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PhD · At the bench

Laboratory methods and instrumentation.

The protocol volumes that live in the lab rather than on the shelf — the ones every method section is checked against.

8Titles listed
5Worked right through
12Coursework credits
Wet-lab subjectsWhere it is used
The bench list

Why this list is separate

A thesis in a wet-lab department is written twice: once in the methods section and once in the notebook. These are the volumes that settle both — the cloning manual, the protocols series, the biochemistry techniques text and the instrumentation reference — and they are usually the department's copies rather than a scholar's own, which is exactly why the relevant chapters get printed and bound.

How this list is used

Laboratory methods and instrumentation

Two different needs are served by this shelf. Sambrook and Current Protocols live at the bench and are opened at the step being performed, never read continuously; the buffer recipes and reaction set-ups are what get photocopied and taped inside the lab notebook. Wilson and Walker, Freifelder and Skoog serve the other need - explaining the principle behind a technique well enough to answer instrumentation questions in CSIR Part C, in the coursework paper and in the viva. The flow cytometry and microscopy titles are bought only when the project actually uses those instruments, but then they get used hard.

Titles are tagged core reading — the ones scholars work right through — or reference, the ones they look things up in. Editions are given where the current edition is what you want to buy.

  1. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manualcore readingMichael R. Green and Joseph Sambrook · Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press · 4th edition (2012)The three-volume bench standard; kept at the bench for buffer recipes and step-by-step cloning protocols rather than read through.
  2. Current Protocols in Molecular BiologyreferenceFrederick M. Ausubel, Roger Brent, Robert E. Kingston and others (editors) · WileyThe continuously updated protocol collection labs subscribe to; consulted unit by unit when a technique is new to the group.
  3. Wilson and Walker's Principles and Techniques of Biochemistry and Molecular Biologycore readingAndreas Hofmann and Samuel Clokie (editors) · Cambridge University Press · 8th edition (2018)The techniques textbook behind most instrumentation questions - centrifugation, chromatography, electrophoresis, spectroscopy and radioisotope methods.
  4. Physical Biochemistry: Applications to Biochemistry and Molecular Biologycore readingDavid Freifelder · W. H. Freeman · 2nd editionOlder but still the clearest treatment of sedimentation, radioactivity and optical methods; read for the theory a protocol assumes you already know.
  5. Principles of Instrumental Analysiscore readingDouglas A. Skoog, F. James Holler and Stanley R. Crouch · Cengage Learning · 7th editionUsed when the instrument itself has to be understood - detectors, signal-to-noise, mass spectrometry and NMR fundamentals.
  6. Practical Flow CytometryreferenceHoward M. Shapiro · Wiley-Liss · 4th edition (2003)The reference for anyone running FACS work - compensation, gating strategy and fluorochrome choice before booking instrument time.
  7. Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic ImagingreferenceDouglas B. Murphy and Michael W. Davidson · Wiley-Blackwell · 2nd edition (2012)Read before a confocal or fluorescence session; explains resolution, contrast and why an image looks the way it does.
  8. Biophysics and Molecular Biology: Tools and Techniquescore readingPranav Kumar · Pathfinder PublicationThe compact Indian techniques revision book, used to answer technique-based exam questions quickly rather than to run an experiment.

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The coursework semester

What it examines

Every scholar completes coursework before the research phase proper begins, normally one semester, carrying a minimum of 12 credits. The compulsory content is research methodology - study design, sampling, quantitative and qualitative methods, and biostatistics - together with a Research and Publication Ethics course covering plagiarism, authorship, predatory publishing and citation practice. Medical institutes add subject-specific credits set by the department and, for clinical and community projects, sessions on institutional ethics committee submission, informed consent documentation and CTRI trial registration. A minimum of 55 per cent in the coursework is required before you can proceed, and the Research Advisory Committee can prescribe extra credits where a candidate is crossing disciplines, which is common when an MSc Nursing or MPT graduate joins a molecular laboratory. Candidates entering directly from a four-year bachelor's degree carry a heavier credit load than master's entrants. Thereafter you appear before the Research Advisory Committee each semester with a written progress report and a presentation, and the committee is the body that finalises the topic, approves the design and formally records progress.

By subject

Your subject list sits alongside this one

Related on the site

The rest of the PhD section

Printing your laboratory methods and instrumentation?

Send the PDF on WhatsApp — colour Rs 1/page, B&W 50p/page, binding Rs 40. Printed, bound and delivered anywhere in India.

Frequently asked

Laboratory methods and instrumentation — questions

Which laboratory manuals do PhD scholars use?

Molecular Cloning, the Current Protocols series, Wilson and Walker's Principles and Techniques of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and an instrumentation reference. All are listed on this page.

Are these books needed for the coursework?

The coursework is examined on research methodology and ethics. These are the volumes you start using once the protocol is approved and bench work begins.

Do I need to own these?

Most scholars work from the department or institute copy and keep printed copies of the chapters covering their own techniques at the bench, which is the usual print job we see.

Which one is the standard cloning reference?

Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual remains the reference that method sections are checked against, alongside the Current Protocols series for newer techniques.

Can you print this reading for me?

We print from the PDF you send us. Send the file on WhatsApp with your page count and whether you want colour, black and white or mixed, and we print, bind and deliver anywhere in India. We do not supply copyrighted book files.