Lab Manual

Welcome to the McCreery Lab

Welcome to the Multiscale Bioengineering Lab! We are a new lab at the University of Vermont as of January 2025. If you're reading this, I hope you're interested in becoming part of our team.

This is a living document. I value feedback about my mentorship style, lab policies, workflows, and will update this document accordingly.

Our mission is to do good science, advance our scientific knowledge, enhance human health, and cultivate a collaborative, interdisciplinary research environment. Our cornerstones are creativity and collaboration, and we guide our experiments with data-driven hypotheses. We honor the scientific process and value success and failure both as opportunities for growth. Above all, we respect and support one another, contributing to our local and broader communities with integrity and enthusiasm.

Our lab focuses on three main areas:

We integrate multi-omics data to delineate the genetic, epigenetic, and proteomic interactions governing cell differentiation in tissue engineering and complex systems. This involves analyzing our own data as well as publicly available datasets to map cellular behavior, to turn broad questions into testable hypotheses.
Second, we perform hypothesis-driven investigations in stem cell nuclear mechanobiology, gene expression, and ECM assembly. We are investigating how the nuclear envelope integrates mechanical and biochemical signals to guide cell behavior and fates.
Third, we are developing cellular-interfacing biomaterials, leading the way to stem-cell based 3D printed regenerative biomaterials. We are working to be able to tune materials and tailor the factors cells secrete, and expedite transcription and protein synthesis to build, integrate, and maintain a healthy cell niche.

Votey Engineering building University of Vermont Electrical and Biomedical Engineering

Expectations & Responsibilities

The Forest (the Big Picture)

Our lab is free of academic misconduct. Manipulating, omitting, or fabricating data is unacceptable. Science seeks to uncover the complex and intricate truth.
Our objective is to conduct the scientific method while being robust and thorough. For the scientific method to work, it is crucual to approach your research methodically: think carefully about the outcomes before starting an experiment, implement sanity checks in your analyses, and consult Dr. McCreery and your peers for feedback.
We are collaborative, not competitive. Help your lab-mates out if they need it, regardless of your involvement in the project. As you help others, you can expect others to help you when you need it.
If you encounter problems with Dr. McCreery and are comfortable telling them about it, please do so. Alternatively, you can seek guidance from another professor in the department (for example, to name a few: Prof. Amber Doiron, Prof. David Bernstein, Dr. Marilyn Cipolla).
Prioritize your health and well-being above everything else.

The Trees (the Small Picture)

Keep regular hours in the lab, but it is up to you to decide when and how many. The lab is designed to foster an open, collaborative, and community-focused atmosphere. You are not expected to come into lab on weekends and holidays, and you are not expected to stay late at night. You are expected to get your work done.
Taking vacation is important. Inform your team well in advance to allow them to plan ahead.
If you are sick, please stay home. Coming to work while sick will prolong your recovery, and puts your experiments and your colleagues at risk. If you must come to lab while sick, please wear a mask. And most importantly, focus on your recovery!
Being physically present enhances scientific community and collaboration. Therefore, our lab does not offer fully remote positions.

Expectations of Graduate Students

Develop your dissertation. Your PhD dissertation will consist of approximately 3 projects that address some big-picture question. Chronologically, this manifests as (Project 1) a research question that I assign to you, (Project 2) a research plan that we develop together, and (Project 3) a project that you conceptualize, plan, and execute. Note that the time intervals are not specified and are inherently variable.
Meet with Dr. McCreery regularly, and schedule this meeting at the start of each academic term.
You are the heart of the lab. As a core part of the team, ensure the lab continues to run smoothly. If there are problems, work with Dr. McCreery to make the lab a better place.
Establish a regular schedule to conduct your research and work in the lab.
Train other people in laboratory procedures, workflows, and techniques.
Apply for fellowships, conference funding, and awards. This will build your CV, spotlight your abilities, and build your network that will launch your career after you get the PhD.
Meet with Dr. McCreery semi-annually (once per semester) to talk about professional development and progress toward your degree.
Meet all of your department deadlines. A PI does not always know these deadlines, so make sure Dr. McCreery is aware of them!
Build and maintain positive relationships with your colleagues, your collaborators, and your PI.
Present your work at conferences, department events, and to other labs (if invited).
Present in lab meeting.

