McCaffrey Lab presentation guidelines General Presentations should - - PDF document

McCaffrey Lab presentation guidelines General

• Presentations should be made in PowerPoint or some other presentation software.
• Everyone is expected to participate in presentations by asking questions.

Journal club

• Aim for presentations to be between 30 - 40 minutes long. This will allow time

for discussion.

• EVERYONE is expected to read the papers.
• The presentation should not merely list the experiments performed. It must

include a critical analysis of the work. Are the experiments designed well? Are proper contols used? Are there alternative approaches that could be used to answer the question? Do the results support the claims made by the authors? What are the strengths/weaknesses of the paper?

• The Introduction should include relevant background:
• What is the general scientific problem that the paper addresses? What has

been done previously in related fields?

• If an unusual technology was used in the paper, describe the technology.
• The presenter is expected to read related papers to gain sufficient

understanding of the background.

• This section should be 5-10 minutes.
• Results:
• First, describe the specific question the authors are trying to answer. What

is the rationale for doing the experiment?

• Second, briefly describe the experimental approach used to answer the
• question. The presenter is expected to understand how the experiment was
• designed. For example, if an inhibitor was used, you should know a little

about how the inhibitor works. If a mutant protein is used, you should know what the mutation does.

• Third, describe/interpret the data. Since everybody has read the paper,

there is no need to go into extreme detail here. (e.g. If it’s a western blot,

don’t say things like “In lane 1 they loaded cells with inhibitor X. In lane 2 they loaded cells without inhibitor X. They blotted for protein Y with an

• antibody. In lane 1 you see band Y and in lane 2 you also see band Y, but

it’s a little bigger than in lane 1”. Instead, say things like “To determine if protein Y is regulated by enzyme E, they treated cells with inhibitor X. The blot shows that there is less protein Y in inhibitor treated cells, demonstrating that enzyme E is required to stabilize protein Y.”

• Forth, relate how the outcome of the experiment relates to the overall
• bjective/hypothesis of the paper.
• The supplementary data is often important; bring it into the presentation

where appropriate.

• Discussion/conclusion
• Recap the major finding(s) of the paper with a clear model.
• What are the strengths/weaknesses of the paper?
• What additional questions are raised by the work? Suggest some follow-

up work that could be done to answer these questions? Project presentations

• Aim for a presentation that is 40-50 minutes long. Early on in the project this

means you will have longer Introduction and Future Goals sections. As you get more data, the Results/Data section will expand.

• Introduction:
• What is the general scientific problem that you are trying to addresses?

What has been done previously?

• The background should be sufficient so that somebody not in our lab

would understand the project.

• Only include information that is central to understanding the results that

you present later in the talk.

• If you use images/figures from other papers, make sure to cite them.
• Results/data

• First, describe the specific question you are trying to answer. What is the

rationale for doing the experiment?

• Second, briefly describe the experimental approach used to answer the

question.

• Third, describe what the data shows, and interpret the meaning for the

audience.

• Forth, relate how the outcome of the experiment relates to your overall

project.

• Don’t be afraid to indicate weaknesses in your own work. But make sure

to indicate how you are going to address the weaknesses.

• Conclusion
• How does your work relate to the broad scientific question outlined in the

introduction?

• Future goals
• Describe 2-3 specific follow-up experiments you are planning that are

related to the project goals.

• Show some preliminary data if you have it.