Researchers Setting Up Labs Must Learn Skills On The Fly

Also in this story : Six Common Mistakes For More Information ... Setting up one's first lab can be a tortuous process requiring many decisions. Researchers must choose what kind of lab they want to run and the role they want to establish with technicians, students, and colleagues, among others. But guidelines on how to make those decisions and skills like managing a lab budget or hiring the right employees aren't taught to budding scientists. Many researchers say they learned what works best through trial and error. KNOW THYSELF: "I think the most important thing is to recognize how you like to deal with people," says Duke’s Gillian Einstein. A few professional organizations and individual scientists, recognizing the dearth of formal guidance for investigators just starting out, are beginning to sponsor special symposia and committees that address the management and people skills needed to run a first lab. Some observers see a real need for a more formal introduction to managerial and leadership skills for graduate students and postdocs. "I think there should be courses instituted to give students a clue about what it takes to succeed," contends Vivien Casagrande, a professor of cell biology and psychology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Although some programs have emerged, the vast majority of investigators in the midst of setting up a lab are on their own. "Nothing's taught in graduate school," asserts Valina Dawson, an associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The first step, according to most researchers, is for scientists to understand their own style and build from that. "I think the most important thing is to recognize how you like to deal with people," says Gillian Einstein, an assistant professor of neurobiology and zoology at Duke University. "For instance, I like to discuss projects with the people in my lab from the very beginning. A lot of people respond really well to that. But others view that as an insecurity [on the part of the lab manager]; they need to see more authority." A few researchers have started to address the need to discuss the various ways of setting up and running a lab. At the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting last November, Women in Neuroscience-an independent organization supported in part by the society-sponsored a symposium called "Running a Laboratory: Issues in Scientific Style." One of the speakers was Vivien Casagrande, a professor of cell biology and psychology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. As part of her talk, she listed some of the common mistakes that she and her colleagues have encountered. Casagrande expounds on her list for The Scientist. TEAMWORK: Vivien Casagrande, upper right, shown here with her lab workers, advocates making time for celebrating a group’s scientific successes, as well as personal milestones like birthdays. Not delegating enough responsibility to employees: "Micromanagement is one of the biggest mistakes of young investigators." Insensitivity to the goals of staff and students: "Scientists get caught up in achieving their own goals-like their progression towards tenure-and don't see the needs of others." All work and no play: "Celebrate the successes. If you have a paper accepted or if it's someone's birthday, go out and have a few beers and celebrate." Too much freedom: "You need to allow students to make mistakes, but not let them flounder." An overemphasis on competition: "This is a serious problem now because there's more competition than ever for money. Large labs are in danger because the mentor cannot keep track of what's going on. People may make up the data. Think of all of the people who have been retracting data lately." Lots of projects, but no papers: "This is the kiss of death." -K.Y.K. The style with which a person eventually ends up running his or her lab primarily depends on personal tastes, experienced investigators report. There are many different approaches that work. The traditional model, according to Einstein, is a large lab with many students-"a competitive, instead of a cooperative, environment"-with a hierarchical structure. Some labs are directed by a researcher who tends to write grants and papers and isn't engaged in the day-to-day research. Other principal investigators have only a few projects and take a more active role in running experiments. "You hear some people say, 'I have six people in my lab, and I don't think I can manage any more than that,'" says Einstein. "And then you hear other people who say, 'I need to write this grant for this new project so I can get this 11th postdoc.'" Dominque Toran-Allerand, a professor of anatomy and cell biology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, maintains that it's hard to give general guidance. A person's career "is highly individualistic, so I don't know if there's any unifying advice." In her experience, "by the time researchers get through [with their education and postdoctoral fellowships], most have an idea of what they want and what their style is." Toran-Allerand, who studies the role of estrogen in the central nervous system, describes her lab as "non-hierarchical," including a few postdocs who, for the most part, are self-sufficient. "I'm so busy writing grants," she explains, "so I need people who have a certain measure of independence. We do interact a lot, but I don't tell them what to do." Researchers agree that a scientist's discipline or specialty partially dictates what style he or she adopts. "For example, many-in particular, cell biologists and geneticists-require more bodies to accomplish a particular goal," says Casagrande. "If you look at papers published in publications like Science, years ago two-author papers were common. Now, with the increasing number of authors, it's hard to find the end of the list," she observes. "It looks like a small army has done the research, but the fact is, in order to do