How do you start a new research project?
What’s your first step, and how do you build from there? For example, do you begin with a specific question, an unstructured list of papers and their ideas?
What steps do you take to gather and connect insights and data?
What do you call this process with colleagues (e.g., “desk research,” “hypothesis generation”)?
What’s the hardest part of this process for non-technical team members?
How do you find hidden or unexpected connections between entities in your research?
Can you share a specific example, maybe you have 2 distinct datasets or entities (diseases, proteins, genes, etc) and need to analyze them together to find connections?
What process or tools did you use, and what was challenging?
What tools do you wish you had to make finding these connections easier? For example, would a visual map of related entities (like genes to diseases) help?
What tools do you rely on most for exploring relationships between entities, and why are they important?
What tools do you rely on most? Examples include PubMed, Google Scholar, Benchling, or databases like STRING and UCSC Genome Browser.
Have you used tools that show relationships visually, like network diagrams or pathway maps? If so, describe a time you used one—what worked or didn’t?
Are any tools too technical for non-technical researchers? How do they manage?
What tools do you rely on most for exploring relationships between entities, and why are they important?
What’s the most frustrating part of finding or connecting information, especially hidden relationships, in your research?
Can you share an example, like struggling to see how genes, proteins, or diseases relate, or organizing what you find?
How do you work around these frustrations? Do you use a tool, consult a colleague, or something else?
Send
