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What is it like working in a Lab environment?
Is it like how it's depicted? Do you actually get to continually work towards a goal in the lab with experiments/trials? If so how is it? And if not what is it actually like? I think I would be interested into going into a more biomedical field, something to do with genetics, and I genuinely want to think about if I'd enjoy it before I pay for college, y'know?
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Margaret’s Answer
Hello,
great question. Your experience in a lab may vary based on the field and institution you select. Some companies and universities will have more rigid schedules whereas tight deadlines exist while others you decide what and when you do your experiments. For my experience, I've worked in mostly gene therapy and immunology labs where benchwork is prioritized but also needs to be balanced with maintaining a colony of mice and supporting postdoctoral fellows as well. This looks like examining a schedule first thing in the morning, prioritizing projects, and then performing most lab work and analyzing data towards the end of the week. Any down time can be used for lab chores like autoclaving tips to keep them sterile and ordering reagents and supplies when they get low.
great question. Your experience in a lab may vary based on the field and institution you select. Some companies and universities will have more rigid schedules whereas tight deadlines exist while others you decide what and when you do your experiments. For my experience, I've worked in mostly gene therapy and immunology labs where benchwork is prioritized but also needs to be balanced with maintaining a colony of mice and supporting postdoctoral fellows as well. This looks like examining a schedule first thing in the morning, prioritizing projects, and then performing most lab work and analyzing data towards the end of the week. Any down time can be used for lab chores like autoclaving tips to keep them sterile and ordering reagents and supplies when they get low.
Updated
Karin’s Answer
Hi Sketch,
There are many different types of labs, e.g. a biology lab is different from an engineering lab or an analytical lab or a computer lab. It also depends if you are in a research lab or in an analytical/applied lab. But basically, all the STEM fields have some kind of lab where they do experiments, develop stuff and/or measure/characterize stuff. What exactly you would do in the lab depends on the STEM field, the purpose of the lab but also on your position or role in the lab.
In a research lab, there is usually a larger program/goal that people work towards and individual smaller projects that tie into the larger goal. The goal could be to develop a new device or to find a cause of an illness. The work focusses on the development or discovery of new things. The purpose of experiments is to find out which ideas work and which don't. Progress is often slow and most people would heavily underestimate just how long it takes to find something new and interesting and make it work and how many people in different labs are involved in new developments. The interesting parts of this type of work are that you'll do and see something nobody has ever done before. The frustrating part is that you'll walk down the wrong path 50 or 100 times before something works out.
The purpose of an analytical lab is more on application of established instrumentation and techniques to analyze things and solve a problem. In a pathology lab e.g., you'll investigate the cause of death or disease of people. In a genetics lab, you would analyze genetic material e.g. to determine paternity/ancestry or genetic diseases or the guilty party in a crime. In an environmental lab you'll analyze pollution in soil, water and air samples. In a materials lab you might analyze why a certain part failed (and who is going to pay for it). Those are all examples of applications of analytical techniques to solve problems. The work itself is mostly routine and high-volume (that's not to say that it's easy). They use mostly established techniques (although certain problems might also require the development of new protocols e.g. to lower a detection limit).
Now about different roles in the lab:
If you are a lab technician, your main role is in the lab. You'll do experiments/measurements following instructions, read up on experimental protocols, maybe you'll get to develop new techniques and write the SOPs. But you'll also do documentation, purchasing, cleaning of glassware, trouble-shooting of lab equipment and maybe training of younger staff or students. Your role is to be the expert in the lab.
If you are a student/postdoc, you'll have your research project or collaborate on a research project that is part of a larger project. You'll spend a lot of time in the lab learning techniques, doing experiments and analyzing data. You'll also clean glassware, fix instrumentation, read the literature, prepare posters, presentations and write papers. As you "grow up" in the lab, you'll get more responsibilities to direct your research.
As you move up the food chain, you might become a lab supervisor or a manager or a PI in a research lab. Your actual time doing hands-on research and being in the lab will become less and less and your time finding funding, talking to stake-holders, managing projects and people will become more. You might find the bureaucracy annoying and/or you might find the teaching and mentoring of students and junior staff rewarding.
If you are interested in the biomedical field and genetics, you'll spend many hours in university labs during your studies. Don't worry too much about the details of your future working life. There is no way to know where and in what role you might end up. You'll learn about your own preferences and different options to use your degree.
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
There are many different types of labs, e.g. a biology lab is different from an engineering lab or an analytical lab or a computer lab. It also depends if you are in a research lab or in an analytical/applied lab. But basically, all the STEM fields have some kind of lab where they do experiments, develop stuff and/or measure/characterize stuff. What exactly you would do in the lab depends on the STEM field, the purpose of the lab but also on your position or role in the lab.
In a research lab, there is usually a larger program/goal that people work towards and individual smaller projects that tie into the larger goal. The goal could be to develop a new device or to find a cause of an illness. The work focusses on the development or discovery of new things. The purpose of experiments is to find out which ideas work and which don't. Progress is often slow and most people would heavily underestimate just how long it takes to find something new and interesting and make it work and how many people in different labs are involved in new developments. The interesting parts of this type of work are that you'll do and see something nobody has ever done before. The frustrating part is that you'll walk down the wrong path 50 or 100 times before something works out.
The purpose of an analytical lab is more on application of established instrumentation and techniques to analyze things and solve a problem. In a pathology lab e.g., you'll investigate the cause of death or disease of people. In a genetics lab, you would analyze genetic material e.g. to determine paternity/ancestry or genetic diseases or the guilty party in a crime. In an environmental lab you'll analyze pollution in soil, water and air samples. In a materials lab you might analyze why a certain part failed (and who is going to pay for it). Those are all examples of applications of analytical techniques to solve problems. The work itself is mostly routine and high-volume (that's not to say that it's easy). They use mostly established techniques (although certain problems might also require the development of new protocols e.g. to lower a detection limit).
Now about different roles in the lab:
If you are a lab technician, your main role is in the lab. You'll do experiments/measurements following instructions, read up on experimental protocols, maybe you'll get to develop new techniques and write the SOPs. But you'll also do documentation, purchasing, cleaning of glassware, trouble-shooting of lab equipment and maybe training of younger staff or students. Your role is to be the expert in the lab.
If you are a student/postdoc, you'll have your research project or collaborate on a research project that is part of a larger project. You'll spend a lot of time in the lab learning techniques, doing experiments and analyzing data. You'll also clean glassware, fix instrumentation, read the literature, prepare posters, presentations and write papers. As you "grow up" in the lab, you'll get more responsibilities to direct your research.
As you move up the food chain, you might become a lab supervisor or a manager or a PI in a research lab. Your actual time doing hands-on research and being in the lab will become less and less and your time finding funding, talking to stake-holders, managing projects and people will become more. You might find the bureaucracy annoying and/or you might find the teaching and mentoring of students and junior staff rewarding.
If you are interested in the biomedical field and genetics, you'll spend many hours in university labs during your studies. Don't worry too much about the details of your future working life. There is no way to know where and in what role you might end up. You'll learn about your own preferences and different options to use your degree.
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP