<p>I'm an undergrad right now. I'm currently a neuroscience major, but now I'm thinking about other fields; I want to go to grad school to do research.</p>
<p>What is good about research in either neuroscience or microbiology? Can you compare?</p>
<p>You should probably consider applying to biological sciences umbrella programs, which have a common admissions process for many different sub-disciplines of biology. If you are admitted to one of these programs, you can freely rotate in different neuroscience and microbiology labs and decide for yourself which you like better.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation when I applied -- I had majored in neuro as an undergrad, but I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to stay in neuroscience research. Of the schools to which I applied, Harvard, MIT, BU, UCLA, Caltech, Michigan, UCSF, Stanford, and Berkeley had such programs. (I'm sure others can add more.) I ended up rotating through several neuroscience and cell biology labs, and ended up picking a neuroscience lab, albeit one doing very different research from my undergrad lab.</p>
<p>Mollie is right, there are a number of grad programs that have an umbrella structure. Some schools including Univ of Colorado have an umbrella program where everybody takes the same curriculum for the first semester (med school style) and then specializes from a base understanding of all fields. These systems have their pros and cons. If you are unsure about your passions, these could allow you to be exposed to multiple areas. They also could provide you with a more holistic approach to biomedical research. On the other hand, how much can you learn about microbiology, immunology, pharmacology, cell biology, molecular biology and half a dozen other disciplines in a single semester. Also, many departments (at least at Univ of Colorado) don't like students admitted through the umbrella program as well as students admitted directly to the department.</p>
<p>IMHO, grad school is a bit late to begin hashing out what area you want to become an expert in. The kinds of in depth instruction and training that you can get in grad courses/rotations would be irrelevant if you decide on a different field. If you are unsure about what areas you like, a great place to start is by scanning through nature and science and seeing what articles jump out as being really interesting. Also, there are undergraduate summer research programs that would give you exposure to a different area. Post graduate lab tech time is ideal for trying a different area and seeing how you like it, plus it has the added bonus of a salary and potentially publications.</p>
<p>Neuroscience and microbiology are pretty distinct fields though there are areas of research that overlap. I know several bacterial pathogens induce disease symptoms that include dementia and paranoia. Also inflammation research will probably encompass aspects of both of these fields.</p>
<p>Microbiology research tends to focus on (at least in the setting of medical microbiology) mechanisms of disease, host pathogen interactions, colonization, determinants of virulence, prokaryotic genetics etc. These research focuses utilize all types of disease models including mouse models, cell culture, explants and in vitro assays. Common methods include molecular cloning, immunohistochemistry/histology, culturing, plate counts, RT PCR, genetic profiling etc. At the core of micro research is usually a specific disease process or element of pathogenesis that is shared among medically relevant infections. This contrasts to neuroscience in that I believe neuroscience could be discovery based and include elements of developmental biology. There could also be study of comparative genetics/anatomy. Whereas in micro, the focus is definitely on how known processes/proteins determine infectious outcomes.</p>
<p>Both fields have a lot of corollary areas to specialize in. Micro includes instruction in immunology, virology, parisitology, mycology, molecular biology etc whereas Neuro includes cell biology, developmental biology, physiology and others.</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>