General expectations
Graduate students who join the lab must first be admitted to a graduate program in Biology or Biomedical Engineering. RPI policy dictates that students apply to these programs rather than to individual laboratories. For this reason, I am generally unresponsive to inquiries as to whether or not I will accept an individual until they have been formally accepted. Students interested in applying should contact the Graduate Admissions office.
Undergraduate students who enter this lab are expected to have completed Biology 2120 (Introductory Cell & Molecular Biology) with a grade of "A." All undergraduates work with a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher in the lab and are expected to interact with them daily.
My management style is largely hands-off. I generally meet with undergraduate students in one-on-one sessions about twice a month, or more often as necessary. While students are not expected to be in the lab during proscribed hours, it is important that our work hours overlap enough that we see each other often. This relatively informal mentoring style leaves students a great deal of freedom to manage their time. With this freedom comes the responsibility of effectively balancing school and personal responsibilities such that sufficient time and energy can be devoted to research.
Graduate students in this laboratory typically spend about 50-60 hours per week doing research. The average time to obtain a Ph.D. in my lab is four years. Undergraduate students in this laboratory typically spend about 20-30 hours per week doing research.
All members of the Plopper lab are expected to be good citizens, and to conduct themselves as professionals. Graduate students are expected to mentor undergraduate students. Once an undergraduate student has been assigned a graduate mentor, both must sign a contract outlining lab policies and specific expectations for both the mentor and the mentee.
Projects available
At this time, no graduate projects are available. Undergraduates must be selected by current graduate students who can devote sufficient time to training and mentoring an assistant. Thus, positions for undergraduates open up periodically, according to the graduate students’ work loads.
Techniques currently in use
Most of the techniques we use can be generally grouped under the heading of "Cell and Molecular Biology." Although this not an exhaustive list, here are some of the techniques we use:
- Cell culture: Mammalian and bacterial cell culture, cell freezing and thawing.
- Microscopy: Phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy, including confocal microscopy.
- Cell signaling: Protein kinase assays, ELISA assays, G protein activity assays
- Protein biochemistry: SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, immunoprecipitation.
- Molecular biology: PCR and RT-PCR, DNA microarray analysis, DNA transfection, siRNA.
- Cell behavior: Cell adhesion, migration, assays, co-cultures
Travel/Attendance at meetings
Graduate students are expected to produce enough data to present a poster at least once at a national meeting. Travel to meetings is supported by internal and external grants.
Exceptionally productive undergraduates may present their work in poster format at national meetings. Travel to meetings may be supported by internal and external grants.
Funding
Graduate students are initially supported by either laboratory or institutional funds, but are actively encouraged to apply for external, predoctoral grants while in the laboratory. Previous students have received support for research as well as travel to meetings, totaling over $200,000.
In addition, all graduate students are required to teach in an undergraduate laboratory course for at least one semester, and receive a stipend for this service. Students interested in additional teaching may do so upon arrangement with me. Students not supported by external funding may be required to do additional teaching as part of their departmental support.
For undergraduates, RPI offers a small stipend as part of the Undergraduate Research Program for research during the school year. For more information, contact the URP office.
Outcomes: What are former lab members doing now?
Former Graduate Students
Karl Kingsley received his Ph.D. in the Spring of 2001 while I was at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Following his postdoctal research at Stanford Medical School in Palo Alto, CA, he is now Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada School of Dental Medicine.
Johanna (Jody) Wagner received her M.S. in the summer of 2001 while I was at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She received her M.D. from the University of Nevada School of Medicine in 2006 and is doing her internship in Reno, Nevada.
Will Rust received his Ph.D. from UNLV in the Fall of 2001, then did a two year postdoctoral fellowship with Novartis, Inc. in Switzerland. After serving as a staff researcher with ES International in Singapore for a few years, he is now Section Manager, Cell Systems R&D at Lonza Bioscience.
Roman Salasznyk received his Ph.D. from RPI in August 2005. After serving as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Paula McKeown-Longo at Albany Medical Center, he now works as a Section Leader at Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.
Sarah Earley received her Ph.D. from RPI in December 2006, then completed a postdoc at Albany Medical Center and recently accepted a position with Dr. Ralph Weissleder, at the Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Robert Klees received his Ph.D. in 2007 and now works at the Wadsworth Center in The New York State Health Labs as a staff scientist.
Don Ward received his Ph.D. in 2007 and now works at the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.
Amanda Lund completed her Ph.D. in 2009, and now works as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Melody Swartz in the Laboratory of Lymphatic and Cancer Bioengineering (LLCB), at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale du Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Former Undergraduate Students
I have trained over 40 undergraduate students for at least one semester each, including more than 20 since my arrival at RPI. Most were interested in pursuing either graduate or professional school, and many have gone on to pursue post-baccalaureate degrees. For example:
Kilpatrick Carroll worked with me for three years, presented a poster at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) national meeting in Washington, D.C., co-authored a manuscript, and completed his Ph.D. in Biophysics at Columbia University in 2008. He now works for a venture capital firm in NYC. Kil was also the recipient of a National Science Foundation predoctoral fellowship.
Carla DiGennaro's two years in the lab included a summer internship at a biotech firm we were collaborating with (Desmos, Inc.) and a poster presentation at a ASCB meeting. After graduating, she served as a technician for a year at Stanford Medical School, and following graduate work in the Molecular and Cell Biology program at U.C. Berkeley she is now an Instructor at Skyline College and Merritt College in California.
Antonette Andres received a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, an American Heart Association summer internship at U.C. San Francisco, and was awarded funding by the American Association for Cancer Research to attend its annual meeting for two years. She completed her Physicians Assistant training in 2006 and is now practicing in Southern California.
Genevieve Weber and Megan Keefe both ended up in Ph.D. programs at Johns Hopkins University. Megan received her Ph.D. in 2007 and is now doing postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins.
Megan Salt is currently enrolled in the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program at the University of California, San Francisco.
Several former students have enrolled in graduate, medical or dental schools including the University of Southern California, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Riverside, UCSF, and UCLA.
How to apply for a position
Graduate students
Students who have already been accepted into a graduate studies program in Biology or Biomedical Engineering and are interested in rotating in the lab should schedule a meeting with me to discuss this. As stated above, students interested in applying for admission to a graduate program cannot be considered for a lab position until they are accepted.
Undergraduates
See above regarding space availability in the lab. Students are required to take Introduction to Cell Biology (BIOL-2120) and are strongly encouraged to take Professor Edick's Cell and Developmental Biology Laboratory course (BIOL-4740) prior to applying for a position. If you are interested in joining my laboratory, please send me an email message with the following information:
- Name
- Contact information
- Year in school (junior, senior, etc.)
- Weekly schedule, indicating times you are available to work in the lab
- Summary of science coursework taken to date: course name/number, and grade
- Name and contact information of a faculty member who may serve as a reference
- Brief statement of goals: Why do you want to work in this lab?
I will review your submitted information and respond as soon as possible. Thanks for your interest!