Kaganovich lab mission statement and lab policies
Our purpose is to discover new and interesting things in biology, and to create a productive and friendly environment in which we can train future generations of scientists. Much of our funding comes from, or in the name of, people who suffer from terrible illnesses. Therefore, much of our efforts are directed towards scientific activities that may eventually provide a benefit for human health and wellbeing. Members of the lab are expected to take full responsibility for a complete research project, carry out experiments honestly, carefully, and with interest, and to be invested in the current and future success of other lab members. It is important to realize that the lab is a professional setting, even though there is a fair bit of informality in how we go about doing our jobs here. We expect members of the lab to maintain high standards of professionalism: be ambitious and invested in your own future success, collaborate professionally with others, do things well and on time.
Kaganovich Lab Policies
The functioning and success of our lab depends on a common sense of purpose and competitive cooperation. A sense of working in a fun and exciting lab is difficult to maintain and very easy to destroy. One person who just doesn't care can quickly ruin it for alot of people who do. Although we as a lab value and seek out independence in people who we hire, it is important to realize that in the lab we all depend on each other, and must act in a thoughtful manner towards all lab members.
We are extremely fortunate to have generous funding with which to pursue research that interests us, fantastic equipment that enables us to do in days things that used to take weeks, and to be part of a wonderful and vibrant Institute and scientific community. It is important to appreciate these things by working hard, taking good care of equipment (which is meant to last decades), and to be a productive and cooperative part of our scientific community.
Some Basics
Working together in the lab
Our lab, in the short-term and long-term, depends on building and maintaining a solid foundation of reagents and protocols for the benefit of future work, as we benefit from the work others have done. Therefore, it is critical to:
Maintain organized and and electronically cataloged databases of oligos, primers, yeast strains, yeast libraries, bacterial strains, mammalian cell lines, and plasmids.
Freeze common stocks of plasmids and yeast strains that you create. Plasmids should be kept as DNA common stocks and bacterial common stocks.
Document your research and protocols, and post your protocols on this website for other members of the lab to view and use.
Be courteous to other scientists in the lab: re-order reagents that may run out, take care of sensitive reagents and equipment so that others may use them after you, and clean up after yourself.
Contribute to the organization and cleanliness of the entire lab and your own work space.
Keep your work space clean!
If you have a lab task make sure to do it in a timely and diligent manner.
Apply for all available fellowships and grants. Take the initiative to find new ones.
Prepare good presentations in English for labmeeting. Attend labmeetings and other joint lab academic activities like seminars and practice talks.
Treat others who are presenting nicely, and provide them with thoughtful and constructive criticism that will help them move forward in their work and improve the effectiveness of their presentation.
Take time to carefully read and comment on lab written materials (such as manuscripts, grants, and proposals that other members of the lab are writing).
If problems arise be open about the problem and pragmatic about resolving it. I am always available to help deal with any lab problem.
Collaboration is an integral part of successful research. If someone comes to the lab from another lab looking for help or to use equipment, everyone is expected to lend a hand in a friendly and forthcoming manner.
All members of the lab, whether they are postdocs or high-school students, deserve the same amount of respect, courtesy, and consideration. They wouldn't be here if we all didn't think that they have alot to contribute.
Equipment
Clean up equipment such as centrifuges and incubators when you make them dirty. Don't leave this for the end of the day or the end of the semester.
We have alot of complicated and delicate equipment in the lab, especially microscopes. If you aren't sure how to use a piece of equipment correctly, ask someone! Everyone in lab will rush to help you. I prefer that you wake me up in the middle of the night than ruin an objective on a microscope because you aren't quite sure how to clean it.
Accidents happen and things fall, get broken, and get left on. However, when it comes to microscopy equipment, our goal is for accidents to never happen. The way to achieve this is to separate the use of unbelievably expensive equipment from everyday stuff. Set aside time for the experiment and set-up. Don't rush. Make sure you are focused and not sleep deprived, give some extra thought to what you are doing and why, and be deliberate about all of your actions. Working this way keeps equipment from being broken and keeps everyone safe as well.
In certain (but not all) respects, a lab works a little like a small business. We have overhead funding, revenue (grants), a payroll, and a product (our research). Reagents and kits cost money, but so does your time. We don't always want to save money at the expense of efficiency and time, but keep in mind when making financial decisions for the lab (ordering or using reagents and kits) that all the money has to come from somewhere. Money is always finite, and there are no magic gnomes that make it for us - it all comes from our hard work and the generosity of people who want our work to succeed.
My commitments to lab members
Your time and effort are valuable to me and I will do my utmost to help you in your work, take your best interests to heart, and direct your efforts in ways that benefit you first and foremost.
I will do everything in my power to enable students to accomplish their experimental agenda by securing funding, acquiring the appropriate equipment, and establishing important collaborations.
I will invest in a friendly and pleasant working environment, and I will consider the input of lab members when making important decisions (including hiring decisions).
I will always support you in your career goals, whatever they may be.
My goal is for every member of the lab to become an accomplished independent researcher during their tenure in the lab. This includes learning about working at the bench, acquiring scientific independence in projects, mastering the literature in your field, and working on the project of your choice. It also includes learning about other aspects of doing science, such as scientific writing, grant writing, giving excellent scientific presentations, networking, and speaking English well.
