Keys to an effective prelim talk
Tamika John
Prelim Support Group
15Aug2012
Overview
• Telling your story
• Quick tips
Your presentation should be like a bedtime
story
▫ Keep it simple!!
▫ 2-way conversation
▫ Provide context
▫ Repetition
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Words used
Aim titles
Picture
Keep going back to aim
▫ Familiarity (reflection of your
paper)
Every good bedtime story has 3 parts
▫ Beginning – Background/ Introduction
▫ Middle - Preliminary data and proposal
▫ End – Where will your research take the field
Beginning- Background/ Introduction
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Title
Outline
Background – from other labs, leads to gap
Must get to the gap (problem in field) – what your
proposed work will fill
**Top down approach – start general, get specific
Every good bedtime story has 3 parts
▫ Beginning – Background/ Introduction
▫ Middle - Preliminary data and proposal
▫ End – Where will your research take the field
Middle - Preliminary results/ Proposal
• Both must relate to gap and background (continuity)
• Preliminary data
▫ Reason why proposal makes sense
▫ Usually generated in your lab
Presenting preliminary (and background)
data
• Slide title must convey point of graph
• Size of picture must be easy to see from all points in
room (trick – open pdf with picture in Adobe, zoom
in, print screen, pate and crop in Ppt)
• Brief caption (if more than one graph/ slide)
• Well labeled axes with units
Presenting preliminary (and background)
data
• Size of font easy to read
• Highlight what is important (arrows, add words, boxes)
• Dot do too many tables (hard to read)
• Credit the source
• Avoid too much text
Examples of graphs
Memory CD8 cells show greatest
inhibition of HIV replication
• Experiment set-up
1. Sort CD8 cell subsets
• Naïve
• Memory
• Terminal effectors
2.
Measure cells’
capacity to inhibit
virus
Can use limited wording to help
remember experiment details
Memory cells
Freelet al., J Virol, 2010
Editing others’ data
Freel, Saunders, Tomaras Immunologic Reviews 2011
Presence of CD8+ T-cells inhibits
virus replication
Viral load following CD8 T-cell
depletion
CD8+ T-cell
response
Don’t be afraid to
edit data from
other sources so
it is better fit for
your presentation
Adapted from Freel, Saunders, Tomaras Immunologic Reviews 2011
VPA treatment significantly downregulates expression (RNA) of
cytokines in JR-HVS cells
5/10 cytokines that correlate to
non-cytolytic suppression are
regulated by acetylation
Uses boxes and
arrows to emphasize
important points
Cytokines
Saunders et al Cell Immunology 2011
Middle– Proposal
• What you plan to do
• Must make sense given:
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Gaps in field
Preliminary data
Available technology
Expected time to defense
• Should provide:
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(Hypothesis)
Rationale
Approach
Expected outcome
Proposal – Overall aim (gap)
• Aim 1
• Aim 2
Aim 1 • Rationale as related to gap
• Sub-aim 1A:
• Sub-aim 1B:
Aim 1A:
• Rationale related to aim 1
• Approaches
– 1. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative
– 2. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative?
Aim 1B:
• Rationale related to aim 1
• Approaches
– 1. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative?
– 2. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative?
Wrap up of Aim 1
• What will you learn?
• Bridge aim 1 to aim 2
Proposal – Overall aim (gap)
• Aim 1
• Aim 2
Aim 2 • Rationale as related to gap
• Sub-aim 2A:
• Sub-aim 2B:
Aim 2A:
• Rationale related to aim 2
• Approaches
– 1. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative
– 2. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative?
Aim 2B:
• Rationale related to aim 2
• Approaches
– 1. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative
– 2. What experiment will you do?
• Expected outcome?
• Alternative?
Every good bedtime story has 3 parts
▫ Beginning – Background/ Introduction
▫ Middle - Preliminary data and proposal
▫ End – where will your research take the field
End - Summary
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Wrap up each aim, relate to proposal
Wrap up proposal, relate to gap
Emphasize gap and relate to big picture
End with a bang – by completing these aims I will
address gap and advance field
**Bottom up approach – start specific, get wide
Tips on giving an effective
presentation
Befriending your audience
• Write a great paper
• Provide outline in beginning/ be organized
• Make sure background is sufficient:
▫ Get everyone on same page
▫ Assume they skimmed your paper but remember they are
not dumb
• Keep it simple
▫ Avoid too much jargon
▫ Emphasize and re-emphasize important points
• Don’t tell them everything !!
