Our Philosophy

This document is intended to set out the expectations and ways of working in the Beagrie lab both for current lab members and for people thinking about joining the group. It was written by Rob, based on discussions with the whole lab, and is reviewed and updated annually.

Mission statement

The goal of the Beagrie lab is to understand how disruption of chromatin organisation contributes to human disease. We achieve this goal by conducting rigorous and well-controlled experiments, using models that are appropriate to the disease processes in question. Whilst we don’t conduct translational research, we still prioritise basic research that has the potential to benefit patients (even if that potential may take a long time to come about). We hold ourselves to a high standard of research integrity, and try to minimise the negative impacts of our research on the environment.

My expectations for you:

I do not expect expect lab members to work more than their contracted hours (37.5 hours per week for full-time staff). I do expect full time staff to be in the Centre during our core hours (10am to 4pm) on most days. You do not need permission to work from home occasionally, if you need to work from home on a regular schedule this should be discussed but is usually possible. You are not expected to work late evenings or on weekends unless there are unavoidable experimental constraints (e.g. a time course). If you frequently find yourself working for more than eight hours per day please let me know so we can talk through any issues and try to find an appropriate solution.

I expect you to make the safety of yourself and your labmates your top priority when you are working in the lab. You must make sure you have read, understood and signed the relevant risk assessments or COSHH forms for any experiments you might be doing. Please let me know if there is anything written in a risk assessment that you don’t understand or if there is no risk assessment for a protocol you are planning to use.

I expect you to be proactive in expanding your scientific knowledge. This means keeping an eye out for new papers or conferences relevant to your project (please ask if you need help with this) and attending seminars. DPhil students and RAs should aim to attend four seminars per month, postdocs should be aiming to attend at least two. Conference attendance is always dependent on available funding, but in general DPhil students and postdocs should expect to attend one meeting in the UK per year. Postdocs should normally attend an international meeting every two years, and DPhil students one international meeting in their third or fourth year. Lab members are expected to consider sustainability when planning to attend meetings, especially for international conferences.

Lab meetings last for one hour and each lab member will present around three times per year. The presenter will usually prepare a presentation covering their recent experiments which should last for around 30-40 minutes, in order to leave plenty of time for discussion in our one-hour slot. We also like to start lab meeting presentations with a “minute for me”: one minute in which you tell us about something completely unrelated to science, e.g. a recent holiday, a book you enjoyed. This just helps us get to know each other better!

I expect you to keep good records of your experimental and computational work. All experiments should be recorded in labarchives and should include an aim, a full protocol, results (including raw data) and a conclusion. Mistakes happen and are a normal part of lab life, the most important thing is to always record them in your lab book. All computational scripts should be kept on github and should be clearly documented, your files and projects should be sensibly organised with a consistent naming format. Next generation sequencing data should be backed up and should be uploaded to GEO for long-term storage once we are happy that it is of publication quality. We will discuss exactly when datasets are made public, but as I am a fan of open science I will usually be in favour of making data public earlier rather than later.

You can expect from me:

Core DPhil students and postdocs can expect to meet with me one-on-one around once per week. These meetings are informal so do not prepare a presentation, but please do make sure that you have recent data you would like to discuss to hand and in an easily understandable format (your electronic lab notebook is fine). We will try to hold these meetings in person where possible. The number of meetings I have with co-supervised DPhil students will vary for each student, but you should have a clear understanding of how often we will meet at the beginning of your project and you can always ask me if you think we should change the frequency of your meetings. Masters students, undergraduate/summer students and research assistants will have an assigned day-to-day supervisor who they can expect to meet once a week, which will either be me, a postdoc or a senior DPhil student.

You can expect to understand how the work you are doing is likely to contribute to an eventual publication, and have an idea of where you are likely to appear in the author list for that publication. DPhil students and postdocs will have a clearly defined main project that will lead to a first-author paper. We will have conversations about authorship when we start a new project but contributions can change over time so it is important to regularly check in about our expectations. If you are ever uncertain about how your contributions to a particular project will be recognised, please make sure to raise your concerns with me.

Every lab member can expect focussed support from me on their career development. We will meet once a year to discuss your progress, set some goals for the year ahead, talk through your career plans and identify any areas in which you may need additional support or training. I’m also happy to talk about your career any time outside of our annual meetings. I am usually happy to provide a letter of recommendation or a reference for anyone who needs one. Please give me as much notice as possible and include the details of the position and why you want to apply, the application deadline and the way the reference needs to be submitted.

Wellness policy

If you feel at all unwell, for any reason, make sure to take time to rest up and get better. Let someone in the lab know that you won’t be coming in (so that we don’t worry about you) but you do not need to explain why. If you need some extra help to keep an experiment running whilst you are off, just ask. If you need to restructure your work because of your health (e.g. chronic health issues, recurring medical appointments, pregnancy, allergies) let me know and we can figure out a plan that works for you. The same applies if you have caring commitments, we will discuss together to make a plan that works for everyone involved. Finally, take regular breaks! Make sure you get up and walk around if you have been working at a computer or a microscope. Don’t forget to schedule yourself a lunch break! Your brain needs food and regular breaks to work best, and to avoid making mistakes.