Message from NIG-INTERN 2014

The 8th Summer Research Program for Undergraduates, NIGINTERN 2014, was carried out from May to September. 7 selected participants enjoyed 10 weeks research internship program at their host laboratories.

Members

• Aashish JAIN

  

  From:Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
  Stayed at:Mammalian Development Laboratory / Saga Laboratory

  My time at NIG has been the most memorable ten weeks of my life. I am very grateful to the NIG and NIGINTERN 2014 program for giving me this glorious opportunity to experience such an exemplary research environment as I found at NIG.

  When I arrived in Mishima, I was feeling nervous, but when the education team introduced me to Saga Sensei and her research group, their warm and friendly welcome soon made me comfortable. My project was to analyze and create mice mutants using CRISPR Cas-9 technique in order to study the differentiation of primordial germ cells into male germ cells.

  The biweekly journal club was a very interesting aspect – it kept me updated of the latest research. I found it to be an extremely efficient way to stay updated in aspects related to one’s work.

  I was surrounded by inspiring, hardworking and talented members, who gave me important and insightful advice about the project and helped me through every obstacle in my work and life in a new city. The determination and focus of the lab members inspired me to imbibe such qualities which will help me become a good researcher. I especially want to thank Saga Sensei. She broke down complexities into simple solutions, which I could easily visualize and analyze. I could actually see the process of recombination to make transgenic mice occurring in my mind’s eye as she explained it.

  I got the opportunity to attend the 47th annual meeting of Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists (JSDB), where I learnt about the broad spectrum of researches in developmental biology currently happening in Japan. I also attended many seminars and colloquia at NIG, which helped me widen my knowledge.

  Working here, I could feel a new and different energy coursing through me. I felt independent, and capable of performing research work and inculcating a scientific point of view in my day-to-day activities. I could feel that I was truly a part of the research group.

  Also, I was fortunate enough to be a part of the NIG retreat 2014. Such an amalgamation of work and fun was a refreshingly new experience.

  I made tons of new friends. With them I experienced the culture and beauty of Japan. Together we explored the serenity of Mishima and Izu Peninsula and witnessed the Fireworks Festival at Atami. These events were awe-inspiring and left a deep impression on my mind. I tried delicious Japanese food, and created some of my own Indo-Japanese dishes along with the other interns. Staying here has been a fun-filled experience.

  This internship has been the best experience of my life and I am truly and sincerely grateful to NIG and Saga Sensei for making it so wonderful.

• Amogh Prabhav JALIHAL

  

  From:SASTRA University, India
  Stayed at:Cell Architecture Laboratory / Kimura Laboratory

  I was thrilled as I landed in Tokyo airport; I was in Japan and I had the entire summer ahead of me to explore it! And since that moment of stepping into Narita, that first encounter with the modern yet strangely fascinating culture, my awe for the Land of The Rising Sun just kept growing, and it hasn’t stopped till this day.

  I had a lot of firsts during my stay in Japan, my first visit to Japan(!), my first encounter with the awe-inspiring Shinkansen, my first view of the amazing Fuji-san, my first lesson of Japanese…the list goes on and on! And if my first impression of Japanese culture has changed me as a person, then my experiences at the NIG have completely restructured my very being in terms of scientific outlook and motivation!

  My host lab, the Cell Architecture Lab of Prof. Kimura, works on questions that seek to understand the nature the interplay of the cytoskeletal elements during the cell cycle, and they experimentally validate the models they propose using the worm C. elegans. The project I was assigned to had exactly the components I wanted to experience, an experimental part followed by a theoretical project. And at the beginning of my internship, I had no idea how much I would learn from them.

  As I progressed into my project, a clear idea began to form: This was exactly the kind of work I enjoyed doing! I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of the international C. elegans conference, and the entire trip affected me deeply. I had an amazing time interacting with the leading scientists in C.elegans biology, and listening to the talks as well as talking to people completely reinforced my belief of the usefulness of the nematode as a model organism. Along with the conference, the chance to visit the historical cities of Nara and Kyoto, with their beautiful shrines and temples, was only an additional incentive!