Expectations of Undergraduate Students

Establish your working hours and consistently show up to lab ready to Do Science.
Every undergraduate student will start with technical lab tasks to prove your reliability and demonstrate your strengths. Over time, you will begin working on micro-projects, and your own independent project.
Come to lab meeting. Try to arrange your course schedule to allow this, otherwise please participate as often as your schedule allows.
Establish relationships and your reputation with Dr. McCreery, other professors in the department, as well as other researchers.
Talk with Dr. McCreery about your ideas. We want to hear all of your crazy science and engineering solutions, and where you think the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are going.

What can you expect of me? I will:

Consistently support you (scientifically, financially) throughout your professional journey, and be there for you through the inevitable ups and downs of engineering and research.
Aid in your career progression by introducing you to my professional network, highlighting your work at seminars, writing recommendation letters, and getting you to key conferences as our budget allows.
Ensure that I am accessible. I have an Open Door Policy: when my door is open, you are welcome to step in and interrupt; when my door is closed, I am in a meeting, and you can come back later or write me a message.
Communicate consistently to answer questions and provide feedback on proposals, ideas, writing samples and presentations.
Help you when you get stuck. Examples: How do I analyze this dataset? How do I troubleshoot this experiment? What kind of technique could I use to answer this research question? How can I interpret my complicated results?
Share my views with you on the future of our field and the field of medicine, and provide guidance so that you can achieve your career goals.
Place highest priority on your emotional and physical health.

Meetings

As a member of the lab, we have dynamic meetings that are intended to help lab members succeed.

Lab Meeting - 1x per week during the academic year

Each week during the academic calendar year, we will have a lab meeting, which will be scheduled at the start of each semester.

Individual Meetings - approx. 1x per week

In general, please schedule a regular meeting with Dr. McCreery at the start of each semester.

Professional Development Meetings - approx. 2x per year

At the end of each academic semester, we will have one-on-one meetings that are focused on your professional development so that we remain on track to achieve your career and scientific goals.

State of the Lab Address- 1x per year

At the end of the Fall semester, our final lab meeting of the calendar year will be a State of the Lab Address. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the lab over the past year: accomplishments, progress, and individual achievements. I will give an overview of lab funding and proposals I've submitted to demystify how labs operate and how budgets are structured.

Time Off Expectations

Category	PhD/MS students	Postdocs and Lab Staff	Undergraduates	Independent study + volunteers
University Holidays	Off	Off	Off	Off
Spring Break	Full-time research period	Standard work week	Off (unpaid)	Off
Summer Break	Full-time research period	Standard work week	Optional work period	Optional work period
Winter Break	Reduced hours, maintained research obligations	Off (paid)	Off (unpaid)	Off
Annual Leave	2 weeks taken during summer term	University policy	None beyond breaks	N/A
Sick Leave and Mental Health	10 per year	University policy	Notify supervisor	Notify supervisor
Thesis/Defense Prep	2 weeks prior to deadline	N/A	N/A	N/A

Other extended personal, family, and medical leave need to be handled on a case-by-case basis to follow University policy.

Boundaries and Social Events

The McCreery Lab is a community. Having a community in the lab is an important part of doing good science. Everyone deserves to feel comfortable and safe going to work.

My job as a PI is to lead our community direction that is both good for science and good for the members of the lab. We will occasionally have team dinners or parties that I sponsor or host. While my lunch schedule is not always regular, I highly encourage my lab to take a lunch break together daily at 12:30pm, and I join when I am available.

My roles as your advisor, PI of the lab, and professor will always be my top priority.

Publishing & Authorship

From the beginning of a project, we will outline a general path from your research question to publication. We will identify the novelties and hypothesize what we will add to the field. However, most of the time we are initially wrong, so the project can morph over time.

We will publish solid science, repeatable experiments, and convincing analyses. Regardless of the journal, I want people to read our papers and think "wow, this is nice work." Some of our research will have a broad audience (for example, cell biology or human-centered work), and some of our research will have a more specialized audience (such as advancements in microscopy techniques, education, or a novel analysis tool).

If you lead a project to publication, in general, you will be first author. As you support your fellow labmates and contribute to their projects, you will be a supporting author. Everyone in the lab will have opportunity for first authorship.

When problems happen...

Personal, health, research, coursework, anything. If you feel like you are in trouble, talk to Dr. McCreery. If you don't feel confident speaking in person, write me an email or a letter. My job is to help you.

The Graduate Student Ombudsperson is responsible for providing independent, confidential, informal and impartial assistance to graduate students on matters affecting their graduate education.

If you are struggling with maintaining your mental health, I highly encourage you to talk through it with someone at UVM CAPS.