Due to popular demand, BioKM has made two updates to the materials module. The first update affects the companies list. Now you will see a company icon next to all of your materials, making it easier to find items when you search for them.

The second update allows users to add a remark or comment when they place a materials order.

Learn more about BioKM and sign up for a free trial at www.biodata.com

Apple’s iPad is making its way to the world of research labs. Biodata Inc. (www.biodata.com) is excited to announce that its flag service – BioKM™ – now fully supports Apple’s iPad, and that it plans to launch several specifically designed applications for research labs.

“We have seen large investments into equipment in research laboratories,” says Jonathan Gross, founder and co-CEO of BioData, “These laboratories need a modern tool to capture, integrate and protect the data generated. In most scenarios bench space is limited, we believe the iPad brings a new and fresh approach towards capturing research data and assisting in management of research laboratories. Our flagship product BioKM™ has been customized to fit and now fully supports the iPad”.

BioData is currently working on a dedicated iPad/ELN-like app for BioKM™ users. Researchers will be able to build experiments on their office computer and execute them on the iPad in the lab.

About BioData

Jonathan Gross who is co-CEO with Danny Klein founded BioData in 2007. BioData develops and markets BioKM™ – an online laboratory management tool that helps simplify and connect all aspects of research labs, both in industry and academia.

BioKM’s client base includes laboratories worldwide.

Learn more about BioKM and sign up for a free trial at www.biodata.com

No matter how good you are at PCR, you can always learn something from the speakers BitesizeBio.com have lined up for their Getting the Most out of PCR live online seminar series. These guy eat, sleep and drink PCR.

Next up they are showing “MIQE Guidelines Uncloaked”, in which Greg Shipley will give you the inside track on the requirements you need to satisfy to make sure your PCR results are suitable for publication. You’d be mad to miss it.

This event goes out live today (Tue 8th June) at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm BST (UK) / 6pm CET. Click here to secure one of the remaining places on this live event or to view the archived videos for this series, which now include:

Magic in Solution: An Introduction and Brief History of PCR
Speaker: Carl Wittwer

Obtaining Maximum PCR Sensitivity and Specificity
Speaker: Cameron N. Gundry Attendence: 125

Significance of Controls and Standard Curves in PCR
Speaker: Ian Kavanagh

Bitesize Bio’s free, live seminar series on “Getting the most out of PCR” has been a big hit so far. They have lined up 6 world-class PCR experts to give you the inside track on all you need to know to master this powerful but tricky technique. These seminars are design to be short (30 min + questions) but information-packed so that you get the most out of your precious time… ust think how long it would take to assimilate all of that information yourself by reading the literature and textbooks!

Over 1000 people have already taken in the advice and tips delivered by Carl Witter and Cameron Gundry in the first two seminars and some spaces are still available on the remaining seminars – the first of which is live today (Tuesday 1st June). Click below to grab your place before they are all gone!

All seminars are live at at 9am PST /12pm EST/5pm BST (UK)/6pm CET on the indicated day…

Tuesday 1st June
Significance of Controls and Standard Curves in PCR. Book Now!
Speaker: Ian Kavanagh

Tuesday 8th June
The MIQE Guidelines Uncloaked. Book Now!
Speaker: Greg Shipley

Tuesday 15th June
A novel approach for enriching methylated DNA upstream of PCR analysis.
Speaker: Chris Adams Book Now!

Tuesday 22nd June
High Resolution Melting Analysis – Beyond the SNP. Book Now!
Speaker: John Mackay

You can also view the recorded presentations of the first two seminars in the series:

Magic in Solution: An Introduction and Brief History of PCR. View Now!
Speaker: Carl Wittwer

Obtaining Maximum PCR Sensitivity and Specificity. View Now!
Speaker: Cameron N. Gundry

We are excited to announce a new feature in BioKM: Project-Email Integration. This new feature gives project related emails a place in BioKM.

Project-Email Integration is especially helpful when there is communications via email regarding a project (i.e. discussions with a remote lab or service company).