  My visit has been enriching to say the least. Beginning with the gracious Japanese hospitality, the revelation that it is easy to remain vegetarian in Japan, the NIG Retreat (a weekend of science!), my visits to various spots around Mishima, our memorable trip into the Izu penisula, the Fuji expedition, the zazen experience, the introduction to Murakami as well as Miyazaki… all this vis-a-vis my daily lab schedules, lab visits, the moments of satisfaction after a successful piece of code, and life-lessons learnt from the microinjection experiments…. NIGINTERN caters to the young scientists’ wildest dreams and aspirations, ensuring a life-changing induction into the fascinating world of biology today.

  So my thanks go out to everyone, from the life-sustaining Oba-chan of the cafeteria who took wonderful care of the poor vegetarian boy, to the whole of the CAL lab, to all the guest house residents who made my stay memorable, and to the whole of NIG for having given me this electrifying experience!

• Aleksandra BERIC

  

  From:University of Belgrade, Serbia
  Stayed at:Division of Agricultural Genetics / Kakutani Laboratory

  This internship was like a dream for me. The email saying that I was accepted came so unexpected. I started my junior year as one big adventure and somewhere along that road my genetics professor approached me and told me there was an internship opportunity I should think about. After hesitating for a while, I applied and was so nervous that eventually I forgot about it. That’s why the email of acceptance came by surprise. I was so excited and happy, and couldn’t believe I was going to Japan until I was actually on the plane.

  I joined Agricultural genetics lab for about two months, and I must say it was absolutely amazing. First few days I was completely overwhelmed by everything in the lab. In my country we don’t get this kind of opportunities very often, so I was over the Moon the moment I stepped into the lab. My lab members were always so nice to me, and always ready to help me and teach me. They were also very friendly and helped me plan my weekend activities so that I would get to know Japan better. I truly enjoyed the time spent in the lab and I’m so grateful to have gotten the chance to work here.

  One of the most stressful things for me was the final presentation. I had a lot of work for my project that I wasn’t sure I would be able to finish and I felt nervous talking in front of all these amazing scientists. Once again, my lab mates were more than helpful. We had a mock presentation, and they gave me many advice and suggestions, after which I felt better stepping out to give a presentation, and it went very well.

  And my fellow interns…I met some very bright people there, made new friends and I hope to cross ways with them again.

  I also got some time to travel and go sightseeing. There are places in Kyoto I fell in love with. I still think I didn’t have enough time to get to really know Japan, so I hope I’ll get a chance to visit it again.

  Overall, it was one great experience, an extraordinary adventure, and a good look into what my future career could be like. I’m sad it came to an end, but I’m also happy I was given the opportunity to be one of the NIG interns.

• Bryan John Jereza SUBONG

  

  From:University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines
  Stayed at:Molecular Function Laboratory / Kanemaki Laboratory

  THE TALE OF BRYAN (ICHI, NI, SAN)

  ICHI- ONE MISSION… Japan Odyssey (an Exodus)

  Everyone has a story to tell. Going to Japan, I believe I was on a mission. The mission: scientific and cultural escapade. For 10 weeks, I was on an Exodus or escape- I left my home – my comfort zone, the Philippines.

  Prior to going to Japan, one question lingered at the back of my mind… Will my Exodus be worth the risk?

  NI- Two Main Projects

  Under the mentorship and supervision of Kanemaki-sensei, I have worked on two exciting projects – the Auxin-inducible degron (AID) technology and the APEX technology. For the AID, we combined both wet and dry lab experiments to innovate the said technology. We did the first time-lapse microscopy of AID protein degradation and we determine its kinetics. After establishing the said protocol which is fast and quantitative, we screened other compounds which can work better than indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) using the principles of chemistry, pharmacology, biology and physics. We did some preliminary docking experiments to determine its interaction with the receptor protein and by literature determined its cell permeability and Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism. And the rest is history. We were able to come up with some compounds which can work better than IAA.

  For the second project, we successfully transformed human cell line stably expressing the FLAG-APEX-MCM8 protein as confirmed by western blot analysis. The APEX technology which was first reported by a group of scientists from Harvard and MIT in 2013, is an efficient method of biotinylating proteins which may form complex with a protein of interest. I had the rare opportunity of testing this new technology during my internship.

  SAN- Three Things I have Learned in Japan

  As a summary, the three things I have learned in Japan are as follows: unlearn, LEARN and reLEARN.

  UnLEARN – I was able to unlearn improper laboratory techniques. I unlearned the common misconceptions in science. The NIG retreat (similar to a conference) has been an eye-opener to the advancements in science and technology.

