Thread 16786321

I am in the final year of a 3 year molecular biology PhD programme without any publication.

I am currently performing a mass spec coupled technique which could be publishable if executed properly and if I get some novel hits back. The application of this technique is entirely novel, to determine changes in a specific type of protein after cancer treatment. My advisor is already assigning new PhD students to learn this technique from me and apply it to other types of treatment to take advantage of this gap in the literature. However it's possibly my work will fall short of a publication due to time constraints and bad luck with the underlying biology in the case of this treatment.

What is my backup plan if this falls through? I understand that my chances of a good post doc without a publication are basically nil. My lab skills are also fairly niche, beyond basic molecular biology skills and not transferable to industry. Should I speak to my advisor about writing a grant to continue my work at his lab if the mass specdataset yields interesting results?

>>16786321 (OP)
you are as useless to society as a homeless nigger

I was in a similar position except with physics. Anyway now I work as a quant, but I don't care about it, or indeed anything much. Keep on frogposting.

>>16786321 (OP)
Sounds like your group is going to cannibalize your work and take all the credit and kick you to the curb. Welcome to academia.

>>16786321 (OP)
You should write your thesis and speak to him about publishing. In general, your thesis should basically just be manuscripts and vice versa.

>>16786394
fpbp

If it’s so “novel” then publish. This thread seems fake from the start

>>16786321 (OP)
OP I will give you the only good advice in this thread, you need to seriously consider leaving your Lab ASAP and transferring to a different PI. Talk to your director now. Even if you don't go through with it, hopefully they'll get the message and will be sufficiently scared off from trying to steal your hard work. I'm assuming they have tenure? Either way it's easy to take grad students like you for granted despite labs depending on you for 99% of work. Remind him who's really in charge and that you know your worth. If you don't stand up for yourself your career is fucked and you will be miserable not just for the rest of your time in that lab but in your post-doc and your PhD career. Trust me.

>>16786321 (OP)
Publish in the 3-9 months it takes for your thesis to being reviewed after submission.

>>16786321 (OP)
>I am in the final year of a 3 year molecular biology PhD programme without any publication.
impressive
>I post the same memes board sliders, shills and low iq newfags post
you're about to find out

I am in the process of collecting the experiment which enriches for a certain type of protein through two orthogonal methods. I am planning to meet our MS colloborator to set up the conditions for the final run based on previous papers.

The dataset is in no way complete, the MS colloboraters insisted on altering the original protocol to incorporate a new type of detergent which has set things back a couple of weeks due to optimization issues but I am currently collecting replicates (x4 for MS, a month of work). However, this experiment in itself could yield a shitty descriptive paper at worst with some minimal follow-up on key targets with CRISPRi (the lab which discovered this method with submitted a preprint that is basically just this a few months ago with a different treatment). My concern is whether or not my treatment will yield meaningful results as it already clearly reduces the overall levels of proteins so it may not find any interesting enriched targets. I am also concerned about the reproducibility across replicates as I have had no way to test this this far. But if this all works out, it could be publishable, particularly if some of the targets link back to my previous data on how the treatment affects my cell line (unlikely but possible).

I have no reason to believe that my advisor will try to fuck me over on this, but it could happen. He has been supportive of me trying to publish this work but any discussion on potential follow-up experiments has been met with the response of "see how the highthroughput data looks before formulating conclusions". Which I think is reasonable but maybe this is a bit of a red flag.

If this doesn't pan out, how shafted am I? Any other advice going forward from frens in academia? Apologies for the frog posting, I am indeed a low iq newfag.

>>16786321 (OP)
Sam Altman will replace you with a swarm of GPT-5 research agents. Congratulations on dedicating your life to an obsolete career. Hope your piece of framed gilded toilet paper will make good fuel for your hobo stove

>>16786321 (OP)
Keep pushing anon. Speak to all of them

The worse they can say is no

>>16786321 (OP)
>without any publication
Fukken why?

>However it's possibly my work will fall short of a publication due to time constraints and bad luck with the underlying biology in the case of this treatment.
Mf publish something. You're a PhD student, nobody expects you to revolutionize shit in your papers.

>What is my backup plan if this falls through?
Psychiatric evaluation. Gotta pin down your position on the spectrum.

>Should I speak to my advisor
If there any particular fukken reason why you hadn't already???

Fr mf want their advisors to tell them how to poop and when to change their nappies.

>>16787249
>any discussion on potential follow-up experiments
Don't ask him about follow-up experiments - ask him about how he can help your career and what you can do in exchange. That's one of the things you're supposed to learn in the course of your PhD - how to separate yourself from your work. Make it clear that you need guidance in regards to you personally, not the experiment.

>>16786321 (OP)
>I am in the final year of a 3 year molecular biology PhD programme without any publication.
My condolences.

>3 year molecular biology PhD program
Jesus, how is that even expected to work? I've been in almost that exact situation (normal 5ish year program though) and I ended up having to cut my losses and bail in the 3rd year. My advisor had stuck me with two half-projects that would never be combinable into a single cohesive thesis, and since they were largely follow up work from previous grad students I never got anything publishable either. Between the lack of progress and seeing how much more volatile the biotech job market was than I had thought I put my nights and weekends towards getting a couple of IT certs, found a job as an IT Admin, and never looked back. I ran into another grad student from that lab years later who ended up taking 9 years to get her PhD due to mismanagement and she said I had made the right choice.

If molecular bio is really your thing, you need to push your advisor for a plan like the others have suggested. Otherwise, you might just be filling a cheap lab tech job for him. If after your time doing this you're wishing you had gone into something else then I say it's never too late to change. Worked for me.

>>16786321 (OP)
Try to link AI to whatever it is you are doing

I have a manuscript that's half written up but I am lacking some key validations for it to be publication worthy. Basically, I have found that cancer treatment causes an effect which is one figure, and have negative data that rules out the most likely signalling pathways for this effect which is the second figure. My third figure has found that knockdown of a protein reverses the effect from figure 1. The issue with this story is that figure 3 was generated with one shRNA in one cell line so I need to double down on this. Beyond this I am hoping that my MS experiment can tie into this manuscript, as the type protein I am enriching for is the protein which reverses the figure 1 effect.

I am currently completing the MS experiment and generating new cells lines for completing Figure 3 but time is definitely against me. Unfortunately the project I set out to do was based on no preliminary data and turned out to be a hopeless dead end. So I burned a year on that before I had enough data to rule it out and move onto my current project.

My plan is to complete the MS experiment before having serious discussions with my advisor about integrating it into my current manuscript (which he is yet to read, although he is certainly familiar with the results) or pushing it as a standalone publication. My main concern is that he would object to publishing it as a standalone paper and try to keep the data to integrate into a larger story for someone else to finish. I understand that this is fairly common practice in academia, and that one larger paper is much more valuable to a PI than several smaller ones.

>>16786321 (OP)
You're in a PhD program that requires no dissertation? Nice