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Pre-Med Series: Working in a Laboratory

Working in a lab. Ah, for most of us this is completely useless, uninteresting, and only serves the purpose of filling out our medical school applications saying we contributed to the science community in some way. For others, this provides a truly unique experience that may have started as a pre-med journey, that turned into a passion to either continue to do medicine or go down a phD route.

And then there is the route I chose: I didn’t do it. I hate working in a lab. Despise it truly. If I wanted to do something tedious and confusing and be stressed out, I would at least choose something that I could pretend I liked. Lab work is just soooo (add another bajillion o’s) monotonous. Which is why I chose to scribe instead!

But this post is not about scribing (boo hoo for me). Instead I decided to grill my boyfriend who did work in a lab for many years (and actually enjoyed it?!?) with the hopes that if you are interested in doing this, how you can go about doing it, how it is helpful, why it may suck, and so on.

Strap yourselves in, this may get long.

Part 1: How to Get into a Lab

Okay so before you even try to get the volunteer hours, or possibly get paid to be in a lab, you have to figure out how you are going to even get your foot in the door. This was where my struggle started and stopped, and I didn’t go on from here. Lucky for you guys, you aren’t following my advice on this subject. My boyfriend was in charge of a lot of the new blood while he helped run his professor’s lab, so here is what he suggests!

Get to know a professor. You will have many different professors in undergrad. Get to know them as this will only help open doors for you. Maybe you have a professor who teaches you lecture, maybe you have a professor who teaches you lab, or maybe you just happen to know a professor that you decided to drop in on and chat with in order to get to know them. You will need to find a professor with an actively funded lab at the university/college, and get to know them first. It’s easiest though if they have taught you in a course, so they can judge what kind of student you are from their class.
Go see them frequently. Don’t get discouraged about being shot down; professors want to see that you are at least determined enough about being in the lab (so they know you are interested in investing your time). Basically they want to know that if they spend their own time training you that you will actually be of benefit to them, before they are willing to invest time into you. The better the relationship you establish with them, the better chance you will get to work in their lab; especially if you do well in their course.
Show up. The #1 worse thing you can do is show up the first time and then be flaky after that. Show up when you say you are going to show up. especially if they are expecting you to be there. Not showing up could cost them lab time, the experiment, or if expensive materials were needed to be used or accounted for that may go to waste. The professors work hard for grants and need to use the money wisely, not showing up could cost them mucho $$.
When you do show up, do not be high maintenance. Understand that every lab is different and every lab operates on their own internal rule system/ way of doing things. This means the way that specific lab teaches you to do something is how you need to act or perform the procedure, even if a previous lab you were part of did things differently. So don’t automatically try to impose your own way of doing things as this will only slow things down and possibly piss off the professor or lab techs, or even your direct superior in some way. Remember! Realistically you are a college student working with those who have phD’s in the field. So be useful, be open to being trained how they would like you to work in their lab, use the knowledge how you were taught, and try to absorb what you can.

Part 2: How Do You Know How Often You Should Be There?

Make yourself as available as possible. Remember how you wanted those volunteer hours and that experience? Well it’s not useful to put only 10 hours of lab time on your medical school application, and you won’t learn jack shit that way. So open up your schedule and be flexible. If you want the credit for doing something, you have to be available to do it.
Be there when major or high priority experiments/projects are being done. That is when the interesting shit happens.
If help is needed, always offer to be there. Trust me, this is something that you should carry with you to any future job as well (to a reasonable amount mind you). If you aren’t interested in helping out when it is needed, you won’t be contacted when cool shit happens.
The longer you are a part of the lab, the higher up you move and you will likely take on more responsibility. Did someone just say leadership role? Because I think I just heard that in the above sentence… The more exposure you have being in the lab, the greater chance you will move up the food chain and get to have more responsibility, obtain your own unique projects that you are in charge of, and help design your own experiments. You will thus have more access to the professor allowing you to learn more, and may even be able to put in your input into how you feel the lab should be operating or what direction the lab should move in next. This is big stuff! By this stage, the professor will have gained your trust and appreciate your intellectual input as you have worked with them in their lab for a long enough period of time. (Aka, they don’t think you are a pointless undergrad student that they can easily replace).

