that does not matter! You could write an entire PhD thesis full of
experiments that revealed no new data. In fact, those results in themselves are
new data and information because it is showing you that Protein A is not
affecting Protein B for example. There will always be something useful that
will come out of it.
I
have been quite lucky in the fact that I feel I can organise myself and time
manage quite well, so I am often reeling out Western blot after Western blot,
and in addition to being very lucky in the fact that every avenue I have
explored so far in my research has produced some really interesting data. But
I’ve also seen fellow students in the lab have to wait months to get that first
result. Now it might look bad if you weren’t in the lab all the time, but these
guys are hard workers and it’s just the nature of their PhD that requires a
longer time between getting results.
As
long as you’re on top of the things you need to do for your thesis, then that
should be your main focus and priority. Yes, help friends out if they need it,
because you might want them to help you out at some point down the road too.
But what results you have and what results they have are incomparable and not a
reflection of your capabilities in the lab!
I’m
not going to lie to you – those feelings of self-doubt and uncertainty will hit
you hard at some point during your PhD journey, but they do eventually subside
once you earn your metaphorical lab PhD stripes.
Before
you know it your time in the lab will be up and you will be a Doctor! You will
be an expert in your field and you would have gained so many other skills than
just doing a PCR experiment or staining some cells. Stick at it, talk to people
about lab stuff and things outside the lab, but most importantly enjoy the
experience!