▫ Only tell most relevant points
▫ They will ask what they want to know
Befriending your audience
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Make eye contact
Avoid strange mannerisms
Use laser pointer or stick, if none use mouse
Speak slowly
Be enthusiastic
Must be organized for clear flow
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Have all essential elements
Use flow-charts to help with complicated matters
Play around with slide order
No formula for number of slides
▫ Enough to clearly convey info
▫ Not too many
Answering questions
• Do NOT be a deer in headlights
• Remember this is a conversation
• Anticipate the obvious questions
▫ Post acknowledgement slides
▫ Hidden slides
▫ Balance
• Ask for clarification
• Admit you don’t know but if you can work it out
logically, try
Pictures are worth a thousand words
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Help explain complex ideas and relationships
Know everything in your picture
Use pictures effectively and wisely
Make sure there is continuity
Can find pictures online and edit with Paint
▫ Credit source
▫ Proper quality is a must
• If you can not find a picture, make one
▫ Paint
▫ Photoshop
▫ PowerPoint 2010 (can be downloaded from Duke OIT)
Making pictures in PowerPoint
• Use shapes
• Can group objects then save as picture (prevents
changes in color, object shifting)
▫ Select objects to be in picture
▫ Right click, select group
▫ Right click group, select save as picture
Basic tips - fonts
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No weird fonts
Same font throughout
Text at least 20 pts
Normal colors
▫ Transfer better between projectors
▫ No neons or pastels
▫ Colors should have meaning, utilize for continuity
• Keep all wording near center of slide
Using PowerPoint to your advantage
• Hiding slides
▫ Graphics to explain non-essential technologies
Approach for Aim 1B – Determine if
candidate gene loci are hyper-acetylated by
VPA treatment
• Approach: ChIP-Seq
– ChIP: Chromatin Immunoprecipitation
• Ab: H3K9Ac – open chromatin marker
– Araki et al JI 2008
– Fann et al Blood 2006
– Alternatives: diAcH3, H3Ac
• Isolate DNA associated with H3K9Ac in vivo
– Seq: Sequencing
• Identify genes encoded in DNA isolated via ChIP
• Illumina – Sequencing by synthesis
Illumina sequencing
1.
Synthesis by sequencing
A. Library preparation
B. DNA amplification
C. Sequence generation
2.
Align to genome
Expected outcome: Identity and quantification of DNA fragments that differentially
Illumina
Expected outcome of Aim 1
Determine which (if any) SOCS-related genes
are responsible for the loss of CD8+ T-cell
inhibition of HIV seen with VPA treatment of
CD8+ T-cells.
Using PowerPoint to your advantage
• Hiding slides
▫ Graphics to explain technologies
▫ Hints for long author lists
Examples of epigenetic regulation of
the immune response
• Interferons - Spilianakis et al Nature Immunology 2007
• Tumor Necrosis Factors -Sullivan et al Molecular Cell Biology 2007
• Chemokines
– Walzer et al Journal Immunology 2003
– Yin et al Mucosal Immunology 2011
• Interleukins – Agarwal et al Immunity 1998
• Cytotoxic T-cells and epigenetics - Araki et al JI 2008
Using PowerPoint to your advantage
• Hiding slides
▫ Graphics to explain non-essential technologies
▫ Hints for long author lists
• Use animations wisely
• Learn to use PowerPoint
▫ Duke OIT-
 http://duke.edu/web/training/handouts/Office/PowerPoint.pdf
▫ Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/presentations.aspx#fbid=nAT
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• Presenter view
Practicing your talk
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Multiple groups
Let someone else take notes - Provide with copy of slides
Take your own notes
Adjust after each practice
Allow interruptions
Video or voice record practices to identify areas of weakness
Practice in actual room
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Projector
Microphone
Lighting
Temperature
Smells
Whiteboard/ markers
Don’t forget back-up
laser pointer and
computer – crazy things
tend to happen
Questions??
Feel free to e-mail:
Tamika
tlj12@duke.edu