Part 3: How is This Beneficial?

Networking. This is a great benefit to you as a student. Working with someone in the sciences (your professor heading the lab) will provide you with someone who knows you both personally and professionally. You will likely know other professors who are on either side of your lab or other professors that your professor associates with that can also be of benefit to you. Working in the lab may also allow you to meet interesting people in that field should you get to go to a conference. On top of all this cool stuff, you will have a great, high quality LOR! (I bolded that for you kids here because we all know that’s what you are truly after). Should you get to attend said conference(s), you can also add this experience onto your CV/resume/medical school application. Additionally, should you move from volunteer to paid work in your lab, you will have professional work experience you can use in addition to the many previous volunteer hours you had!
Learning to present. At conferences, you may be an author on a poster. You may be presenting that poster to anyone who comes by- so this could be other students, other possible professionals that you may decided to work for in the future, other professors, other phD’s, etc. This is also a great way to start learning to speak professionally for your future interviews and possible conferences as a phD, MD, or DO.
Gaining those skills. You will be practicing with techniques which are variable given the field of work that you will be under. With this knowledge, some future classes you take may be easier if you already understand how to conduct these research practices. (For example, in molecular in the master’s program I took, we had an entire 2 lectures associated with conducting techniques that we got tested on. I sucked at this, but my boyfriend and friends who worked in a lab did very well with this because they already knew what it was!).
Can you say possible publication? You may actually get to be an author on a publication. WOO!!!! This is big points. Mucho points. GINORMOUS POINTS. Most people aren’t authored on any papers. My boyfriend currently has 6 published with the possibility of a couple more should they decide to publish their data, all from working in his professors’ lab for a few years. (Let me brag a little about my man okay? Okay thanks). This looks hella good on your application and shows that you can put in the work to get a good outcome.
Practice applying for grants. So this may only be of interest if you decide to go down the phD route or the MD-pHD route, or even if you decide to become a physician and then run a lab on the side. But, my boyfriend gained some valuable experience by having to apply for a grant. It also apparently looks great on a CV if you end up getting this chance. And if you decide you are interested in going the phD or MD-phD route, you’ll have practice doing it already.
Competency in something. Feeling competent in something by the time you apply and feeling like a professional are things you will gain by having this experience. You will have a higher likelihood of being looked at as a peer when speaking with phD’s due to the fact that you worked on research. This can additionally help you out on your interview, where you may be interviewed by faculty who have a phD’s, MD/DO, or other science degree.
Other academic routes. If you decide not go to medical school or cannot get it in, you’ll have a great starting point at getting into phD programs. OR, you can decide to go straight into the workforce with your experience from working in the lab. Apparently you can get a job as a lab tech, working at a research institute or university as a lab coordinator, can work for a biotech company, or even a pharmaceutical company.

Part 4: Cons

Time. You have to be able to juggle putting the time in for lab work, with studying and keeping up your GPA and other activities. As a pre-med student, you should already be learning how to juggle multiple things anyways.
Choosing the wrong lab. If you are in the wrong lab, you are not going to get the experience you want or the opportunity to have your own project. You may even be working with people who are obnoxious and its going to make it difficult for you to continue to work. Both of these options may make you feel like you are interacting less with your professor or lab techs. Unfortunately, you need to make sure you can get along with others and that you can jive well overall, because most places don’t give a shit if someone is obnoxious or hard to work with; you are still expected to do your part.

Culminating Conclusions:

Volunteer hours. Lots of them. (Maybe even getting paid down the road).
Possibly having your name on a publication (and or getting to attend a science/professional conference).
GREAT letter(s) of recommendation.
You’ll have multiple things to talk about in your experience portion of your application and to speak on in your interview. It’s tedious, but you’ve shown that you’ve stuck with something, and it likely has some sort of science/possible medical association to it.

