There are a few students showing up in the laboratory for summer training. We run a translational cancer research lab in an academic setting, and we provide training opportunities for a small number of students if the situation permits.
As a work training site, this is a rather unique place. First of all, although all the research labs are supposed to be doing scientific research, what they actually do is very diverse and different from lab to lab. Of course there are some generic techniques common to and used in many basic bio-medical research labs (e.g. Immunoblot, PCR, nucleic acid handling), but beyond these, the labs use techniques for their unique research on a demand/necessity basis. For a student, doing their homework (i.e. research about what the lab is doing through studying the publications) is a smart thing to do.
The research efforts of basic bio-medical science are summarized to a process; "extracting information about the workings of nature." The information may be useful, immediately or in the future, to merit public health.
Contemporary medical research costs money, and the labs are supported by either governmental or company sponsored private grants. Most grants are reviewed and awarded on a merit-basis. As such, "useful" research with more merit is more likely survive in this situation. Like it or not, being valuable to the public (or the granting institute) is critical for a lab.
Now back to the students. For a student, the lab work is basically manual work. They need to physically do things to get data. After they generate data, brain work begins. They need to extract a result in the form of information from the pile of data. This interpretation process is open to presumptions and biases, and they need to learn how to be open-minded to interpreting their data.
Since a physical process is involved, there are some cases where a student who is good at grasping concepts and doing theoretical "brain work" struggles to perform experiments. His experiments can come out dirty and inconclusive, to his frustration. Lab work is a lot like cooking, and the chef's skills do matter. On the other hand, there may be a student who is adept with his hands, but not-so-great at the brain work. Both the hand and brain aspects need to be trained to be a professional researcher.
We cannot predict how it will work out for each student. Going through training is a part of the "know yourself" process. I say, just by being here and going through the process, you are ahead of the pack already. Good luck.
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