Using this feature will allow you to see all the project’s information and easily view all its related emails from your project page simply by sending emails directly to your project or B’CC / CC the project address for future reference.

* Enter your project Track and click on “Mail”, save the unique address (or copy) to your mail application (outlook, eudura, etc.)
* Due to security issues you must send the emails from the same address that appears on BioKM (You also must be a member of the project you are sending the message to).

The following is a short 1 minute video demonstrating this new feature.

Sign up for a free trial of BioKM at www.biodata.com

This week’s quote comes from Anonymous.

“Every experiment proves something. If it doesn’t prove what you wanted it to prove, it proves something else.”

Google's Earth Day Doodle

Today, April 22, 2010, marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

The following video provides a brief history of Earth Day and explains why it is important.

Watch President Obama speak about forty years of Earth Day and his Administrations efforts to fight for a healthier environment.

And, finally, a video celebrating different parts of Earth.

For more information about Earth Day visit the official website, www.earthday.org

Also follow the Earth Day Network on Twitter.

This week’s quote comes from Thomas H. Huxley.

“The great tragedy of Science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

Gianpaolo Rando

Scientist and blogger Gianpaolo Rando is BioData Blogs Featured Scientist for the month of April. Read about trends in the development of reporter genes in his blog, reportergene.com

Tell us about your first encounter with science
I was 12: I was a strong reader and a loyal fellow of the civic library. Books being the main source of my knowledge, I thought everything in the world had already been discovered. At the beginning of the school year, my new science teacher introduced a small aquarium to the classroom. He put in a mug full of water from a waterhole and asked the class to observe daily the little water box for two weeks. Life immediately developed and gradually faded when the food resources started to get out. I learnt the basics of ecosystems by direct observation. This was my first encounter with science and the first time I realized that knowledge can be obtained in real-time without need for a book. I asked myself: do you want to only be a reader or do you want to take part in the race toward knowledge? It took 10 years of ‘boring’ book-reading before I really started taking part on my own bench with tubes and pipettes.

What made you choose a scientific career?
My curiosity. I’m curious, pathologically curious. I’ve always wondered how the world runs, and particularly the way living things work. What are the mechanisms and what are the dynamics? Choosing a scientific career was very natural.

What is your current area of research?
I received a M.Sc. in Biotechnology and a Ph.D in Pharmacology at the University of Milan (I’m a former Pharmacologist). I’ve always been fascinated about how small molecules can influence our physiology and our mind. My interest particularly concerns so-called ‘nuclear receptors’, these are proteins that are able to directly sense the presence of small chemicals (i.e., hormones, metabolites, drugs) and to consequently modify gene expression by binding on selected DNA sequences on gene’s promoter regions. Recently, I joined the Center of Integrative Genomics at the University of Lausanne where my current research focuses on the differences in nuclear receptor signaling between males and females.

Why did you decide to start a scientific blog? What reactions did you receive?
It was an experiment. Four years ago I wondered which part of the world was most intellectually active in one particular field of molecular biology (the development of reporter genes). Of course pubmed can give some answers, but I wanted to know not only which labs were publishing most, but also about the public: Where the readers were? Where the discussion was? What was more popular: luciferase or GFP? So I registered reportergene.com and I started commenting on papers dealing with new technologies involving reporter genes. The idea was to resolve the IP address of the visitors and obtain a map of niches interested in the development of genetically-encoded approaches. The blogging platform was chosen because of its simplicity, but at that time I was not thinking of it as my blog.  One year later I gradually realized that a scientific blog was an opportunity of immediate communication for a scientist. Young researchers can work three years or more before getting into a publication, and probably never being contacted about their work (if they aren’t the corresponding author). Despite the vastness of the scientific community, PhD students and postdocs are still confined to their benches with limited social connectedness: you can speak every-day with your 10-20 lab-mates about your research or, once a year, try to catch some of the 100 conference attendees toward your poster. This is poor communication. In this sense, a blog is a short-circuit: you can debate your arguments every week with thousands of readers: writing a post takes the time of a coffee, but gives you immediate feedback on the topics you are interested in. You are still ‘at the bench’ working full-time on your project but once a week, your coffee break takes a world-wide dimension, and you immediately feel the world wide web of the scientific community.

