======= Date Modified 21 May 2011 21:21:55 =======
Hi there,

I have recently been approached by supervisor from a leading university and offered a graduate position in his lab. I am however quite unsure about whether I should go through and formally accept the offer or not due to the fact that he is working in plant genetics whereas my interests lie in aging research in mammalian systems (the only place where our interests seem to overlap is the ER and pathways employed for it to remodel and alleviate stress during protein misfolding and certain techniques that I can bring to his lab). Furthermore I wonder if it might be seen as a step down in the future, in academia, since I have just completed an M.Phil. involving mouse models of a disease group and even helped develop one for a mutation in the disease group.

My question is: If I do take up the offer how difficult would it be for me to move back into animal genetics and model systems between my PhD and Post Doc? Or would it be so difficult that I might as well consider myself stuck with working with plants?

No I don't think it matters.
I know someone who did a PhD in Plant using ChIP
and he is now doing a post-doc on mammalian reproduction.

So I don't think you will be stuck with what you did in the past.

Let your imagination and passion set you free. Go for it (if it is a really good deal)

I agree with PinkPiglet - I don't think you should worry about being stuck with plants. I think as long as you and your supervisor have an agreement on what you would like to work on then I'm sure it would work out fine. I was just reading about ER stress and human disease (mainly type 2 diabetes) recently and it's so interesting so your work would be topical and I'm sure very transferable should you wish to return to mammalian systems.