  LEARN- I was able to learn new laboratory techniques and new technologies. I learned that in pursuing good science, inter- and trans- disciplinary science can be employed in order to come up with great findings and results. Every day was a new challenge for me to do better and be the better Bryan.

  reLEARN- The program instilled in me that ‘I love science’. I remember listening to the Russian piano score of “You don’t give up on love”. Having mentioned this, the internship program reminded me that “You don’t give up on science”. We often lose heart when experiments fail. NIG taught me not to ket this into our system. NIG taught me to always embody the true spirit of ‘gambatte’ – doing your best and never giving up. In a nutshell, I relearned to Work Hard, Play Harder, and Pray the Hardest.

  From Exodus to Genesis

  Answering the question I posted above, leaving the Philippines (Exodus) to fulfill a mission was worth the risk. I had a blast doing both wet and dry lab experiments and had fun travelling to Tokyo, Kamakura, Hakone, Atami, Kyoto, Osaka and Fujinomiya. I was able to form friendship with my fellow interns and the Japanese people.

  I personally thank the awesome Molecular Function Laboratory (Kanemaki-sensei, Toyo-san, Kenahara-san, Fukumi-san and Akemi-san) as well as our neighbor lab – Centrosome Biology Laboratory for the wonderful experience I had. I also would like to thank Miyauchi-sensei who is really nice in teaching us Japanese language lessons.

  To my Kanemaki-sensei who is a mentor, friend, and a scientific otosan to me, ‘anata wa saikou desu’.

  To the entire NIG headed by Katsura-sensei, words are not enough to describe how great and wonderful the NIG is.

  The internship program might have ended but I felt I never left Japan. Me, my fellow interns and Japanese friends are still in constant communication with one another. I believe that through the love of science, science has successfully bridged the gap between cultural and idealogical differences among us making our place a borderless world. Indeed, this is a genesis (beginning) of a beautiful friendship.

  Finally it can be said that my NIG intern program story is one of the best stories or chapters of my life, so far.

  For 10 weeks, I have left my home country, the Philippines, to find a new place to call home – Japan.

  Exodus turns out to be is Genesis.

  To God be the glory. #

  

  

   

   

   

• Istahil Ali ABDULLAHI

  

  From:University of Modern Sciences, UAE
  Stayed at:Division of Human Genetics / Inoue Laboratory

  Prior to my internship at NIG I was lacking career vision and experience. In the UAE there aren’t many opportunities for young scientists, so starting out my goal was to learn as much as I could and to utilize the many resources provided by NIG to the best of my ability. The 10-weeks I have spent at NIG have been more rewarding and gratifying than I could ever imagine.

  During my first few weeks at NIG I toured many contrasting labs and was introduced to various projects. I learnt a great deal from these trips and whenever I had difficulty understanding everyone tried their best to explain it to me. Seeing the super computer at DDBJ was one of my favorite visits and was truly an experience. My project at Inoue lab was target resequencing of the HLA region in order to find the casual variant for agranulocytosis (an adverse drug reaction) in Graves disease patients using Next-Generation Sequencing. The highlight of my work was using NGS technology, in particular the Miseq (Illumina), and performing the data analysis. I have never had the opportunity to do both, therefore I was seriously lacking in experience. Our labs’ assistant professor Hosomichi-san, however, was very patient with me and through his guidance I managed to complete the task successfully. The chance to work with the Miseq and to learn the methods for data analysis was an enjoyable and irreplaceable opportunity for me and one that will definitely help shape my future career.

  Visiting Japan was on my bucket list for the longest time, so I was very excited to tour this beautiful country. As soon as I landed in Mishima I fell in love with its stillness, tranquility and serenity, all of which as a city girl I’m not used to. My weekly Japanese lesson with the lovely Miyauchi-Sensei allowed me to frequently travel with excitement and ease. I went to the bustling Tokyo-city, visited the magnificent shrines in Kyoto, and watched the summer fireworks at Atami’s beach. Japans rich culture provides one with the opportunity to witness many festivals throughout the summer and I was lucky enough to watch the Daimon-ji Yaki, although it was raining it was worth the wait.

  Coming to the end of my trip I felt this was an invaluable experience both academically and personally. I would like to thank NIGINTERN committee and Inoue Lab for providing me with this opportunity. I believe I have grown as a person having experienced the spiritual nature of the Japanese culture and the kindness of its people. I have met many wonderful people from different countries and cultures of the world. It continues to amaze me how science and the love of learning have the ability to bring together so many people.

