Our lab values

 
 

We are excited that you are considering our laboratory to pursue your research!

We value lab members who seek to advance our knowledge of science with hopes that it will help improve the human condition.

To do so, we need to have a diverse and inclusive environment built on respect, collegiality and teamwork with a goal to produce robust and reproducible research.

The following is a living document which will grow over time but aims to set expectations for your experience in the lab.

 

Last reviewed/updated 4/10/2024

Expectations of members of the lab include:

  • if you don’t know something, look it up and if that doesn’t help, just ask

  • communicate using slack, email, chat with each other in person, Hong lab or joint lab listserve and respond to communications within 1-2 days

  • expected weekly research hours are a minimum of

    • Undergraduates: about 5-10 hours during the school year (unless in a research elective) and 40 hours a week during the summer. Exceptions will be made given the pandemic.

    • Research Specialist, Graduate students, Post-docs: 40 hours a week

  • keep up with the literature

  • meet with me regularly for 1:1s to talk about career goals/big picture questions (Tuesdays)

  • attend and participate in weekly lab meeting (Tuesdays), joint lab meeting with the Spangle lab (Thursdays), and support lab members by attending their presentations

    • Tuesday - data club… when you have data, or a question on a technique, need feedback, share your work. 1 liner on your research project (to set the stage) and share your data

    • Thursdays - this is currently set up as a 3 week rotation (as of Summer 2021)

      • Weeks 1 and 2 - Lab presentation (about 45 minutes long and questions from folks)

      • Week 3 - Data club - similar to the Hong lab only meetings (with a timer to keep us honest) but keep your questions focused so we can ensure everyone can talk

      • Once a month, we have a campus wide chromatin club meeting or a Winship cell and molecular biology meeting

  • pursue funding of your research to learn how to write grants (with help from your mentor)

  • following our lab protocols (including safety precautious), asking questions when something is not clear, think about solutions to problems in a lab to help everyone

  • keep a laboratory notebook (or use Benchling or both)

  • be a good lab citizen

  • and to circle back to the beginning, ask for help but also recognize that the primary literature will also help answer questions

 

Expectations of me as a mentor:

  • advise and mentor you to get you to your next career goal (e.g. masters, PhD, MD, MD/PhD, academia, industry, medical writing, communications)

  • meet weekly (undergraduates every 1-2 weeks)

  • create a safe lab environment for everyone to share their ideas

  • will respond to your email within 1-2 days and respond to grants or manuscripts within a week. if I haven’t replied in this timeframe, please email again or check in with me to make sure I got your email!

  • prepare you to write clear grants, manuscripts and to give clear presentations

  • provide you the resources needed for your research questions

  • provide honest and candid feedback on how to improve