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Showing posts from November, 2019

Project Management, Part I: Goal Setting

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All of us know goal setting is important, and we’re undoubtedly goal-oriented individuals. However, understanding how to set goals effectively is crucial for a number of reasons. First, personnel, money and time are finite resources. It is dangerous to squander them in projects that cannot be translated into papers or new grants, or that are inconsistent with one’s career development mission or the core values of a lab. For these reasons, before identifying goals it’s critical to address a more fundamental question: what is your mission? What are your values? What is most important for you to accomplish, either as a trainee or group leader? Where do you want your career or research program to go in five years or longer? Understanding these key points allows you to develop goals that are consistent with the wider context of your scientific interests, expertise, and available resources. They also allow you to move beyond simply ‘doing more and faster’ and instead establishing clear pri

Lab Spotlight: Yoshimoto Lab

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Each month, Simply Blood spotlights a lab focused on the research of basic hematology, immunology, stem cell research, cell and gene therapy, and other related aspects. Get to know these different labs around the world! This month, we are featuring the Yoshimoto Lab at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. How long have you had your lab?  One + three years. I was a non-tenure track Research Assistant Professor at Indiana University since 2011. I obtained my own lab space when I was awarded NIH R56 in 2015. I hired one post-doc and the two of us worked together. In 2016, I was awarded R01 and was recruited to my current position at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. How many members make up your lab?  Students/postdocs?    Five people. One Assistant Professor (my husband), 3 research assistants, and me. One post-doc just finished and returned to Brazil, so my lab is open for a new student/post-doc. What is the major research them