There is no aspect of the academic profession that I enjoy more than mentoring. My central objective for each person is to become a thoughtful and productive experimentalist. I break this down into seven skill categories: (1) proper laboratory techniques, (2) in-depth understanding of protocols and methodology, (3) experimental design, (4) data organization, (5) data analysis and statistics, (6) data presentation, (7) and the ability to understand and critique the relevant literature. Mastery of these overarching skills is structured uniquely for each person based upon existing strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, I have found that encouraging my trainees to use their strengths to help others greatly eases the stress of diligently working on weaknesses. This has the added benefit of establishing healthy team work, where everyone involved contributes to the success of the whole group.
The Carstens Lab is a place of personal and professional growth, where each member works together as team towards the central goal: to understand and treat metastatic cancer for improved patient outcomes. We do this by maintaining honesty, respect, generous collaboration, and scientific excellence in all the work we do.
