The many roles of a lab scientist

For any research group, someone always has to be its first PhD student. It may sound frightening, but I consider myself extremely lucky to be that person. As part of a three-person team along my advisor, Mónica Pérez-Temprano, and a postdoc, Sara, I had to be part of everything. And while the pressure was high (as the sole student I was constantly under the spotlight), I was able to learn countless new things. Everyone expects you to read a million papers, learn how to develop a scientific project and publish your results – but no one tells you about the other roles you must fill too.