<p>For example, doing research on cancer under a mentor who is a medical school professor. I've always wondered about this. Thanks! </p>
<p>Yes you can but you have to take the initiative. Here is an article about an undergraduate who has amassed an impressive undergrad research resume:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/magazine/grad-track/”>http://www.northeastern.edu/magazine/grad-track/</a></p>
<p>And Northeastern does not even have a medical school.</p>
<p>You do not have to do “medical research” under a med school prof as a pre-med undergrad. You can do medically-related research under one of your undergrad profs.</p>
<p>. . . or under a researcher, who is affiliated with the university, but not the Medical School. Please read this, <a href=“Opportunities Database | Undergraduate Research Support Office”>http://undergraduateresearch.duke.edu/opportunities</a> and drill down several tiers in undergraduate research’s website.</p>
<p>Many professors and PhD’s do research that is related to science and medicine but they are not MD’s who practice clinically.</p>
<p>You most definitely can join a professor in doing research! You will be a research assistant working either under a professor or graduate student. I would highly encourage you to do this as you will gain some hands on research experience! It may be difficult to do a research topic on something very popular like cancer, as many other people will also be looking to do research on the same thing, so keep your mind open for any kind of opportunity! Your university will most likely have an online bulletin board where labs will be seeking out for students to join their research lab for help. From personal experience, I would suggest to apply to as many as possible as some posts are not often updated. You can also ask a professor if they need help in their lab! Good luck!</p>
<p>Laboratory staff are busy and don’t always get around to the paperwork of posting the requests for assistance. You might try just walking the corridors of the research wing and sticking your head in labs or even professors offices.</p>
<p>Many students at DS’s college did research at its affiliated med school. This is because the number and caliber of research at the med school are higher than the counter part at the traditional grad school.</p>
<p>So many students did research there that the academic adviser in his department found a need to write a letter to all students in DS’s department in order to (kind of) tame the students’ interests to do research there. (even a “not so ambitious” student like DS did research there twice during his college years, mainly because it is where most of research jobs are. Many did it there 3 or even 4 years! No wonder so few students have enough time to date :).)</p>
<p>DS did a bench or more basic science research (instead of a clinical one) so his academic advisor who “manages” the quality and “fit” factor for the senior thesis/project would not complain. According to that academic advisor in his (biology) major, if the UG student does research in a very long term clinical research, he or she runs the risk of doing something that lack substances in science aspects of research, or at least he believes it could be unfit for the purpose of training an UG to learn how to do research. (I guess what he means may be that the higher caliber of a research group you join, the more trivial and “lack of education value” task you would likely be assigned to.)</p>
<p>BTW, DS is still doing research now - likely more on the clinical side now. He once commented that actually his writing skills got used a lot fir a research that is shorter than a year. He kind of said that the PI is extremely busy but he (or other more senior post-docs who are career researchers?) has many ideas or results but he could not afford the time to write it down to publish. He could make use of a student like DS (who has had a few years of research experience under his belt - starting from an “entry level” position) to help him out on that. I guess his PI (who is usually an MD, not a PhD, who also sees patients) thinks it is easier to communicate with a student like DS about what to write on a paper.</p>
<p>I would guess that most undergraduates get research positions not through posted listings, but by simply asking professors and/or lab managers if any space is available in the lab. So yes! Please do ask.</p>