
Brian Long
Research Scientist
University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
Research Scientist
I perform biomedical research to determine where the HIV virus resides in infected individuals that otherwise have their disease controlled with anti-retroviral medications.
Most mornings I spend awaiting arrival of a clinical sample taken from a person with HIV. I then process the sample to extract a particular type of cell that I'm interested in studying. Because this is research, the methods and techniques I use to study these tissues change frequently, but always involve the use of a lot of pretty complicated instrumentation. The one used most has lasers to excite molecules to emit light at a different wavelength allowing for detection of cell proteins.
Here's the first step for college students
If you're in college (or even high school), it's important to gain as much experience as possible working in a research lab. This can be pretty easily accomplished by asking professors or teaching assistants if there are volunteer positions available in their labs, or if they know of any in other labs. There almost always are such positions somewhere. The first step is just to ask!
"You should pick a college major that will lead directly to a good or well paying job. That having a good job was the most important thing. While a good job is certainly important, it's not everything. If you don't like or love what you do on some level, you're in for a long and mostly miserable existence. People said studying anything in the humanities was a waste of time and money. It's turned out to be the opposite really."