A Day in the Life of a PhD Student at IGC
Hi! My name is Janice, and I’m a first-year PhD student in the Genetics and Molecular Medicine programme at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer (IGC). My PhD programme is a collaboration with the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, so I’ll spend 4–5 months there as part of my studies. I’m excited to share what a day in my life as a PhD student looks like and maybe give you some insight into what it’s like to do a PhD.
A PhD is quite different from undergraduate or Masters studies. There are no regular lectures or assignments, which can feel overwhelming at first because you have to structure your time and motivate yourself. While this freedom allows me to plan my days flexibly, it can also be challenging at first. Without a set schedule, you have to learn how to organise your time, plan your experiments, and stay motivated. That said, this independence is one of the best parts of a PhD. What I do in a day depends a lot on the experiments I’m running. For instance, a day spent working in cell culture looks very different from one spent analysing data on the microscope. And as most scientists will tell you, experiments don’t always go as planned! Sometimes your cells die over the weekend and completely derail your carefully laid out plans for Monday (this is of course only anecdotal, and didn’t happen to me at all…).
On a typical Friday, I usually arrive at the lab around 9am and check on my cells if I’m working with them. Then, I head to our weekly Gene Regulation section meeting. At IGC, research groups are divided into three sections: Gene Regulation, Disease Mechanisms, and Disease Models. In these meetings, researchers—usually PhD students or postdocs—present their projects, followed by very lively and energetic discussions. These meetings can be quite interesting as I see what other labs are working on and how it might connect to my own research.
After the meeting, I spend some time replying to emails, planning my experiments, and catching up on literature. Around midday, I meet with my PI for a check-in. These meetings are always valuable because they give me the chance to discuss my progress, troubleshoot any issues, and discuss my next experiments. Afterwards, I usually go to lunch which I usually spend with my lab or other PhD students.
After lunch, I usually head back to the lab to run experiments. Fridays tend to be quieter for me because of the meetings earlier in the day, so I try not to schedule anything too ambitious. For example, I might spend the afternoon splitting cells to keep them alive over the weekend or running a gel to confirm results from earlier in the week. I usually also spend some time documenting my experiments before I leave for the day, which is usually around 6pm.
Being a PhD student has its challenges, but it’s also incredibly exciting. Every day brings something new, and I love the freedom to work on my own project ideas. If you’re curious about research and enjoy tackling problems, it’s an amazing career path to consider.
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