Aspiring PhD

When I first joined a lab, there were so many terms that were new to me. Here, I have highlighted some of those research terms! Periodically, I will add more terms to this list.

Lab Members:

• Principal Investigator (PI): The person that is responsible for the entire research project, i.e. the “boss” of the lab.
  • This is often a professor, but doesn’t have to be.
  • Holds either a PhD, MD, or both. 
  • In essence, their job is securing grants for independent research. To that end, while young PIs might still perform experiments, eventually they reach a point in their career where they no longer have to and just provide high-level guidance.
  • Some PIs are very hands-off while others are in the lab everyday, so your mileage will vary as to how much direct contact you have with them.
• Postdoctoral researcher (Postdoc): A position for a person who has earned a doctoral degree (e.g. PhD) and wants to gain more experience before they pursue a faculty position or a different career. This position is often for 2-4 years, and they often mentor graduate students in the lab.
• PhD Student: A graduate student in a doctoral program that will take 4-6 years (in the U.S.) to complete. This is often who you will be mentored by as an undergrad!
• Lab Manager: The person who makes sure that the lab is running smoothly on a day-to-day basis. Their exact responsibilities vary from lab to lab, but they often manage ordering of reagents/supplies, general lab maintenance, and onboarding of new lab members. 
• Research Assistant/Technician (RA/RT): A person who assists lab members with conducting research, sometimes hired to help with a specific protocol. They may also have their own projects they work on for the lab.

Types of Labs:

• Wet Lab: Research in a laboratory equipped for experiments that may involve chemicals, cells, human or animal tissue, animal models, etc. Such labs may be outfitted with fume hoods and biosafety cabinets.
  • Cell culture: Growing cells in an artificial environment.
  • Aseptic technique (in a biology lab): A set of practices for mitigating the contamination of cell cultures. For example, one practice is applying 70% ethanol to most things that enter the biosafety cabinet, including the outside of your gloves. Please see this resource if you want to start familiarizing yourself with aseptic technique for cells/tissues: ThermoFisher Aseptic Lab Techniques.
  • Biosafety cabinet: Used for safely working with biological hazards, enables the user to work with cells in a sterile environment. Often equipped with UV lights to help sterilize the inside of the hood after use.
  • Fume hood: Used for safely working with chemicals (e.g. preventing the user from inhaling any chemical vapors).
• Dry Lab: Research in a computational setting involving data-driven research (e.g. bioinformatics) and/or theoretical research (e.g. computational modeling).
  • Labs can be a combination of both wet lab and dry lab, with lab members specializing in one or the other or even both.

Other:

• R1/R2/RCU: A research classification given to universities that measures how much importance they place on research. This is based on their annual research expenditures and/or the number of doctoral degrees they award annually. R1 indicates the highest research focus, where the university must surpass $50 million spent on research and award at least 70 doctoral research degrees. For R2, the criteria is at least $5 million and at least 20 doctoral degrees. Finally, RCU describes any non-R1/R2 institution that spends more than $2.5 million annually on research, with no requirement for awarding doctoral degrees.