Thanks for sticking around with this long post. Let me know what you think of this post in the comments and what sort of topics you would like to see!

KCU-COB: Insider’s Guide to Your Professors

As a former KCU-COBer, I figured you newbies who are about to start the program or who are thinking about doing the program might want some inside knowledge to help you out. A master’s program itself is hard. This is basically like a version of your first year of medical school. Any little thing to help you succeed will be worthwhile.

I might get a lot of flack for giving away this information, but the big-little program doesn’t get done right out of the gate for COB students like it does for medical students, so hopefully this can help you out. Although you do meet with your bigs fairly early on, it is usually one big to at least 7-10 littles. Versus medical students get a one-on-one big to little ratio.

I found my big for KCU-COB to be very helpful, but I couldn’t end up staying for my group meeting with her due to other meetings I had scheduled. Thus, I missed quite a bit of information handed off. Even though my big was always available via email, I didn’t feel comfortable enough to keep emailing her.

So, here is the list of professors that I encountered during my program and tips to succeed in their classes. All of them, and I mean all of them, will be more than willing to meet with you, email you, or stay after class to help you out. You just need to ask! All of these professors are extremely passionate about what topics they teach and it shows. If you are willing to learn, they are willing to help assist you. Hopefully some of this information will help you out during your time there!

Dr. Segars:

Dr. Segars teaches epidemiology in the COB program. I had never taken epidemiology before this course, but Dr. Segars knows most students have no idea what that course entails. Thus, he tries to give his students as much practice and exposure as possible. For his course, you should show up to class. I found his lectures incredibly helpful and engaging which helped me learn.

He also gives an ample amount of practice sets and has open office hours. Take the time to do his practice tests/questions and then if you need clarification, go to his office hours.

Tutoring: There is large group tutoring for his course. Go. It gives you a chance to see it again and my tutors gave us so many more practice scenarios which are different from what Dr. Segars gives you for practice sets. For this, you will just need to continually do some practice to make sure you keep understanding how to do his problems. I don’t think most students needed to consider one-on-one tutoring for this course, as Dr. Segars is pretty easy to get a hold of for questions, but if you feel you need it, be the best advocate for yourself.

Testing style: Majority of your tests will be multiple choice, but you will have usually about 2-5 essay questions on his exams. He always gives you the general topics of his essays in class before hand so you can prepare. However, he doesn’t post on blackboard the essay topics. So make sure you go to class (or at least be friends with someone who does).

Book: There is no book. Just his lecture notes, practice questions, and handout materials.

Dr. Agbas:

Dr. Agbas was part of a team taught course in my COB year. He was one of 4 biochemistry professors, and most of his topics were focused on the mitochondria. The mitochondria is his absolute favorite topic! He wears his favorite mitochondria bowtie during some of his lectures so be on the lookout for this!

He teaches about 5 courses in biochemistry, mostly ATP synthesis/CAC and protein folding. He put up a question forum on blackboard for each of his separate lectures for you to ask questions to him and your fellow classmates. I had classmates who would attempt to answer some of the questions posted, but usually Dr. Agbas would swoop in and give a more direct answer to clarify or decrease any confusion on the forum.

He does tend to hover over a few things that he is likely to test on (i.e. which cytochrome does not funnel electrons into the electron transport chain–> #2). But mostly he can pull from the entirety of his lectures to test on.

In biochemistry during my year they did have weekly quizzes, so you should be able to get a feel for how each professor asks a question.

Testing style: He tends to only focus on multiple choice questions.

