Research assistants often face unique challenges when working on emotionally intense topics, particularly if they lack established support systems outside the research team or have not yet learned effective coping strategies, according to a Rutgers Health study.

The study, published in the Journal of Gender-Based Violence, surveyed 27 research assistants involved in a multistate firearm violence research project. While working on the project, research assistants read and coded graphic descriptions of gun violence.

David A. Drew, PhD, of the Clinical & Translational Epidemiology Unit and Division of Gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the corresponding author of a paper published in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, “Droplet vs. Picowell: Considerations for single-cell transcriptomic profiling of human colon biopsies