Working or training as a scientist, it is a good bet that you have collaborators that assist, complement, and extend your work (if you don't, I encourage you to get some!). Modern research in the best publications usually involves multiple labs working on distinct and complementary approaches to complex scientific problems. As well, there has been a large growth in the number significant projects involving multiple labs across the world.

During my Ph.D. studies, my supervisor managed the collaborations and I had only a few opportunities to interface with those working with us. If you're lucky, you've had the opportunity to manage your collaborations at some point during your career. This means you've shared data, interacted with your collaborators, wrote papers, or presented work together.

As an associate, and before that as a postdoctoral fellow, I manage collaborations on a daily basis. They are vital to everything I do but managing collaborations is not trivial and I've made some mistakes alongside my accomplishments. I thought I'd share a short list of tips from my recent experience. Read on »

A couple of days ago I got a very interesting question in one of my posts as to what would be an appropriate gift for a newly minted PhD. That got me thinking that, since many of those close to us (family, non-grad school friends) may not be in the academic realm, they're probably scratching their heads as to how to show appreciation during this momentous occasion. Thus, here's a little post intended for our family and friends - in case they feel like displaying their happiness and pride with a little something for the recipient of that shiny, new PhD.

Now, a PhD is a big, big thing. We've spent years slaving away at the library and/or the lab, or field, or underwater, or wherever. We've grown a lot and have faced some of the most challenging moments in our lives. It's a joyous time... but, as a family member or friend, what would be an appropriate gift to give, if you feel so inclined? Read on »

When it comes to working with antibodies in the lab, we all know how valuable this precious resource is to our experiments. Antibodies are the ideal tool to use when identifying certain proteins or purifying them from a mesh of substances. What makes antibodies even more appreciated is that they can be easily tagged with labels such as fluorescein, making them visible and feasible to use in identifying specific proteins in different kinds of cells. Researchers can recognize these tagged cells using microscopy, fluorescent readers, or flow cytometery.

Most of us know how to efficiently deal with antibodies in the lab and use optimum protocols to give us effective results. Still, sometimes we can easily overlook vital points and try to cut corners when conducting those long ELISA washing steps which can lead to misleading or inaccurate results. Others may feel that it would be wrong to use recycled antibodies, preferring to use a fresh antibody for each western blot; which I discovered to be irrelevant as you will just be throwing a perfectly good antibody that can be used at least twice after its first use...

Read on »