Your last paper introduces a new method to classify drugs, what are the current problems in drug classification?
There are several ways to classify a drug (i.e., chemical composition, etc), one criteria concerns drug action and it is based on a theoretical framework which dates at the middle of last century. In very simple words, if a drug activates a biological effect is an AGONIST. A second drug that competes with an agonist, preventing the effect, is an ANTAGONIST. Today, because of our better understanding of the complexity of intracellular signalling, this definition becomes of difficult application. Most of the drugs act by binding to a cellular receptor: upon binding, drugs ‘activate’ the receptor, initiating the signaling cascade responsible for the biological outcome; we know that a single drug can induce different signaling cascades, and this ability may change significantly with respect to the tissue where the drug is acting and the time after drug administration. In short, a candidate drug can be agonist in the first week of therapy and suddenly may became antagonist (with obviously deleterious side effects!). Likely, such a candidate drug would be discarded in the drug development pipeline: in fact, it is common for unforeseen toxic profiles to be discovered late in the pipeline, already at the level of clinical studies in humans. This is unwanted: a failure of a clinical study is a great loss for a pharma-company. In conclusion, pure semantical problems about classifying drug action may contribute to stagnation in the biomedical economy other than being a potential hazard for human volunteers.

What is the current model of understanding drug effects over time?
Current models belong to a discipline called Pharmacokinetic (PK) which studies the drug distribution in the body over time. With PK we can predict the presence of the drug in a particular organ, however, we don’t get any information about the pharmacological effect. Drug action is studied by a second discipline called Pharmacodynamic (PD). My PhD dissertation deals with the possibility to introduce new dimensions (space and time) in PD studies by monitoring drug action on living ‘luciferase reporter-mice’ developed by my PhD mentor: Adriana Maggi. These animals start glowing when and where a drug is active: for the first time in the history we can study drug effects in a safe living mammals without  the need to kill them. We are developing the technology to follow drug activity in different anatomical areas several times in a day for long period of times (months) without actually killing any animals. This new knowledge would have the power to disclose potential side-effects before getting into clinical studies, with clear social, ethical and economical benefits for men (and mice also!).

Why a SERM was chosen as a model?
Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs), were conceived for post-menopausal hormonal replacement therapy to avoid estrogen unwanted effects on breasts while retaining their beneficial effects in other organs. As their name says, SERMs activity on the cognate receptor is ’selective’ – this means that a SERM that blocks estrogen’s action in breast cells may activate estrogen’s action in other cells, such as bone. To date however, none of the SERMs developed appears to be provided of the ideal balance of ER agonist and antagonist activity. Because SERMs do not fall into distinct categories of agonists and antagonists, they represent a great ‘proof of concept’ to further elaborate on drug classification. Furthermore, menopause is one of those permanent conditions in which a drug is supposed to be administered chronically: the time dimension can not be further neglected.

References: Rando, G., Horner, D., Biserni, A., Ramachandran, B., Caruso, D., Ciana, P., Komm, B., & Maggi, A. (2010). An Innovative Method to Classify SERMs Based on the Dynamics of Estrogen Receptor Transcriptional Activity in Living Animals Molecular Endocrinology, 24 (4), 735-744 DOI: 10.1210/me.2009-0514

Watch Morgan, an associate professor from University of North Carolina, discuss why research labs should be run as small businesses and how the universities’ stupidity contributes to poor research management.

Thanks to American Biotechnologist for pointing this video out.

This week’s quote comes from Jacob Bronowski.

“The essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.”

"Messy lab" by duncanmacinnis

You cannot replace a laboratory notebook. you simply can’t. why? because. just because.

