A Day in the Life of a Principle Investigator (PI) in the Biomedical Field

Considering an academic career with an aim to bag that tenured position and run your own research group? The prospect of being able to answer your own scientific questions is a very compelling career prospect for a researcher. As a result this is many an aspiring post-doc’s dream, but what actually does this leadership transition involve on a day-to-day basis when you swap the ‘doing’ for the ‘managing’ and achieve research autonomy?

Here I provide a snap shot of a typical day as a PI running a small biomedical research group at a well respected research institute in the UK and the challenges of balancing this responsibility with the other crucial role of successfully ‘managing’ family life.

If this type of working day sounds exhilarating to you go for it with all the determination and strife that you can muster, and best of luck. If however any of it sounds like a complete chore, it’s probably time to start considering other career paths.

06.00 hrs – Day begins 30 mins before the alarm goes off with my 3 year old storming into the bedroom opening the shutters and announcing ‘it’s morning!’ Okay here we go again. Following a fantastic toddler cuddle, it’s a quick trip to the bathroom and a race downstairs to start the morning routine.

07.00 hrs – The following is achieved in a lightening flurry…family breakfast, clear up, shower, dressed, find the car keys, hop in the car for nursery run and daily commute. Really must remember to reply to my collaborator’s email from yesterday…mustn’t forget.

08.30 hrs – Squeezed in the all-essential coffee trip (skinny decaf cappuccino a particular favourite), grab a sandwich and then its finishing the commute to the lab with swirling thoughts of the impending days’ activities ahead…11 am lecture, paper to write on the novel drug combination we’ve been working on, a journal club at 2 pm, reply to collaborator and when is the review of that article due?

09.00 hrs – Laptop open, email check first. Quick scan and read of the crucial ‘can’t wait’ messages and the rest will wait (running the potential risk of being embedded in the ether of the forgotten, non-priority messages). Not too bad only 4 messages requiring immediate attention. After dealing with these, the next stop’s the lab. Good morning all, what’s happening today, any issues? Quick update from the and all seems to be progressing okay. Excellent. Oh yes, now what about that review?

10.00 hrs – Quick email check…fantastic the review’s not due back for another week, so that’s off the priority list. Final check through my lecture notes, I’ve presented this material for the last two years and updated it earlier in the week, but like to familiarise myself with it just prior to delivery. On the way to the lecture theatre I pop my head round a colleague’s door to update her that I plan to submit an undergrad project proposal, which will be in her in box shortly. Right which is the quickest way to lecture room 6 from here?

11.00 hrs – Delivery of part 1 of a two-part lecture series on the common genetic mutations in colorectal cancer for a taught post-graduate programme. I leave feeling happily satisfied that some eager young students were asking intelligent, well-informed questions. Must of hit the sweet spot in today’s delivery, good job - pat on the back. 

12.00 hrs – Back to the office and about to open the paper to review for a quick read over, whilst I have that sandwich, when there’s a knock at the door – it’s my PhD student with a query about a new technique. Quick chat and he’s on his way. I finish the sandwich whilst reading the article, digesting both. On the whole, neither was bad. A few holes in the study design I need to point out and suggestions for improvement, but I’ll deal with a more in-depth investigation next week when I write the peer-review form.

13.00 hrs – Make a cup of tea and back to the office to tackle the paper we want to submit next week. The post-doc’s provided me with a solid first draft, which is a good start. Now where I have I put the notes that I made about it over the weekend? Once located I refresh myself with the notes before having to head off to the weekly group meeting.

14.00 hrs – Group meeting...one of my colleagues presents a journal club on a recent Nature Genetics paper that’s describing a new technique for analysing RNAseq data. 10 minutes in and some experimental approaches are getting confusing. Wish I’d spent more than just yesterday lunchtime quickly scanning the article as some of the bioinformatics approaches are beyond my basic molecular biologist understanding. Interesting though and the presenter does an excellent job to provide much clarity.

15.00 hrs – Back to the office to write the article. No email checks for the next few hours. There must be a glitch in the matrix, as I’ve managed to achieve a whole 3-hour block of writing time in a row and as a result I make outstanding progress. 

18.00 hrs – Finding an appropriate place to stop, I pack up to get back home and see my son before bed. A quick pass by the lab to check all’s okay with the day’s experiments and I’m off. Get to the car and start the daily commute home. Baked potatoes or that left over ragu sauce and pasta tonight?

19.00 hrs – Important evening family duties…toddler bath time, story time, bedtime, dinner prep (pasta and sauce), and dishes.

21.00 hrs – Laptop open again and pick up where I finished off at 6 pm. Actually I’ll rewrite that last paragraph it’s not clear enough.

23.30 hrs – Need to go to bed or I’ll be wrecked tomorrow. Get ready for bed. A chapter of fiction and 10 minutes of meditation clears my head before sleep…mostly. Hit the sack and shut my eyes. Crap – I didn’t reply to the collaborator!

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