How to get start and go?
Shamsher pratap sandhu
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 08:51 UTC
I am a PhD student in molecular oncology, yet to start my bench work. In our laboratory we have forty different tumor cell lines. We are about to get some completely novel compounds (chemical and biological) from a collaborative institute. We have to screen them for anti-cancer activity, if any and then deduce the molecular mechanism of action ? Its also possible that none of those compounds has any anti- cancer activities.In that case i will be left with almost nothing to put in my Phd work after a year or so.
How can I initiate the efforts using molecular biology techniques? I can not just restrict myself to biochemical methods.
Also, can I do some bioinformatics and then start the wet lab work? Or should I go other way?
I m very much upset about it. Its been already quarter of year passed I have not started?
Please help me in designing my work.
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Replies
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Oh, the answer depends upon so many things.
-If your lab has track-record of good screening results, you may expect this screen to work, and then you will have some novel compounds to your name, which you can further dissect using mol bio techniques.
-Quarter year is not a long time. Especially if you are in US or US like countries where phD typically takes more than 4 years.
-Getting PhD thesis does not depend upon finding novel compounds, if you do your screen right, write up your work right, even if you don’t get ground-breaking results, you can expect at least PhD degree.
-In my view, this project is good. After this, you can get a postdoc in industry, and later a scientist position. Academia is always open.
- And so many other things. Just start working. Grab other opportunities as they come along, but this project seems good enough by itself.
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Hi Shamsher,
I think .. you have great opportunity to do some quality work..
Don’t worry too much about what you are going to put into thesis.. coz I think you are going to have lods of data..
40 Cell lines* 5 compounds = 200 experiments * 3 repeats = 600 experiments + Controls.. (This depends upon what kind of assays you are doing)
I think you have lods of work to do..
I would suggest that start lab work as soon as possible.. Make sure you have all the controls and enough data to show that your results are conclusive..
good luck.. amit
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One day you may find a compound that has nothing to do with anti-cancer activity, but makes cell double in size, or sprout pseudopodia, or glow in the dark, or extrude nucleus or..
All you have to do is to keep your eyes open and continue to think outside the box, while doing this project.
If you have some degree of automation, it should not be a great labor.
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Hey,
Don’t worry about the project.It is really a good one. Be optimistic you will always end with something worthy! Kick start your wet lab work first, you will always have time to do your bioinformatics part. Do not worry about the outcome as of now as you know it long way ahead.
All the best.
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