Hi, I was just wondering what the opinion was on the bearing of the methods used in your PhD and the rest of your career. If I were to do a PhD mainly working on Drosophila (fruit flys, good for genetics! For all you non-biosciences people), would that make it very hard to obtain a position in any other biochemical field, or working on any other model, afterwards? As much as I love the little beggers, I don't know if I'll be as enthuiastic after 4 years.
Cheers

I have a bit of an application problem.
I've contacted several head of labs asking about PhDs for admission in October next year (I'm doing a masters in the meantime). Most of them have replied back saying look for advertised posts later in the year. It seems to be general protocol to talk to the head of the lab to which you are applying before you make the application, so does this reply count? Can I just apply straight away when the studentship is advertised on the basis that I've already made contact with the lab, or is some further, more detailed communication required right before application?