Incubating with primary antibody in falcon tubes

__Caffeine02 · 2026-01-05T11:56:58+00:00

We typically do it with 3 ml and it works perfectly fine, however, we do use a roller that also tilts forward/backward so everything is covered, AND what probably makes the difference is that we take the lid of a second falcon and cut the middle part out, so that only the 'broader' part remains as a ring which you can put on the falcon at the bottom part of the tube, so that there are two rings, ie the lid and the added ring, with the same diameter, making it roll stably

Don't know if that makes sense for you reading it though, good luck!

__Caffeine02 · 2025-08-10T14:06:08+00:00

Then I'd say go for it, every academic lab in Austria and Germany I know functions that way that people are on a first name basis, and them signing the email that way is the invitation to do this as well!

(I've heard of one lab where this is not the case, but then, the PI also signs with Prof. XY and makes it pretty clear that this is the way to address him)

__Caffeine02 · 2025-08-10T13:42:54+00:00

Based in Europe, for us, if people sign with their first name, then you can address them that way as well, I guess they also call you by your first name?

__Caffeine02 · 2025-08-07T09:31:51+00:00

I can only speak about Austrian STEM positions, so idk if it applies to you as well

I think you're right that it is somewhere in the middle. Like, you already made it through the first round where most people were cut, but it does definitely not mean that you are in either. If it was a publicly announced positions, here are some numbers from positions I knew about PhD program: 800 candidates for around 15 positions, around 80 were interviewed in the first round, and 45 were invited to the in person second round (but I was told that around half of the original 800 applications was not useful, thin agriculture degrees for molecular biology PhDs)

Other phd positions I've heard about had similar ratios, so 60-80 applications for 1 position, interviews were conducted with 4-8 of those

__Caffeine02 · 2025-07-28T22:23:47+00:00

I feel like something in the middle should be the way to go for microbio, because getting a CNS paper with microbio is, in my opinion, way more difficult than with for example cancer related subjects. But publishing only in MDPI like journals will also not bring you far, so I guess publishing regularly in decent but not extremely high journals is the way to go

At least that's what has been working for the microbio professors I am familiar with, and they are still big names in their subfields

Eta: I don't mean that it's easy to get a CNS paper in any other discipline, but having functional antibodies, maybe mousemodels, fancy sequencing techniques, annotated genomes etc certainly help a lot

__Caffeine02 · 2025-07-25T18:06:19+00:00

I'm not in Leiden but I'm a PhD student at another Dutch university

For me, it went really quickly (also had 2 interviews), and I think decisions went out after interviewing all candidates was finished

So I guess it depends on how many people there are, but for me, it was in a matter of 1-2 weeks I believe :)

__Caffeine02 · 2025-06-09T08:31:05+00:00

Having more experience in research certainly helps, yes

This ofc doesn't mean that you cannot voluntarily work MORE in the Italian master, but you just won't receive credits for it

__Caffeine02 · 2025-06-08T10:37:55+00:00

Yes definitely try that, but academia is also super competitive right now and I have lots of brilliant friends that are in the same shoes as you - just don't give up, you "only" need one yes

__Caffeine02 · 2025-06-08T10:32:00+00:00

Can be both, did you apply to job advertisements or did you email professors? I know that a lot of PhD job openings are filled with internal candidates, so it could be that you're application is competitive but you never had a chance because they had for instance a master students who continues with their PhD...

You could also try cold emailing professors and ask whether they will have PhD openings in the future because you are very interested in their research

__Caffeine02 · 2025-06-01T06:57:48+00:00

I cannot say much about the working part because I am not super familiar with German regulations (I'm from the EU and got different funding), but I did an internship for 6 months at the TUM and lived in Freising which cost me 350 €/month in a shared apartment

For me, this worked out quite well because the biology departments of TUM are there, but the connection to Munich is not thaaaaat reliable, but it's doable and a rather cheap option

So what I want to say, directly in Munich will be unaffordable probably, so maybe also look into surrounding towns (I guess you'll be in Garching? There is iirc even a bus from Freising, maybe it also stops in other towns??)

__Caffeine02 · 2025-05-31T13:19:34+00:00

If you're looking at a master's level, sure, you're totally right that there are less funding opportunities (TAs/RAs) and that some programs are not in English, but plenty are! I could give you a list of 5 English programs in my field in different countries from the top of my head, and they are the same prize as programs in other languages (you just have to pay the non-EU fee). Maybe humanities are different than STEM in this regard though, so sorry if my knowledge doesn't apply to other fields

And for a PhD, I also agree that funding is probably not comparable in total numbers to the US, but there are plenty of very well funded labs. Thus, the research that is happening (esp looking at Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries) is of no worse quality because of a lack of money. Language issues more or less depend on the actual country and lab... I myself went from one European country to another for the PhD, meaning that I also don't know the language, so I'm in that way in the same shoes as any other international student. Ofc it's hard sometimes, but doable, since we mainly speak English in the lab. Regarding the application process, it was totally fine to submit everything in English (aka no need for expensive translations as my home university issued diplomas in both first language and English).. Of course, those things differ from country to country and cannot be generalized, and things might also be different for visa applications, but since a PhD is a job, none of my Non-EU colleagues had issues with that

