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If you're interested in a general sense in academic research, the first thing to figure out is which field of research is best for you.
The fundamental task of research is asking questions. There are many areas of research in the life sciences, and they generally fall into three categories based on the types of questions that are asked and the tools that are used to answer the questions:
Basic researchers ask questions about how fundamental life processes work. Examples of questions include the following:
Basic researchers usually work in laboratories with other scientists, usually with one faculty member leading a group of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and lab technicians who do most of the lab work. The hours can be very long and the work can be challenging, especially for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Basic researchers often ask their questions using model organisms, including yeast, worms, flies, fish, and mice.
Clinical researchers ask questions about how disease occurs and how it can be cured in humans. Examples of questions include the following:
Clinical researchers work in laboratories that are very similar to basic researchers, but they often work with human tissue samples to ask their questions. Many clinical researchers find it rewarding to work on a question that may have an impact that they will eventually see come to fruition. At the same time, when you're working with human tissue, you usually have a limited amount of it so the risks of making a mistake that will lose your sample could be high. Clinical researchers will often collaborate with biostatisticians to best design and analyze their studies in order to yield the maximum amount of relevant information.
Population-based research is done by epidemiologists who ask questions to determine how diet, genetics, and lifestyle may influence the risk of disease. They ask these questions in one of two ways:
The types of questions they ask include the following:
Epidemiologists also collaborate with biostatisticians in order to design and analyze studies so they can get the most information from them. Rather than work in a lab, epidemiologists often need no more than a desk and computer. However, the interdisciplinary field of molecular epidemiology is changing this, and many epidemiologists ask questions about how a particular gene can influence disease risk, rather than, or in addition to, a lifestyle exposure.
Faculty members usually have Ph.D.'s or M.D.'s and have gone through graduate school or medical school followed by several years of being a postdoctoral fellow or medical resident. A faculty member is the leader of their own lab or work group and determines the direction of the research in their group. Most faculty members spend a good deal of their time writing grant proposals and manuscripts, reading research papers, reviewing colleagues' manuscripts and grant proposals, thinking and talking with others about their research to gain new ideas, and mentoring the people in their group.
Faculty positions are usually very competitive to get and are often a result of hard work over many years. However, most faculty members love what they do and wouldn't trade it for anything.
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