I read a newspaper post recently  on how iphones and ipads have changed today’s classroom–kids interacting with their teachers and among themselves. This led me to thinking – when kids stop using notebooks, pens, paper, when kids  stop writing – eventually researchers will do so too. A computer is not a replacement for a notebook. It brings many benefits and is used extensively throughout the working day. but it is still far from killing paper.

The Wrong Terminology
Don’t call something a “notebook” when it is technically a fancy word processor with extended functionality.  That’s just bad terminology. I was so excited going to the first grade, getting my new notebooks. And then year after year for 12 years a new school year with new notebooks. It is so deeply imprinted that office depot still draws me to the notebook aisle, and not because I really need one, I’m “just browsing”.

Recently I presented to a partner at a venture capital firm (not fun), and he raised the question why we weren’t positioning our service as an ELN (electronic laboratory notebook). he was taking notes in his fancy Moleskin notebook, I asked him, why aren’t you taking notes on a computer – ” I think its impolite”, he replied.  Maybe. Still it is a cultural issue.
Even if you called ELNs something else for example an ELPA (which might stand for Electronic Laboratory Personal Assistant) it would not work. The reason lies in the way our laboratories are organized. I know many of you are using a computer, and I wouldn’t start BioData and wouldn’t write BioKM™ if that wasn’t the case, but are you using a computer on the bench? my guess is no. That’s why today’s ELNs are doomed to failure. The fact that you need to move back and forth from your bench to the office to update your progress  is killing the concept of a proper notebook.

You do not procrastinate with a paper.
One of the major disadvantages in working with a computer is the notion of “multitasking” you are not multitasking when you are working with paper. you are usually more focused. the fact that you hold a pen is focusing your attention towards the paper. I am sitting hours in front of the computer writing code,emails, blogs, tweets, facebook. you get the routine. But when I need to focus, I close the laptop screen.  paper is simple, it was intended for you to write. jot things down. sketch. not things you can easily do with a computer.

My own experience.
When I was doing bench research I tried many systems to organize my research. I printed out a lot of papers, and had most of my stuff also on paper. true, not all in notebooks but in something I could write on, so I could check and verify what I did.

BioKM™ is not an ELN
BioKM™ is not an ELN. nor it was intended to be one. when we will see researchers bringing their laptops, or ipads to the bench that’s when we’ll join the party. until then we are writing software for “offline” interaction. software that helps you reflect on your work but is not replacing your notebook.

What’s next ?
We rely on computers.  We also require simple tools to help document our work, interact with our colleagues, keep our research organized. we just need to figure out a way that will co-exist with our routine, allowing us to concentrate on our research while ensuring the knowledge and information we learn is kept and can be easily retrieved.

This week’s quote comes from Cornelius Bernardus Van Neil.

“In essence, science is a perpetual search for an intelligent and integrated comprehension of the world we live in.”

When I started BioData I had a clear idea where I was going. I’d seen science from the inside and knew what change I wanted to promote.

This blog post is my reply to a Science Careers paper that was posted a few years back. In short, the article suggests that young researchers do not believe in applying (PM) Project Management to research while  veteran researchers do.

I disagree. Project Management in research has nothing to do with age. We (shameless self promotion here) have about 650 active projects on our BioKM platform. They are being used mostly by students – not by their managers. Why?

Our research project module was born after I saw there was just too much stuff in some of the accounts. There was no way to understand the research story – you had a plasmid but you couldn’t understand why it was there, if it was ever used, what were the results, which protocol, etc.

Since I don’t like to write software that no one uses, I decided to talk with a few researchers that were collaborating with us at the time. All said – “No project management in academia,” “it will never work,” “you can’t manage research,”  “you can’t really plan ahead.”

We heard that, and yet all that discouragement helped us understand the real challenge. Project management in research is a totally new concept and should be addressed in a different manner and with a different set of tools. Ganntt Charts won’t work, constraints and other limiting factors are obviously there, meeting deadlines is there, but they are just not the point.

The point is to understand the path and the questions you are asking. The point is not to repeat yourself (well at least not too much), and to let your ideas and imagination thrive so you can see the progress of your research. A good tool (even a notebook) would be a place for you or any future researcher working on your project to understand what you did, share your ideas and pick it up to take it elsewhere.

