Deadlines Looming

Things are stressful at the moment. In 2 days, my group (composed of Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Social Work students) are responsible to submit a grant proposal and give a presentation about Alzheimer’s Disease. This is the final objective of the MCRiT summer practicum: participation in a “virtual group research project” . To guide us, we’ve been paired with Charles Burant MD, Ph.D, a professor in the School of Medicine who has been OUTSTANDING as a mentor. Unfortunately, we’ve only been given 2 weeks to make this project happen, and unfortunately, life doesn’t just stop when you have deadlines looming.

My observation is that research can start off incredibly slow and dry - when you’re being trained, trying to put a project together, or coming up with a hypothesis- , but can become quite stressful whenever deadlines approach ( ie annual reports, renewal of grants, presentation of work thus far). I’ve also discovered research doesn’t always end when the clock strikes 5 pm. These past few days, my day started with clinic but then afterwards have been filled with meetings and reading up on Alzheimer’s Disease in my free time. Some days there have been meetings that extended late into the evening to ensure we get our work done.

And your personal life doesn’t stop too. I went to a wedding on Saturday and I’m attending another in 2 weeks.

Though I’m super busy working on my portion of the Virtual Group project – I’m in charge of the data analysis ( statistics again!) and figuring out which statistical test is appropriate, patient safety ( to pass IRB) and the estimated budget (to hypothetically hire a Primary Investigator, study coordinator, purchase supplies, etc) – I really wanted to write this post and share what I think happens annually in research, and that is reporting and presenting what you’ve done all year. We’ve had seminars for each step of the research process – now it’s time to incorporate everything and demonstrate what we’ve learned in the past 9 weeks!

This is a picture of our whiteboard from a late evening brainstorming session to develop a testable hypothesis about Alzheimer’s Disease.