A (Thurs)day in the life of a PhD student
What do we actually do?
Hi Everyone! Today’s post is part of a few I’m planning to do to give some insight of what a “typical day” for a PhD student looks like. Of course, every day is different and will depend on the experiments I’m currently working on and what deadlines I have. But I’ve put together a fairly representative example here. I hope that it’s insightful for you!
Morning routine
I usually get up around 7:10 am and have breakfast with my girlfriend.t. When I tell people about my breakfast I always worry that I sound a bit boring since I have the same thing every day - poached eggs on toast! Usually after breakfast I’ll read a book for ten minutes or so before getting ready for the day.
I cycle to work, which takes me about 15 minutes. It’s a nice way to wake up and get some fresh air, and I like to start the day with some exercise. I arrive at work around 8:30 am and put some tissue culture reagents into the oven to warm up for later. I’m currently selecting some cell lines that I’ve generated to express a protein that we’re interested in studying.
I then return to my office to start writing. At the moment I’ve been trying to get into the habit of working on my thesis for about an hour every day. I find that I’m more likely to stick to this when I write in the mornings, so I come to work a bit earlier to give myself the time.
Lab meeting and coffee break
At 9:30 am, I have my weekly group lab meeting. Some groups have weekly lab meetings where everyone takes turns presenting their most recent findings and other group members offer input on any problems. In the lab group I’m a part of, we instead take it in turns weekly for one person to present, usually in a more formal style. This is a good opportunity to practise presenting in a more “polished” way, or presenting ideas that are more fully formulated.
The lab meeting lasts until 11:00 am, and then I grab a coffee and have a short break. I usually chat with my colleagues during this time - spirits are always high on Thursday because it’s almost the weekend!
Collecting reagents and meeting with my supervisor
At 11:30 am, I meet with a group leader in the department who agreed to gift me some reagent for an experiment. This is a common practice in our department, where researchers share their resources and expertise with each other. The reagent is a specific antibody that I need to detect a protein of interest in my cells for immunofluorescence microscopy. The group leader is very friendly and helpful, and gives me some tips on how to use the antibody.
At 11:50 am, I have a short meeting with my supervisor about various things. We catch up on the data that I’ve generated since our last meeting, and I run a few experimental plans by her.
Lunch break and tissue culture
At 12:00 pm, I have a quick lunch break. I usually bring my own lunch from home to try and save money. Today, I have leftover curry from last night’s dinner and some fruit. I’m a bit pushed for time today so I eat at my desk while skimming through a paper, although I would normally have lunch with my colleagues.
At 12:10 pm, I go back to work and head into the tissue culture room. This is where I grow and manipulate my cells under sterile conditions. Today, I’m checking my cells that I have under selection. The cells have been transduced with virus to express a gene of interest. As part of this, the cells also express an antibiotic resistance gene, so that I can select for cells that have been successfully transduced by growing them with antibiotics. I check to see if my cells look healthy and how much they have grown. I decide that the cells are looking healthy, and are probably confluent enough that I can passage them and freeze them down for storage today.
Coffee break and qPCR
I finish passaging and freezing my cells around 1:40 pm and take another coffee break. This time, I go to the common room and chat with some friends from other labs. We talk about our research, our hobbies, our plans for the weekend, etc.
At 2:00 pm, I go back into the tissue culture room and harvest some cells that have reached the end of their treatment. I need to extract their RNA for qPCR analysis. qPCR is a technique that allows me to measure the expression levels of specific genes in my cells using fluorescent probes.
At 2:30 pm, I leave the tissue culture room and go back to my desk. I read a paper that is relevant to my project while waiting for the RNA extraction to finish.
At 3:00 pm, I start preparing a qPCR plate. This involves pipetting small volumes of cDNA (made from RNA I extracted earlier this week) samples, primers, probes and master mix into wells of a plastic plate. The plate will then go into a qPCR machine that will amplify and detect the target genes. Preparing a qPCR plate is a lot of fiddly manual work, and so it usually takes me about 40 minutes to an hour, depending how many samples I’m loading onto the plate.
At 4:00 pm, I put the plate on the qPCR machine and start the run. The run will take about half an hour to complete.
Reading and going home
At 4:15 pm, I go back to reading papers or for my thesis until it’s time to go home.
At 4:40 pm, I pack up my things and leave work. I cycle home, which takes me another 15 minutes.
Evening routine
I arrive home around 5:30 pm and cook dinner with my girlfriend. On Thursdays I have Kendo practice in the evening, so we usually make something quick and light for dinner. Today, we make chicken salad..
We eat dinner and watch some TV. We’re currently watching “Is it Cake?” on Netflix, which is a game show where people try to guess if objects are real or made of cake. Contestants then have to recreate items out of cake, made to look hyper-realistic. It’s quite funny and helps me to relax at the end of the day.
At 6:40 pm, I cycle to Kendo practice. Kendo is a Japanese martial art that involves sword fighting with bamboo sticks. I’ve been doing it for about two years and I love it. It’s a great way to exercise, and blow off some steam!
I finish Kendo practice around 9:30 pm and cycle back home. I have a quick shower and get ready for bed.
At 9:45 pm, I read a book before bed. I like to read non-fiction books that are not related to my research. It helps me relax and unwind, and helps me feel like I’m still learning things and developing as a person outside of my research.
At 10:15 pm, I go to sleep.
Conclusion
So, that’s a day in the life of a PhD student for me. As you can see, it involves a lot of multi-tasking and switching between different levels of focus. Today I managed to get everything done that I wanted to and was able to leave a bit earlier, but sometimes I have to work a few hours later or come in on weekends. A PhD requires a lot of flexibility with your time!
I hope this blog post has given you some insights into what a day in the life of a PhD student looks like. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them below. Thank you for reading!