A research project is different from an industrial projects since it is mostly a sequence of question and answers, not milestones and products.

Research can be managed it just requires attention and thought.

BioKM now allows users to view a PDF Preview of their documents and papers.When clicking on a protocol, for example, the user will be able to view the entire document embedded in BioKM. As with any other feature in BioKM, users can also comment and add their thoughts about each document.

This week’s quote comes from Albert Szent-Györgi.

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought.”

We had a “debate” with one lab on what is the most beneficial way to store presentations for group meetings. The outcome is the following:

BioKM Document Module

Technically we see labs using both. So it’s up to you to decide. What do you think?

This week’s quote comes from Claude Bernard.

“Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride.”

Science for All recently posted a link to The Daily Dish, a self described catalog of 365 petri dishes painted by Klari Reis. The images are a collection of work she did in 2009.  These beautiful images, like the one pictured here, depict microscopic images.

The Daily Dish, Friday, November 20, 2009

Follow Klari Reis and view her collection of petri dish art on facebook.

This week’s quote comes from Marie Curie.

“There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth.”

Lab Instructor and science enthusiast Joanne Manaster is this month’s BioData Blogs Featured Scientist. Follow Joanne at @sciencegoddess on twitter or on her website, Joanne Loves Science.

How did you first become interested in the science field?

I’ve just always known I would be doing science all my life. There was never a doubt and I can’t imagine anything else. Early on I thought it would be astronomy but after I broke my foot in 5th grade, I turned my attention to wanting to become a doctor. I knew scientists (researchers) existed somewhere but never had any introduction to it or considered it an option until about my junior year of college when I sat next a professor on a train. I must have impressed him because within about half an hour of meeting, he offered me a position in his lab as general help. Also, my junior year, I took a course that was a combination of cell biology and histology. I remember exactly where I was sitting and even what I was wearing when I had the sudden realization that I truly loved this material and knew that I had to use this information and learn more and more about it. After meeting the professor of that course, he soon offered me the option to help do some organizing and prep work and then ultimately help him instruct some of the lab courses. That is when I learned that I was very comfortable teaching science to semi-technical audiences, and especially good at explaining HOW to do techniques.

What is your favorite part of research and lab work? What is the worst part?

I love sharing my enthusiasm with students. I especially enjoy helping them learn lab techniques because they can see and feel concretely that they have done something, versus what they experience in theory work courses. I know I can teach anyone to do any technique I can do. Because of this, I get plenty of “knocks on my door” from engineers wanting to learn biological techniques. The worst part about lab work is when you are feeling frazzled or are not prepared to work and then everything seems to go wrong. We all have days like that!

Can you tell me a little bit about your work?

Even though I find research fascinating, I decided not to pursue that as a career goal. I was much more excited by teaching, so chose to run laboratory courses and to occasionally lecture for non-lab courses. I’ve designed multiple lab courses over the years, mostly revolving around cell biological, histological and cell culture techniques. I love to take any opportunity to visit research labs and see new techniques and ask questions so I can pass new ideas to the students. After deciding what topics need to be covered, I test protocols and make them almost foolproof. That includes finding the most useful reagents at great prices, as well as refining and writing clear instructions. Day to day, I ensure supplies are ordered, reagents are prepared and aliquoted for students. I do simple maintenance of lab equipment and find the people who can help when the problems are beyond my expertise. I handle student and administrative issues and supervise several student employees. For the cell culture and tissue engineering course, I hire a freshman to do the cleaning, stocking and sterilizing. If they are new, I have a lot of training to do. I also employ a junior or senior who has taken my course to prepare the media and other reagents as well as tend to the cells before handing them over to the students. And then I have graduate students who come in as teaching assistants and other undergraduates who help the TA with the course (activities are run in an outer lab area as well as the culture facility). For each set of employees, I provide a weekly list of responsibilities that I discuss with them. This helps keep them organized and all parties clear on respective duties. This course has a lecture component, which I love because I can share my enthusiasm over the latest findings in the area of stem cells and tissue engineering. Naturally there is a grading component and a website to maintain. In a way, it is much like running a research lab combined with the duties of teaching a lecture course. I have another course that is run much like a medical school histology class, which requires very little wet reagent prep work, but a lot of question answering and explaining of what students hope they are seeing through the microscope.

