characteristics of a mature & efficient research lab

I embarked on my research journey as an undergraduate in my third year in a fairly new lab, which had barely been set up less than a year ago. There were only the Associate Professor and one postdoctoral researcher. This arrangement allowed a fellow researcher and me to benefit from being under the direct supervision of our experienced professor, who was new to the university. 

However, given the new setup, there were no established safety and lab operation procedures or protocols. My 4-month project focused on optimizing PCRs for semi-quantitative analysis of gene expression (this was before the rise of quantitative/real-time PCR). My colleague and I learnt things on the go, mimicking the professor and postdoctoral researcher, treating them, like all new undergraduate researchers, as the gold standard of research.

With 4 months of a 4-credit course and a full year of my final year research project under my belt in this lab, I thought I knew what working in a lab and life science research meant. Boy, was I wrong. Soon after, I enrolled in a PhD program in a lab that was the polar opposite of this one.

My postgraduate lab had a lab manager, a senior research fellow who had been in the lab for well over a decade and who oversaw ALL of our Professor’s (That’s right, a full Professor!) projects and students, 3 PhD students in various stages of their program, a new PhD student starting with me and multiple undergraduate students. 

On my first day, I was passed over to the lab manager who provided me with a safety orientation of the premises, comprising of a common lab area with multiple lab benches (every researcher was provided with their own bench space, no matter how small), a small cell culture room, the senior research fellow’s very own mini lab area which lead directly into the Professor’s cramped mini office, and an office area for all the students and staff to sit in near the back of the lab. 

Thereafter, I was shown my ~1-meter-wide lab bench and provided with a set of very old Gilson pipettes. The lab manager provided me with printed sheets of standard cell culture procedures, and we began by preparing cell culture media from powder, adding the required additional reagents, adjusting the pH, and then filter-sterilizing it. There were multiple experiments and standard procedures that almost everyone in the lab knew by heart, such as RNA extraction, running RNA gels, and cell culture. 

Throughout my training, the lab manager showed me how reagents were prepared, equipment and the shared lab space were to be kept clean and tidy, basic etiquette everyone had to comply with, and, of course, how to perform my experiments. It was a tedious and lengthy process of shadowing and learning, execution and finally evaluation of my performance that lasted about a month before I was allowed to start on my project with the skills I had learnt. 

There were numerous other general lab etiquette, procedures, skills and knowledge that I picked up in this lab, which enabled everyone to work cohesively together to ensure there were minimal disruptions for the success of all researchers. This was only possible with the establishment of detailed procedures and protocols, rigorous training and compliance with procedures. 

The organization and attention to detail to every single process, from items being ordered through the lab manager, all received items being handed over to the lab manager to ensure they were captured in the system then passed to the requester, having an inventory system in place for well over 1000 different primers and maintaining an inventory of plastics used by everyone was critical to the success of this lab which published papers in reputable journals regularly. 

With regards to the research, we had weekly lab meetings where an individual or 2 were assigned to present the progress of their project to everyone. This forced the researcher to scrutinize their project closely regularly and solicit input and critical feedback from all (senior and junior) lab members. This was critical in honing individuals' presentation skills, being receptive to feedback, learning the research process and identifying gaps early.

In addition to this, when I first started contributing to manuscripts (review papers, book chapters, etc.), and then writing my own manuscripts, there was an elaborate process these went through. Manuscripts first routed through other senior co-authors on the manuscript before being routed to the senior research fellow who provided multiple rounds of revisions, before my supervisor finally saw it. This was a critical source of development and learning for me, and subsequently, when I was started reviewing the manuscripts of junior researchers in the lab. 

As I progressed through my postgraduate research, we were also provided with multiple opportunities to review journal articles that were sent to the Professor for review. We provided our input on these and learnt how manuscripts should be written and how they are reviewed.  

After completing my PhD in this mature lab, I landed a postdoctoral fellowship in once again, a newly established lab that only had a graduate student. I was appalled at the disorganization and lack of attention to safety as the student would go around in shorts and slippers and, without a designated work area (since he was the only “researcher”) all his items were found throughout the lab. Here, I slowly established numerous processes and procedures that I had learnt from my previous lab to implement efficiencies, safety and efficacy.

Having a rigorous lab onboarding and training program ensures all individuals are aware, well-versed, trained, and evaluated to be competent in all safety and lab procedures for an operationally smooth and efficient lab. This helps establish a baseline of expectations for the individual and also reduces liability for the supervisor who is responsible for the safety of their students/employees. That being said, continual compliance with procedures and processes, as well as continuous communication, are essential to ensure things don't break down.

Use the below Onboarding Checklist Template to get new researchers started right from Day 1 of their research journey and maintain efficiencies in your lab!