your work you need more bodies, and the labs have automatically gotten bigger." Casagrande, who studies the organization and development of vision, describes herself as more of an integrative, systems-level investigator than a molecular-level one. "Since I'm a systems person, generally smaller labs are better if you like to do some experimentation yourself and not become a manager." For her, the challenge is to "resist the temptation to get so big that you don't have any time to do what you want." The Casagrande lab is currently made up of two postdocs, two graduate students, and one technician. Her group also has three temporary members: a medical student, an upper-level undergraduate, and another graduate student. American Association of Physics Teachers One Physics Ellipse College Park, Md. 20740 (301) 209-3300 Fax: (301) 209-0845 aapt-exec@aapt.org http://www.aapt.org American Physical Society One Physics Ellipse College Park, Md. 20740 (301) 209-3233 Fax: (301) 209-0865 exoffice@aps.org http://www.aps.org American Chemical Society 1155 16th St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 872-4600 http://www.chemcenter.org Fred Pryor Seminars 2000 Shawnee Mission Pkwy. Shawnee Mission, Kans. 66201 (800) 255-6139 Fax: (913) 722-8585 Survival Skills and Ethics Program University of Pittsburgh 4K26 Forbes Quandrangle Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260 (412) 624-7098 survival+@pitt.edu http://www.pitt.edu/~survival/homepg.html Women in Neuroscience Cynthia Harris, President Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics New York College of Osteopathic Medicine P.O. Box 280 Greenvale, N.Y. 11548 (516) 626-6928 Fax: (516) 626-6927 cmharris@acl.nyit.edu Sharing a lab or research project is another way to go. "If you want to combine resources, that can be very powerful," says Dawson. She and her husband, Ted Dawson, also an associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins' School of Medicine, have teamed up: They share equipment as well as technical and secretarial support for their investigations on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Between their two labs the Dawsons employ eight postdocs, three technicians, two graduate students, one medical student, one visiting professor, two undergraduates working on their senior thesis projects, and five undergraduate work-study students. But Valina Dawson urges others to beware of pitfalls: She advises scientific partners to maintain their autonomy and become scientifically distinguishable. Partners should define their work independently and then come together administratively. "It's very important that each partner be recognized as an independent investigator from all angles, from scientific peers as well as senior people in your department and the administration," she stresses. "Because when it comes time for promotion, you never want the question, 'Is this person just tagging along?' to seriously come up." She and her husband have interacted with a number of successful scientific partnerships, including Johns Hopkins molecular biologists Bert Vogelstein and Kenneth Kinzler and Huntington's diseases researchers Anne Young and John Penny from Harvard. "All of them have given us the same advice: Make sure people know who you are individually." PRACTICALITIES: Jane Jacob says some of the best skills she learned on her postdoctoral fellowship were related to managerial and administrative expertise. Whatever personal approach may suit you, spending the time in the beginning to find the right mix of people can prevent future headaches, researchers report. "These people all work together in a small area," says Jane Jacob, an assistant professor of anatomical sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. "If you have people [who] are territorial and refuse to share equipment, it won't go. You don't need wars in your lab." Don't fill the lab with people under the premise that it's better to have somebody in the lab rather than nobody, suggests Einstein. "If you get someone in the lab who's really not interested, who's just biding their time and not engaged in the project, it ends up taking more time and energy than if you didn't have anyone at all," she warns. "You end up running around like a little steam engine trying to pull them along. It's totally exhausting and ultimately demoralizing." Regarding time management, Jacob advises new investigators: "It's a lot harder than you think it is. I don't think [new] researchers have any idea of how much time it actually takes to get a lab up and running and to be in a junior faculty position at the same time." Because of this time crunch, she recommends waiting a while to take on grad students. "Speaking from a junior faculty perspective, I don't think you have enough confidence or experience under your belt to do that." Jacob is in the midst of her fifth year at Oklahoma. Her neuroscience lab employs medical students and advanced senior high school students. "You also need to collaborate, but make sure that those collaborations will benefit you," she adds. "At this point in my career I try to collaborate with people more senior than myself." SCIENTIFICALLY DISTINGUISHABLE: Valina Dawson, who has a scientific partnership with her husband, Ted, says coinvestigators should define their work independently. In addition, Dawson warns against blurring the lines between friend and employer. She says that it's sometimes difficult for postdocs who were used to being chummy with others in the lab to make the transition to being the person in charge of salaries, performance reviews, hiring, and firing. "You're coming out of your [postdoctoral fellowship] and you don't know how to be a boss, so you want to be buddies with the people you work with. But you're never going to be at that same stage. That's a real hard lesson to learn." DIFFICULTY GENERALIZING: Because a person’s career path is individualistic, Dominique Toran-Allerand says, it’s hard to give specific advice. How to