In your opinion, what is the most important quality for a scientist to be successful?

To be curious! Accept and nurture that part of yourself. Having good fine motor skills is a plus!

Can you share any tips for lab management and organization?

I had to, over the years, make compilations of recipes, protocols and instructions for EVERY aspect of the lab, from cleaning to equipment handling and troubleshooting, to reagent prep, to data keeping, to phone numbers. I find if I have prewritten calculations of commonly used volumes of reagents, I save quite a bit of time over the course of a semester. These instructions are kept online and also in binders with the pages in sheet protectors and tab dividers. If a TA or other employee is ever lost about what to do, they have the “giant notebook” to consult! The cleaning person should never feel perplexed as to what needs to be done because they can consult another binder created especially for them.

What is your next step? Where do you plan to be in ten years?

I do a tremendous amount of outreach to the local community in the form of a girls engineering camp (GAMES) as well as now being an adviser for U of I’s iGEM team. I’ve participated in the state science fair and the state and national level Science Olympiad. My international outreach includes my advisory position with the Young Scientist’s Journal International, as well as my social networking involvement on twitter, through my website and my youtube videos where I have taken to trying to discuss science in unexpected, whimsical and meaningful ways! I hope to find ways to bring my enthusiasm for science to a larger audience, and hopefully have appeal to a wide audience, ranging from children through adults, especially to those who thought they didn’t like science and surprise them that they actually can enjoy it and even understand it. I expect to have a larger presence within the new media in order to do this and possibly creating an online “channel” that contains great programming with real and accessible science, presented in interesting and entertaining ways, and especially emphasizing women’s role, but would accept a more traditional TV opportunity if it were part of a smart science show.

This week’s quote comes from Albert Einstein.

“I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.”

In honor of last night’s Academy Awards, PhD Comics has provided us with their version of The 2397th Academic Awards:

PhD Comics continues to provide great entertainment to students and researchers who can commiserate with the characters portrayed in the their comics.

Find this comic and other PhD comics at phdcomics.com. While you’re there, also be sure to check out ‘Moesday’ which depicts a regular week in the life of a graduate student.

Back in 2007, Joel Gilmore created the following video of the well know 007, James Bond, as a Graduate Student. The video was an invitation he made for a party celebrating the completion of his PhD.

Thanks to @nparmalee, @LadyScientist, and @scicurious of the twitterverse for bringing this great video to my attention.

How successful do you think Bond would have been as a grad student?

This week’s quote comes from George Wald.

“Science goes from question to question; big questions, and little, tentative answers. The questions as they age grow ever broader, the answers are seen to be more limited.”

“To Whom It May Concern:

For all intents and purposes, the SI prefix system has served the scientific community extremely well since its inception. However, we believe there is one significant flaw in the system which demands immediate attention.”

So begins the mission statement of a facebook petition calling for the designation of “hella” as a prefix for 10²⁷. “Hella” means “very” or “a lot of” in North Californian slang.

“As you know,” the statement continues, “the largest number with a designated SI prefix is 10²⁴, which carries the name “yotta-”. However, in our world of increasing physical awareness and experimental precision, this number is no longer a satisfactory “upper bound” in scientific nomenclature. The analysis of many physical phenomena reveals natural quantities in excess of 27 orders of magnitude, a number which is currently ignored by the SI system.”

Austein Sendek, a physics student from the University of California, is the founder of this movement. He calls the naming of “critical importance.” Over 28,000 people have signed and joined the facebook petition.

The Telegraph reports “If the change is approved, the hella would be the first new SI prefix introduced since 1991, when the International Committee for Weights and Measures approved yotta and zetta (21 zeroes).”

