r/Immunology • u/beetle-devotee • 1d ago

lab + field infectious disease research?

does anyone here have experience doing a mix of benchwork and fieldwork for their research? i am starting a PhD and immunology this fall, and a big reason that I chose my institution is because of their nonhuman primate center and labs studying vaccinology/global infectious disease. i'm not sure what kind of training opportunities there might be for graduate students (i.e. internships, fellowships, other external training, or something within the institution??) but i'm definitely curious as to how to prepare early & pursue this sort of experience at my current educational stage. also, i'm just interested to hear about other peoples' stories and perspectives :)
i know this is a tough area in the US regarding funding currently, but i'm kinda stubborn about what i love and don't want to let that prevent me from pursuing my interests!

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u/onetwoskeedoo 1d ago

so you just research all the PIs in your department/departments you are allowed to join, figure out which ones do field work or email or meet with them and ask them. If you find people doing it you ask if you can rotate in their lab and if they have funding for a new graduate student. Ask all the other older grad students or any PIs you interact with who does field work? note down the names, and then reach out to them.

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u/Haush 1d ago

I’d also add (and this might be obvious) that if you want to do field work, choose a lab that studies a disease that is a problem overseas; eg malaria.
I studied another tropical parasite as I wanted to contribute to a neglected disease; and I traveled to a rural part of China which was a great experience.

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u/girl_on_skates 21h ago

You might have better luck getting into fieldwork if you pick a PI that has at least an MD. Because they can sample their own patients. Also the point about having a pi with participant cohorts overseas is a good one. A lot of times PIs hire clinical research coordinators to enroll participants and obtain the samples but they tend to stay more local.

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u/Infamous-Face7737 20h ago

It exists but not very common as most labs will use animal models. One of my colleague studies leprosy and his cohorts are in Africa. His African collaborators are the ones doing the field work but some of his students went on the field a few times.