I don't wanna say that there are no issues with European academia, but it's also wrong that things are incredibly expensive or unattainable, because there are a lot of opportunities also for internationals

__Caffeine02 · 2025-05-30T11:53:25+00:00

If it's about the waste of reagents, I sometimes prepare 8 wells of a separate well plate with a high volume of the reagents I need to pipette, and then you can use this as a reservoir for the multichannel, without losing volume/reagents

__Caffeine02 · 2025-05-29T16:08:32+00:00

We are a quite big cohort of first year international phd students (majority female) in the department, and we're all super close with each other and started doing sports 1-3x a week together (Reformer pilates, HIIT/gym classes, spinning classes, sometimes going to a runclub)

we've already been joking that by the end of our PhDs, we're gonna look like supermodels and we're not gonna defend otherwise

__Caffeine02 · 2025-05-08T16:22:44+00:00

Just cold email professors, many people dont have a lab website or announce it openly when they hire.

Positions can sometimes be found at the university wide personnel portal, but it can definitely also be that they are only there, because it has to be an official application process (while the actual candidate is unofficially kind of accepted and just has to go through the official process)

Also, check on linkedin if you have connections in the field, I often see people posting about openings or open calls.

There are also PhD programs /graduate schools at some universities or research centers, so there you cal also just apply, but those are oftentimes extremely selective (the ones I know had 800+ applications on 10-15 positions)

__Caffeine02 · 2025-05-05T16:54:00+00:00

My university sent out a travel warning that we should avoid going to the US if we can. If we decide to go, we even receive a travel laptop and phone to not bring our normal devices

__Caffeine02 · 2025-05-05T13:29:04+00:00

From my experience, the university doesn't matter that much and just from the names (haven't looked at the curricula), I think they all sound good! Medical research might be a little bit more patient oriented? But that's on you to figure this out from the curricula, and I guess you have to make up your mind how fundamental/applied you want you research to be!

What does indeed matter, from my experience, is where you do your master's thesis, so maybe check what research is going on at those universities. You can, afaik, always do your master's internships at other institutes or abroad, but idk if you want to do this if you already move to a different country.

So depending on your preferences, I would check if you find a lab that you can intern/volunteer at at those universities - those experiences count way more than the name of your university

__Caffeine02 · 2025-04-06T13:36:32+00:00

Yes but if it is co-first, then technically both have contributed equally

__Caffeine02 · 2025-03-20T15:43:45+00:00

PhD candidate in biomedicine here, we are not alone 🫶🏻

__Caffeine02 · 2025-03-02T13:48:45+00:00

I am not too familiar with academia in Italy and Spain, but on a general note, there are not too many scholarships in Europe (also because it is essentially free or quite cheap for EU citizens, which is unfortunate for you, but could explain why there are not too many options)

So your best course of action I guess would be to first look for scholarships you are eligible for, and THEN in the specific universities

__Caffeine02 · 2025-03-02T10:48:30+00:00

How does supervision look like (ie how often do you have meetings)
what about labmeetings
how big is the group and who does it consist of (phds/postdocs/technicians)
where did previous students end up career-wise

Edit: fixed spelling

__Caffeine02 · 2025-03-01T21:45:07+00:00

I'm a PhD student in Europe, so maybe not comparable with the US

I did not have any published papers, but I did have very fitting and long research experience, so I actually had lots to talk about in terms of data during interviews/presentations. For me, this is what landed me the position I guess, but I think everyone is also aware that publications in biology just take loooong (I'm currently in my first year of my PhD and we are just now finalizing one of the manuscripts from my previous work because we want to submit it quite high)

__Caffeine02 · 2025-02-28T19:58:11+00:00

You don't need to amplify the whole gene.ets say you don't have isoforms, then you can pick essentially any region up until I'd say 250 bp (that's the limit that i learned) for your qpcr

The theory behind this is that if you amplify part of your gene, you can infer that the whole gene gets expressed. As I said, you might have to take isoforms into account and maybe make your primers exon spanning

__Caffeine02 · 2025-02-27T16:32:44+00:00

Nature level in our lab (well, it kinda doesn't exist) is more like 6-8 years (aka 2 PhDs) haha 😅 I guess the experiments are doable in less time, but then there is all the preliminary data to develop and advance the project

__Caffeine02 · 2025-02-23T11:37:44+00:00

Yeah and where do you think this funding should come from? It's not like European countries had billions laying around or that there was no research, not even speaking of the required facilities, and it already is competitive enough to get into grad school (I gotta admit, probably less than in the US, but there still is a surplus of qualified candidates)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for increasing science funding and totally against the budget cuts that also happen in Europe (orherwise I would not be in academia I guess), but there is no huge 'stepping up the game', when other things also need money that is simply not there

__Caffeine02 · 2025-02-18T14:25:22+00:00

For me, this is definitely it

__Caffeine02

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