A day in the life of a postdoctoral research fellow

Postdoctoral research fellow Phoibe Renema, Ph.D., takes digital images of cellular cultures as part of an experiment. 

Phoibe Renema, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in the department of physiology and cell biology, describes her typical day at work as “busy but flexible.”

Renema is responsible for designing and performing experiments for her project, acquiring and analyzing data, writing up her work into publications, and presenting in lab meetings once a week to the lab and collaborators.

Phoibe Renema, Ph.D., discusses her research with faculty, 

other postdoctoral fellows and graduate students.

“A typical day for me starts at 8:30 a.m. when the entire lab meets briefly with our principal investigator to discuss what we have planned for the day, small issues and progress reports,” she said. “After the meeting, I then set up my experiments, check on my cells that I seeded the day before, warm or thaw any media that I will need, and then begin my experiment.”

In addition to her daily tasks to ensure her lab space is running properly, Renema also occasionally teaches a course or gives a lecture in seminars. “My PI and I also meet once a week to discuss my project and progress specifically,” she said. “We go over data figures and edit the manuscript that we are working on at the time.”

Renema recently published a “Did You Know” on the USA Center for Lung Biology’s web page.