Book: I found the book to be very helpful as I absolutely suck at biochemistry. I read that book a lot just to get the basic information down. There are practice questions in the book, but I didn’t find them extremely helpful for me. You can also use the Panini book (Medical Biochemistry An Illustrated Review by Sankhavaram R. Panini) on biochemistry. Some of my classmates found that more helpful than the recommended one (Panini is also the recommended biochemistry text for the medical school currently). **Some Professors will take figures from the Panini book without telling you where they referenced them from. They also tend to take some test questions out of this book…

Dr. Zaidi:

Dr. Zaidi is another professor that teaches in the team taught biochemistry course and molecular courses. She teaches a fair amount in both courses. For testing, she will pull from anything. She may tell you to not worry about something as she won’t test on it; but she may still test on it so know it. She may tell you to definitely know something because she’ll test on it; but she may then decide not to test on it. With Dr. Zaidi, you will need to know every aspect of her lectures. Unfortunately, that means you need to know the entire lecture which is hard to cram for, but if you keep up on her material, you should be just fine. Don’t leave reviewing her lectures until the night before the test, you will have a much harder time due to the sheer volume of information.

I suggest you spend sometime in her office hours as well if you need help grasping information. I did not take advantage of this, but some of her test questions were very hard and I should have spent more time with her to gain a better understanding of the material.

Tutoring: Biochemistry also had large group tutoring when I attended. I didn’t find the biochemistry tutoring helpful, but if you feel you need to see the material again, go to tutoring and decide for yourself if its helpful for you. If you feel you need one-on-one tutoring, be the best advocate for yourself.

Testing style: She tends to focus only on multiple choice questions.

Book: For biochemistry, see Dr. Agbas’s blurb. For molecular, I used the molecular textbook a fair amount just to get a better understanding of the topic. But remember, I didn’t really show up to class so I needed the extra help.

Dr. Kincaid

Dr. Kincaid is the course director for both biochemistry and molecular biology. She only teaches a handful of lectures in biochemistry, but she taught most of the first 5 weeks in molecular.

The easiest way to ask questions with her is through email or after class. If you feel you need additional assistance or clarification with her, catch her after class and see if you can go back with her to her office for the explanation.

She will tell you exactly what you need to know. She also taught my elective microbiology class, and in all of the courses during the review she would tell you exactly what she will pull test questions from. So make sure you go to her reviews, it’ll greatly help.

Tutoring: Biochemistry is offered as noted. There is no large group tutoring for molecular or microbiology. However, if you feel you need one-on-one tutoring, be the best advocate for yourself.

Testing style: She is also a fan of asking questions from multiple choice, short answer, and fill in the blank. You will need to know your material for this, but again, she points you in the right direction if she gives a review. For her essays/short answer she mostly wants bullet points so she can easily look to see if you have the information or not.

Book: For molecular I used the book a lot for her just to get the finer details. But our molecular book had a ton of additional information that wasn’t directly tested on. Again, I needed to read the book as I didn’t always show up for lecture. For micro, I only somewhat used the book; her lectures had more than enough information to study with.

Dr. White

Dr. White is the current dean of the COB and also teaches the last bit of molecular. He focuses mainly on cancer and genes. His lectures tend to be long, but the good news is that you’ve seen a chunk of it already through the various courses throughout the year. So if you struggled with it then, you should hopefully have a better grasp on it when his classes come around.

Tutoring: Again there is no group tutoring. However if you strongly feel you need one-on-one tutoring, you need to be an advocate for yourself.

Testing style: He likes essays. So you will have a combination of multiple choice and essays. He will give you the essay topics ahead of time. Usually, at the end of his lectures he has practice essays with the topics. Those are the topics he will pull from for his essay questions and where most but not all of his multiple choice questions will be pulled from as well. For his essays, he does not like bullet points. He wants the full essay style to be used. He does dock points if you don’t write in an essay format and instead just give him bullet points.

I found making multiple choice answers for his class helpful to help memorize the large amount of information over time.

Book: I didn’t find the book super helpful for his sections as his lectures were pretty all-inclusive of information.

Dr. Anderson

Dr. Anderson teaches both anatomy and physiology I & II, and also teaches the electives histology in first semester and embryology in the second semester. All of his courses, lectures, and testing styles are the same for every single one of his classes. This should be the first professor that you can grasp how testing will be for the entire rest of the year as he does not change much (with the exception of how he runs his reviews).

