Developmental biologist Marta Shahbazi, group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, explains the philosophy behind the LMB (Laboratory of Molecular Biology) and the advantages of managing small research teams.
Transcript:
As you progress through your carreer you get disconnected from what made you someone relevant in your field, and that’s a difficult thing to work with It sounds very interesting that you are in a situation, a very interesting situation, where you can still have some direct lab activitiy, and not being obliged to file for grants all the time. So, that’s exactly the idea behind the LMB! We are scientists, right? That’s what we are. We are not just simply managers. And I think sometimes when labs get too big, if you have like more than 10 people, 20 people, like many people do, you become more of a manager, right? You have to manage people. There is no way you can go and do research, and do your own experiments and be so much involved in the research. So I will go every day with my people, check cells together, discuss an experiment, look at the data, go with them to the microscope. This is something that you can only achieve if you have a small group and you really have time that you can dedicate to research. So that’s really the philosophy behind the LMB.