Professor Ian Mills, a British chemist who heads the Consultative Committee for Units (CCU) – the committee which would have to approve the “hella” addition told the Telegraph that it was unlikely the change would take place as most of the existing SI prefixes are derived from Latin or Greek, and he does not think the committee will change that precedent.

What do you think about this hella idea?

• For more infomation and to sign the petition visit the The Official Petition to Establish “Hella-” as the SI Prefix for 10²⁷ Facebook Page.

• Buy a “Hella” T-shirt at the MakeHellaOfficial Store

This week’s quote comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Science does not know its debt to imagination.”

BioKM is launching an update to our linking system and helping you connect the dots of your research by showing you its complete picture. Now you won’t have to waste time and frustration searching for your project related papers or protocols. You won’t need to keep looking up references to which plasmids or antibodies you are using in your project. When it comes to writing a paper, you’ll have all your project’s information organized and in one place. Click the link icon next to an item and it immediately becomes linked to your project. View all of your project’s related materials and their locations, events, tasks, papers, and protocols. Check out the following video to see how the linking system works.

Sign up for a free trial of BioKM, a web based laboratory management program. To find out more about BioKM, visit www.biodata.com.

Uri Alon, a PI in the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, recently published an article in Molecular Cell where he discusses how to build a motivated research group.

Motivation in a research group is very important as that is the way that work actually gets done. Its not enough to go uninspired through the motions and conduct experiments because if it doesn’t work out – what is going to push you to keep trying? I personally have spoken to many involved in research asking what it takes to be successful in science and research, particularly for those in the academic field. The two words I have heard over and over again are perseverance and motivation. Now that we have established that motivation is important in the laboratory, how can we instill motivation in our students, lab members, and maybe more importantly – ourselves?

Dr. Alon presents a study done by psychologists Deci and Ryan who have been studying conditions that enable self-determined behavior (such as motivation) since the 1970s. You can read the specifics in Alon’s paper, however the result of the study were a “surprise” because it seems ”that money and other rewards in these types of tasks apparently act to reduce motivation. “

The question remains: What makes people motivated?

Deci and Ryan concluded from a range of studies that there are three conditions for self-determined behavior: competence, autonomy, and social connectedness. Alon explains how he implements each of the conditions in his lab and how it has been successful.

Instead of throwing new, fairly inexperienced students into complicated procedures, Dr. Alon strengthens his students’ competence by taking the time to gradually build competence and confidence. Alon explains that easy steps allow for positive reinforcement. His experience has been that once a student’s confidence was boosted, “his motivation skyrocketed.”

The second condition essential for motivation is autonomy. Alon explains autonomy as “the sense that the project emanates from the person and not from an external source.” Threats and punishment are obvious detriments, however Alon was surprised to learn that intimidation also lead to a decrease in autonomy.

Social connectedness, the third of Deci and Ryan’s conditions, is when a student or researcher is taken under the wing of someone else in the research group. Alon describes how his weekly lab meeting has become an event that enhances his group’s social connectedness. Discussing birthdays and the news helps bring the group together. “Our connection to a community and a culture,“ write Alon, “provides us context and empathy during our struggles, celebrations and acknowledgment during our successes. “

Dr. Alon concludes his essay showing how to choose an appropriate research project using a method that he says enhances self-motivation. A Venn diagram shows how it is important for students to combine their passion, talent as well as the objectives of the lab to find a suitable project. Alon explains this theory, “Being in the intersection of talent, passion, and scientific objectives is motivating, because talent is related to competence, passion is an ingredient of autonomy, and shared objectives enhance social connectedness.”

This essay is very important, not because it brings a new message, but rather because it touches both on personal and group motivation – something not all PIs consider. While each lab member being motivated on his own is great, working as a motivated lab team results in more success and a happier research environment.

_{References: Alon, U. (2010). How to Build a Motivated Research Group Molecular Cell, 37 (2), 151-152 DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.01.011}

This week’s quote comes from Henri Poincare.

“Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.”