If you are reading this, either having earned your first faculty position or about to embark on leading a huge project, congratulations! You have obviously demonstrated the creative problem solving and other skills needed to successfully carry out and complete a scientific study…but maybe you’re not confident in your ability to lead or mentor? I would argue that many experiences you have accumulated up to this point will help you become the best mentor you can be, so let’s get to it as you cultivate the next generation of great researchers!

As one of the most common reagents in biology and medical research, there are more than 350,000 commercially produced antibodies available for research and clinical applications. However, the quality of the commercially available antibodies varies from vendor to vendor. Different suppliers have different protocols for validating antibodies and some researchers might want to verify the product before using them on precious samples. Here are some of the factors to examine when it comes to antibody quality.

Pursuing a PhD is undoubtedly one of the most challenging chapters in a researcher's career. For the first time, as an early career scientist, you must juggle research, writing, teaching, and your own personal life (yes, you should still have one). A PhD is definitely exhausting, but given the right guidance and support it can be an enjoyable and exciting time too. 

When I began my science journey as an undergrad, research seemed rigorous, but reassuringly straightforward in its tenets. Observe, question, hypothesize. Predict, test, analyze. And repeat. It made perfect sense to me that if you followed this protocol and remained unbiased in the process, great discoveries were sure to come.

But then I learned about the other steps in between. Steps like grant-writing, worrying about publishing and impact factors, getting your mentor to actually respond, and struggling to troubleshoot experiments. Twitter’s PhD community seems to relate.