relate to the unwritten rules of an organization or academic department is another enigmatic process, researchers note. "Most places are very Byzantine," warns Toran-Allerand. "It takes a while to find out about an institution. At Columbia every department is different, so you can't even predict from one department to another. One has to be in place and keep one's eyes open." To researchers about to enter a new department, Dawson says that it can be difficult understanding the subtleties of long-established professional relationships. She recommends talking to senior members to get a better picture of faculty interactions. Regarding unearthing some of the unwritten departmental rules, Jacob has similar advice. "I think the secret to success is talk to your colleagues." "For new faculty, I think it's really important before you even accept a job to figure out the department's plans for the future," advises Casagrande. She suggests talking with other junior faculty members. "Ask them questions like: How easy is it to get grad students? Are they going to hire more people in our area? How supportive is the department of buying equipment? Can you collaborate across departments?" Jacob's advice is more pragmatic: "You need to understand how your university functions. Read your faculty handbook. Learn what the university expects of you regarding tenure and promotion, parental leave, sabbatical leave, and ethics." Many scientists say they have found guidance, particularly from their mentors, during their time as graduate students and postdocs. "One of the things that we did was talk to our mentors about how they manage their money," says Dawson. "That's helpful because there have been some projects in the past that, while interesting, were costing us huge amounts of money." Researchers suggest taking on an active role in learning the nonscientific aspects of science whenever possible. "Be responsible for the ordering, the budgeting, and planning the lab activities," says Jacob. "I had that experience, and it was one of the best things I learned on my postdoc." A few scientific societies and individuals have started to address the need to discuss the different styles and options of setting up and running a lab (see accompaning list of resources). For example, at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting last November, the Women in Neuroscience-an independent organization supported in part by the society-sponsored a symposium called "Running a Laboratory: Issues in Scientific Style" . For the last few years, Michael Zigmond, a professor of neuroscience, and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh have been conducting what he terms courses on "survival skills" for faculty, graduate students, and postdocs. The seminars cover many topics, including how to give talks and write papers. The professional-development class, "Life as a Professional," to be held later this month, will touch on such subjects as mentoring and personnel supervision. On a larger scale, Zigmond's group will sponsor its third national workshop this June. The four-day "Workshop on Teaching Survival Skills and Ethics to Emerging Researchers" is intended to in-struct faculty who want to establish courses similar to the Pittsburgh model at their own institutions. Zigmond says that about 60 people have gone through the program already, with about half of them instituting their own, similar courses. 'NECESSARY SKILLS': Corinne Marasco notes that the American Chemical Society plans to sponsor a seminar covering career and management topics. Other groups will soon follow suit. Corinne Marasco, manager of professional services at the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C., reports that ACS is "moving in that direction." The society plans to sponsor a seminar covering career and management topics within the next year. "These are necessary skills, but ones that are hard to teach," notes Marasco. Laurie Richards, an independent seminar leader, agrees with Marasco's assessment. She teaches a course entitled "Management Problems of the Technical Person in a Leadership Role" for Shawnee Mission, Kans.-based Fred Pryor Seminars. In her class, Richards focuses on how to tailor the skills necessary for a technical position-problem-solving and creativity, for example-to a management setting. "Many people in technical positions-engineers, computer programmers, and scientists-are used to working by themselves," says Richards. "One of the people skills we teach is how to delegate tasks effectively and innovatively." EXCHANGE OF IDEAS: Diandra Leslie-Pelecky attended a workshop for new physics professors where she traded advice with colleagues. The American Physical Society (APS) is covering these topics in a tangential way, reports Barry Ribbon, APS's associate executive officer. The society doesn't specifically sponsor a course on making the transition from postdoc to first lab but is "thinking hard about how to help with career development from postdocs to wherever they might get employed." He points to the society's newly formed task force on careers and professional development, headed by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Nebraska, as a step in the right direction. Leslie-Pelecky has also participated in a conference for new physics faculty sponsored by the College Park, Md.-based American Association of Physics Teachers, which was held for the first time last year. "We swapped stories on various subjects, from teaching methods to how to involve undergrads in research to grant-writing tips," she recalls. Concludes Toran-Allerand: "Nowadays, most postdocs are fairly advanced by the time they get through. It seems to me if they are aware of the lab that they're in, the labs that they visit, what they like and don't like about them, and what they would like to do differently, that's really the best preparation."

Researchers Setting Up Labs Must Learn Skills On The Fly

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of