Whose work is that anyway? Excess lab PI credit

There is going to be a race of social amoebae and other single motile cells today. Our lab has an entry. This is a fun thing to do, one that required some work. I encouraged our group to participate because publicity for research is a good thing and because I’ve always wanted to get more going with microfluidic devices. But that is about the extent of my involvement.

Debbie Brock led the team. Tracy helped a lot. I’m not sure of the other involvement, but I’m guessing many in the group had something to say about it. But then you read the write up in the Wash U press release, and you would think Dave and I were leading the whole thing. It is embarrassing. But all I did was alert the press office that this would be a newsworthy item. I talked to no one. In fact I was in Finland when they put this together.

The larger question of course is about how much credit the lab heads should get and for what. Or the even larger question is who gets credit and who knows? In this case, the article should have been about the team putting together the ideas and strategies, not about the PIs.

I hope our wild Dicty show their stuff in the maze and win!