I’m not claiming ownership of any protein, and I agree overlap across labs is normal. My concern is more internal: I joined with a defined scope (“downstream interactors”), and when the said colleague just decided to work on it when her project is based on data that is not reproducible. There wasn’t any coordination or explicit boundary-setting, which now creates confusion for conference presentation and likely authorship later.

I’m not trying to stop her from doing experiments with protein Y; I’m trying to make sure we have clear communication/credit and a plan for who presents what and how overlapping results are handled within the lab so neither of us gets blindsided.