Yes, I am leading a double life: I am both a PhD student and a (pre)Postdoc.
I have not yet submitted my thesis, but I have started working else where as a postdoc. I know I am not alone in this. I have PhD friends leading/led a double life as postdocs, secretaries or stewardess.
When I was offered my present job I was advised on not to start on it I have submitted. The worry was of course the danger of dragging out the submission process. Why oh why then so many of us take on another job while we are still in our PhD?? The answer, obviously, is money. My 3-year studentship ran out although my submission deadline is 4 years…. What do they expect us to live on in that final ‘writing’ year?? Maybe it’s my own time management problems that I cannot finish in the indicated time of the studentship, but chatting to a retired professor, he said only 2 students out of all the ones he supervised finished within 3 years. I don’t know how many students he supervised in his career, but 2 seem a small number. There are 4-year PhD studentships available now, although the first year is usually a rotation. I genuine hope that funding sources recognise the flaw in the length of support. The final year of PhD is the most stressful period, you don’t want them to be juggling with another job too do you?

Genetic modification is now listed as a mortal sin, separate to ‘morally debatable experiments’ (which I presume covers ES research). See BBC news article.
That’s pretty harsh?! GM is a mortal sin—but at all levels? What about cell transfections which are routinely done in labs, and siRNA (which won the Nobel) usage?

Happy new year everyone!
It seemed I have fallen off the blogging wagon before I even steadied myself on it. After battling with my thesis through the winter months, I hope to eventually come out of my hibernation. For me, the new year is the beginning of the end and the beginning of a beginning.

Friday 7pm: Stacks of slides, empty teacup to be refilled, few “have a good weekends” to colleagues as they leave the lab. 10pm: Only me and Postdoc A left in the lab. She’s just started an overnight immunostaining and a time-lapse recording. I am trying to submit my thesis, but what the heck was she still doing in the lab so late on a Friday night? I asked, and the answer was she is trying to “submit her life”. A few minutes later her husband, a non-scientist but our lab regular, came to the lab to visit A. In the weekend when A is working the husband is often here too.

Long working hours is a norm if you want to be successful, to publish that paper before your competitors, to progress (or I gathered “to submit your life”). For a successful scientist, his/her partner has to be extremely understanding and patient to bear such work habit. What really struck me is the how hard it is to create a work-life balance for scientists. For a young researcher there is little job stability as most jobs are contracts, combining odd working hours and poor salary, I am not surprised several of my PhD friends have moved out of academic research. Fortunately for Postdoc A, her husband comes to the lab so they can “spend time together”, but really, how much must a scientist and family endure to be successful?

A few of months ago (July?) I saw an article on so called “resconstructed skin”. I was linked from the news article to L’Oreal’s lab Invitroskin where 3D constructed skin is developed. It appears that they were developing this for product testing. The technique is simple really: fibroblasts in collagen gel, keratinocytes seeded on top of matrix and allowed to differenciate. For a while during my PhD I wanted to set this up in the lab—but it is easier said then done! The keratinocytes gave me the most problems.

I wonder how effective the engineered skin is for testing irritation in cosmetic products though. They are using a life-dead assay to check for safety—but such skin does not contain inflammatory cells and would not show irritation. If cell death is observed during a testing, then I don’t think that product is safe to use at all! On the other hand if there are no cell death—can the product still be irritable but just not detected?
In my opinion; great idea, cool science, but there are definitely limitations..

As the tradition of the inauguratory article is to introduce oneself, I will not break from this routine. I am a PhD student at University College London, now basically writing up my thesis. In my project I have been studying the role of gap junctional cell communication during the wound healing events in skin. In particular I look at diabetic wounds which are known to heal slowly. I have a background in genetics (BSc+MSc) but now working very much on a microscopic level! I have enjoyed my PhD but uh, also can’t wait to have it finished soon.

I have actually signed up to Nature Networks very soon after it’s launch early this year but I remained fairly ‘inactive’ until I met the wonderful editorial team at the Source event and the monthly drink session. Since then, I have been convinced to start a blog here. As I already own a personal blog that is semi-scientific, I am going to cheat a little and migrate some relevant articles over to start with. And title “murmur by the coffee corner”, this is because I sit about 3m away from our office coffee pot, where murmurs are mostly exchanged.