Dr. Anderson likes micro detail. It can be a lot to learn, but you will soon start to notice that the same information from lecture one or two for that test block will show up a few more times in his later lectures for the same test block. This means this information is important and you will see it on the test. He is also one who will blatantly tell you if he likes to test on something, so circle or star it, because if he mentioned it would be on the test, it was always a question on the test.

Go to his reviews. Dr. Anderson has done his reviews a few different ways, and because we had jerks in our class he had to change it frequently because people would cheat or find a way to directly replicate the information. Sometimes we would sit without phones or iPads and do his multiple choice questions given (which were very similar to his tests), or he would give us short answers, or he would provide us the list of slides that he pulled questions from. A couple of times he gave us the objectives he pulled questions from and to know how to answer those objectives. Every time was different. But the questions/topics that you see in his reviews will most definitely be on the test.

Oh and for embryo, he pulls a chunk of his questions from the end of the chapter book questions on the test. So know those.

Tutoring: No group tutoring is offered for any of his courses. There may be one-on-one tutoring available but I never checked this out. Again, if you feel you need this after talking to Janelle and your professors, you need to be an advocate for yourself.

Testing style: Only multiple choice.

Book: I did not find my anatomy book helpful at all. Instead I used the Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy if I needed reference or used sites such as Kenhub. I did use my physio book quite a bit though. I needed the explanations in the book for the figures he used if I didn’t have enough time to grasp what he was explaining in class or I needed a second look at the figure while studying. For embryo, he loves the book, so make sure you have access to that.

For histology, he provides you with all the slide images you will need to know. So you don’t need the book for any of the histological images. Dr. Anderson also provides you with the actual images from the book, and will point out what you need to know from them. The image captions from the book basically repeat the text. For the class, you do not need the book. My boyfriend stated he wanted the book so he could use it for later reference in medical school.

Dr. Shnyra

Immunology is hard. The topic is hard to grasp until you have all the moving pieces at the end and then everything starts to make sense. Which of course is too late because you all of a sudden show up to your last test and just then start to understand the topics… He teaches his immunology course the same exact way that he teaches it in the medical school, so expect it to be fast paced and hard, but if you have questions he is more than willing to answer them. He knows it’s a hard topic.

Dr. Shnyra bases his powerpoint layouts based on the book, and the powerpoints are pretty comprehensive; they just can be difficult to organize all of the information. The book itself was hit or miss for me. I actually used a separate book How the Immune System Works by Lauren M. Sompayrac which was recommended to me by Janelle. I found this to be incredibly helpful, but unfortunately I didn’t bother to look at it until a week before my final exam. The figures are great for understanding, there is usually a summary portion or you can find a subsection to look at if you have specific questions, and I bought an edition or two older than the current, so it was only like $5. Just know that you may find slight differences in facts between the internet, the textbooks, and his powerpoints: If this is the case, go based off of his powerpoints.

Testing style: Multiple choice only. He gives you practice sets before the test and you may see the same questions on the first test or very similar questions. Also, your first test is only worth about 10% of your grade. Your second is worth about 30% of your grade, and your final is worth 60%. The reason he does this is because he knows most people fail or do awful on the first test given the difficulty of the material. It’s to ensure you don’t flunk the class by the first test. (Now is not the time to throw the hissy fit about it. We all did it. But by the end of the semester we were hella happy he did it this way).

Tutoring: There is large group tutoring. Go. Sometimes it is hard to grasp the flow of his lectures just because of the new content. My tutors did a fantastic job of changing how they organized the material which helped make more sense to me than did the original powerpoint. It gave me a second chance to look at everything again and they were great at pointing out the high yield testing topics.

Book: Again, hit or miss for me.

I did not have Dr. Bittel as a professor as I did not have genetics, and a previous biochemistry professor is no longer teaching there. There were 1-2 professors who started to teach physiology in my second semester but I am unsure if they will show up for this next year. Thus, I will not be providing input as I do not feel it’ll be helpful!

Let me know in the comments below if there is additional information on this I can assist with, and what you would like to hear about next!