George Lab
Addiction Research Laboratory at UCSD
WHY WE STUDY ADDICTION SCIENCE
Indeed, the allure of addiction science is undeniable, and it was the primary motivator for my pursuit of a PhD. The thrill of expanding the frontiers of knowledge of the root cause of addiction is invigorating, constantly challenging your abilities and intellectual capacity.
Yet, there's an additional, crucial reason for our scientific endeavors, one that must never be overlooked. Our commitment to science is also a commitment to society. In the U.S. alone, approximately 50 million people struggle with addiction to drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. Considering the impact on their families, this issue touches nearly 205 million lives, directly impacted by substance use disorders.
Currently available treatments often fall short in terms of efficacy or adherence. This underscores the urgent need for a deeper comprehension of the neurobiological underpinnings of drug addiction. We must develop more effective therapeutic strategies, enhance medications, improve outreach efforts, and establish better policies for addiction prevention.
The work you do has the potential for significant impact. It's vital to remember that even if the prospect of making a difference seems daunting, our obligation to strive persists. Largely funded by taxpayers, we bear a responsibility to continually advance and improve in our scientific pursuits. Each day offers a new opportunity to contribute positively to a field that profoundly affects countless lives.
WHAT SHOULD YOUR GOALS BE?
Let's start by clarifying what your objective in science should not be: It's not about climbing the career ladder, not about impressing your principal investigator (PI), not about securing a publication in high-profile journals, and certainly not about outshining your colleagues. These achievements are byproducts of reaching your true objective of conducting outstanding research and should never be your primary focus.
Your fundamental goal is to conduct research that embodies the three Rs: Rigorous, Reliable, and Reproducible. This means formulating clear, testable hypotheses, designing experiments with careful consideration, consistently including control groups, interpreting data objectively without bias, question your results, and meticulously documenting every procedure and data point in your research notebook.
By steadfastly concentrating on these principles and maintaining focus on the real purpose of your work, you'll find that career advancement, satisfying your PI, and publishing in prestigious journals will naturally follow as a result of your dedication to exemplary scientific practice.
OK, I GET THE POINT,
SO NOW,
HOW DO I DO IT?
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Know your stuff, read the literature, read the manuals, go to seminars, ask questions, listen, question the answer, question your belief, ask again more questions. Formulate new questions, enunciate solutions. Refuse answers that are not logical.
THINK LIKE A PHILOSOPHER
You do not need my permission to talk about your data, be free to talk to anyone about your most exciting results. The best science comes from interaction with others. Collaborate instead of compete and you will always win.
BE OPEN, BE FREE
Practice and practice again until that procedure is second nature to you. Use the best techniques, the best tools, the best approaches to answer your questions. Learn new skills. Don't be afraid to fail.
TRAIN LIKE AN ATHLETE
If you think of great ideas, write them down. If your science is not written up, if it is not published in one form or another, then it doesn't exist, because the world doesn't know about it. Write it up. Produce something. Put a poster together, write a blog post, submit it to a peer-review journal or to bioRxiv. Perfection can be the enemy of productivity. Give yourself hard deadlines, do your best in that amount of time and move one. Better done than perfect. There is always time to improve once it is finished.
PUT IT ON PAPER
See the beauty in Science, see the elegance of an experimental design, the attractiveness of a figure, the symmetry of the experimental groups. Be creative, be original, be BOLD. Try things that have never been done before. Think outside the box.
DREAM LIKE AN ARTIST
Data is data. Do not manipulate data. I repeat Data is Data. Do not alter it in anyway. The worst service you could do to yourself is manipulating data. It will jeopardize your career and the work of many scientists. If the data you get is not what you were expecting, so what? it just means that there is a lot more to discover, you have moved forward, it's exciting. The greates discoveries came from unexpected data!
BE HONEST, BE ETHICAL
If someone disagrees with you, embrace this diversity of opinion, engage in the discussion, challenge your own ideas, debate the issue, and try to make progress together. If something is broken, don't blame people, help people fix it. Gives credit when it is due. Collaborate, share your findings, give time to help others, teach others, do not withhold information but disseminate information. We stand on each other’s shoulder, we don't step on each other’s toes.
WORK AS A TEAM
SUPPORT WITH KINDNESS
We live together all week, and sometimes weekends. There will be time when someone will be down, when someone will be rude, when someone will not do the right thing. Don't blame, don't accuse, don't shame, don't ignore your people. Care for them. Bring them up, encourage them, raise awareness, show them the right way, respect them.
Do not accept data at face value. Data is data. It is always true, BUT it does not mean that it measured what it was supposed to measure. Sometimes your equipment is faulty, sometimes your animals are sick, sometimes your surgeries are not perfect, sometimes your antibody is not specific, sometimes someone will use a demolition hammer for 2h in your room right before your experiments. If your data do not look right, investigate possible causes. Isolate them and test again. Replicate your data, if you can't replicate it, and can't find the causes of failed replications then you are better off studying something else. Solid, reproducible research is the only way to go.
BE CRITICAL
I have no interest in working with little robots who work 365 days a year and have no private life. Go out, discover the world, hangout with your friends and family, have hobbies, enjoy life, socialize, laugh, exercise, resource yourself. Science is a huge part of my life, it is more than work, it is a passion, but it is not the only one. Find your balance.