To undergraduate students seeking lab experiences, global shutdowns in March 2020 in response to COVID-19 were uniquely devastating. Much-anticipated introductory summer projects were cancelled, and many September plans ultimately fell through as well. Students across every year of study were left without important practical research experience, or they had to take on unexpected remote alternatives, such as bioinformatics work.
“COVID has been a wrecking ball to the sandcastle I’d imagined undergrad research to be,” related third-year Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology student Albert Cheng to The Strand. “Where I thought I’d be playing with Petri dishes and pipettes, instead I was subsetting data frames thousands of rows long and constructing mixed effects models. In all likelihood, my first time carrying out classics like the Western blot or inducing mutations in my cells will be in the artificial context of a laboratory course instead of the messy reality of a bona fide wet lab.”
Now, though, it looks like real-life research could be back on the table at UofT. With a better handle on COVID-19 allowing tentatively optimistic plans for a return to in-person classes this year, UofT’s lecture halls and labs are planning to open their doors to undergrads again.
UofT’s strong research culture means that there are plenty of avenues to get into a lab, even without the past experience of which many prospective student researchers have been deprived. Recent Biochemistry and Cell & Systems Biology graduate Flora Zhiqi Wang suggests that second- or third-year students apply to Research Opportunity Programs (ROPs), which are specially targeted to students without past experience; undergrad research opportunities organized by Graduate and Life Sciences Education (GLSE); or, for third- and fourth-year students, thesis research courses.
Students can also directly contact professors who head labs of interest to them. Cheng tells students to “[b]e ahead of the curve—particularly if this is your first research experience, try to contact [principal investigators (PIs)] even months ahead of the start date.” For summer opportunities, this means December and January are key times to reach out to PIs, usually in the form of cold emailing. Before sending out inquiries, though, Cheng advises peers to “make sure to read what [professors] do; not just skimming a few papers, but going through the methods.”
Similarly, Wang recommends: “Tailor your email to the [professor’s] research and keep your email short when reaching out to [them].”
As for what to expect from the work itself, the day-to-day experience will vary between individual labs. Generally speaking, one can expect to apply basic skills learned in course practical sections, such as safety procedures and use of personal protective equipment (PPE), basic calculations, pipetting, and so on. Some refreshers on these skills can be found with quick searches on Google or YouTube. More advanced or lab-specific skills will typically be demonstrated as part of training, and students will have ample opportunity to practice in the lab.
Importantly, Wang reminds students that “[they] are definitely free to leave or switch labs after the research course if [they] do not find the PI’s mentorship style or the lab environment to be conducive to [their] development.”
In this unique and difficult situation, most students have gone through similar challenges and setbacks. From professors to undergraduates, no one is alone in feeling held back from valuable opportunities by the pandemic—but from here, there’s only room to move forward.
Find more information about UofT’s student research programs at artsci.utoronto.ca and glse.utoronto.ca.