No matter how much we try to avoid it, in close quarters problems and tensions can sometimes arise. It is important for me to treat co-workers fairly when this happens. There are two ways to avoid serious problems:
1. It is important to be clear about expectations, intentions, and feelings ahead of time (whether this includes informal agreements, collaboration, use of equipment, authorship on manuscripts, etc.). A few basic guidelines ahead of time can prevent alot of trouble later on.
2. When problems do arise, all parties must be committed to resolving them in a professional manner. Don't hesitate to come talk to me early and to be clear about your position. If you feel that I am not treating you fairly or that I may be biased or conflicted about a certain issue, we will work to appoint a third party who can help mediate the discussion.
I want you to have fun and to enjoy working in the lab, and I will work together with you to make it happen!!!
We are extremely fortunate to have generous funding with which to pursue research that interests us, fantastic equipment that enables us to do in days things that used to take weeks, and to be part of a wonderful and vibrant Institute and scientific community. It is important to appreciate these things by working hard, taking good care of equipment (which is meant to last decades), and to be a productive and cooperative part of our scientific community.
Some Basics
Working together in the lab
Our lab, in the short-term and long-term, depends on building and maintaining a solid foundation of reagents and protocols for the benefit of future work, as we benefit from the work others have done. Therefore, it is critical to:
Maintain organized and and electronically cataloged databases of oligos, primers, yeast strains, yeast libraries, bacterial strains, mammalian cell lines, and plasmids.
Freeze common stocks of plasmids and yeast strains that you create. Plasmids should be kept as DNA common stocks and bacterial common stocks.
Document your research and protocols, and post your protocols on this website for other members of the lab to view and use.
Be courteous to other scientists in the lab: re-order reagents that may run out, take care of sensitive reagents and equipment so that others may use them after you, and clean up after yourself.
Contribute to the organization and cleanliness of the entire lab and your own work space.
Keep your work space clean!
If you have a lab task make sure to do it in a timely and diligent manner.
Apply for all available fellowships and grants. Take the initiative to find new ones.
Prepare good presentations in English for labmeeting. Attend labmeetings and other joint lab academic activities like seminars and practice talks.
Treat others who are presenting nicely, and provide them with thoughtful and constructive criticism that will help them move forward in their work and improve the effectiveness of their presentation.
Take time to carefully read and comment on lab written materials (such as manuscripts, grants, and proposals that other members of the lab are writing).
If problems arise be open about the problem and pragmatic about resolving it. I am always available to help deal with any lab problem.
Collaboration is an integral part of successful research. If someone comes to the lab from another lab looking for help or to use equipment, everyone is expected to lend a hand in a friendly and forthcoming manner.
All members of the lab, whether they are postdocs or high-school students, deserve the same amount of respect, courtesy, and consideration. They wouldn't be here if we all didn't think that they have alot to contribute.
Equipment
Clean up equipment such as centrifuges and incubators when you make them dirty. Don't leave this for the end of the day or the end of the semester.
We have alot of complicated and delicate equipment in the lab, especially microscopes. If you aren't sure how to use a piece of equipment correctly, ask someone! Everyone in lab will rush to help you. I prefer that you wake me up in the middle of the night than ruin an objective on a microscope because you aren't quite sure how to clean it.
Accidents happen and things fall, get broken, and get left on. However, when it comes to microscopy equipment, our goal is for accidents to never happen. The way to achieve this is to separate the use of unbelievably expensive equipment from everyday stuff. Set aside time for the experiment and set-up. Don't rush. Make sure you are focused and not sleep deprived, give some extra thought to what you are doing and why, and be deliberate about all of your actions. Working this way keeps equipment from being broken and keeps everyone safe as well.
In certain (but not all) respects, a lab works a little like a small business. We have overhead funding, revenue (grants), a payroll, and a product (our research). Reagents and kits cost money, but so does your time. We don't always want to save money at the expense of efficiency and time, but keep in mind when making financial decisions for the lab (ordering or using reagents and kits) that all the money has to come from somewhere. Money is always finite, and there are no magic gnomes that make it for us - it all comes from our hard work and the generosity of people who want our work to succeed.
My commitments to lab members
Your time and effort are valuable to me and I will do my utmost to help you in your work, take your best interests to heart, and direct your efforts in ways that benefit you first and foremost.
I will do everything in my power to enable students to accomplish their experimental agenda by securing funding, acquiring the appropriate equipment, and establishing important collaborations.
I will invest in a friendly and pleasant working environment, and I will consider the input of lab members when making important decisions (including hiring decisions).
I will always support you in your career goals, whatever they may be.
My goal is for every member of the lab to become an accomplished independent researcher during their tenure in the lab. This includes learning about working at the bench, acquiring scientific independence in projects, mastering the literature in your field, and working on the project of your choice. It also includes learning about other aspects of doing science, such as scientific writing, grant writing, giving excellent scientific presentations, networking, and speaking English well.
No matter how much we try to avoid it, in close quarters problems and tensions can sometimes arise. It is important for me to treat co-workers fairly when this happens. There are two ways to avoid serious problems:
1. It is important to be clear about expectations, intentions, and feelings ahead of time (whether this includes informal agreements, collaboration, use of equipment, authorship on manuscripts, etc.). A few basic guidelines ahead of time can prevent alot of trouble later on.
2. When problems do arise, all parties must be committed to resolving them in a professional manner. Don't hesitate to come talk to me early and to be clear about your position. If you feel that I am not treating you fairly or that I may be biased or conflicted about a certain issue, we will work to appoint a third party who can help mediate the discussion.
I want you to have fun and to enjoy working in the lab, and I will work together with you to make it happen!!!