• Pablo BAEZA CENTURION

  

  From:University of Oxford, UK
  Stayed at:Division of Evolutionary Genetics / Akashi Laboratory

  “We are glad to invite you as a 10-week intern to our program”. As soon as I read those words in my acceptance email from the NIG, my heart started to race. I had just been given the opportunity to join one of the world leading population genetics labs. I had just been given the opportunity to complete a whole bioinformatics project by myself for the very first time in my life. I had just been given the opportunity to visit Japan.

  A couple of months later I was meeting Akashi-sensei and his team for the first time, a few hours after landing at Narita airport in Tokyo. From the moment I first stepped into their lab I knew I would be feeling like one more of their team.

  This was my first time doing a fully bioinformatics project on my own, so I spent the first few weeks learning a bit about the python programming language which I would be using later on in my project to analyse genomic sequences from D. melanogaster. Because I did not know that much about population genetics at first, I was also given some reviews and research articles to read.

  Before long, I was sitting in front of my computer extracting all sorts of interesting information from genomic sequences and learning a lot about how the genome of D. melanogaster evolves over time. Because I had the full support of my host lab (Akashi-sensei, Osada-sensei and Matsumoto-san made sure I learnt and understood the basic principles behind population genetics, whereas Kent and Neha really helped me get to grips with Python), by the time the internship was over I had successfully completed my very first bioinformatics project. I truly believe that, if you are interested in learning a bit about “popgen” or bioinformatics, this is probably one of the best labs an intern could work at.

  I think that one of the coolest things about the NIG internship programme is how you get to meet people from all over the world. Not only were all other interns foreigners (they came from all over the world, from places like Serbia, India, Malaysia, the UAE or the Philippines), but a lot of the staff at NIG is international as well. This means that landing an internship at the NIG will prepare you for dealing with people from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds, which is vital if you’re thinking of becoming a research scientist and (hopefully) meeting up with and collaborating with other labs around the world.

  If you are reading this, and you are thinking about applying for a place in this internship, I absolutely recommend that you do so. You will not regret it for a second and you’ll have one of the most exciting experiences in your life, in one of the most exciting countries in the world.

• Siao Ting CHONG

  

  From:National Taiwan University
  Stayed at:Comparative Genomics Laboratory / Fujiyama Laboratory

  In this summer 2014, I managed to accomplish one of my dreams, to travel around Japan while securing an internship. The 70 days NIG internship was an amazing and rewarding experience for me. I got to know about the NIG internship 4 days before the due date of application. It was too late to prepare everything like resume, personal statement and recommendation letters. Fortunately, I was able to get all things done in just a few days and submitted the application on time. I was grateful and excited to have a chance to work in Prof. Fujiyama’s laboratory.

  It was not my first time to move across the country alone. I enjoyed to explore new places and to see different faces. The most challenging part for me was the new environment with different languages and customs in Japan. However, I still could live happily without any difficulties because the people were very friendly and helpful. I was never frustrated with the people here but having fun to talk with them. The living in Mishima was relaxing and calm. I loved the research environment in NIG as well. In my laboratory, the lab members were always willing to help me and to take good care of me. A million thanks to Professor Fujiyama and Dr. Chen who had guided me all the way in my research project. I was pleasantly to discuss with them on my research progress because of their great patience in teaching me. Working in lab was perhaps the most enjoyable part of this internship. I was given a plenty of chances to learn the new things, to see the exactly advanced high-throughput sequencers and to learn the theory which were more in depth from what I learned in class. I was given a chance to get the actual hands-on experiences in PacBiosciences Single Molecule Sequencing which was the highlight of my research project. The research skills that I learned included genomics DNA extraction, Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, PacBio Library construction, PacBio sequencer run and genome data analysis. I might not contribute a lot for the laboratory but in overall, it was a great practical experience which was invaluable in my research journey.

  Securing internships in NIG was not all about working only, I had plenty of time to relax and enjoy hanging out with other interns. We gathered and visited some popular tourist spots. I was overwhelming by the beautiful scenes in Japan. NIG was organized some events to gather all researchers and students like NIG retreat and summer party. We had opportunities to socialize with each other and expanded our networking. I had a wonderful time in meeting all people from different research background. I also enjoyed the weekly Japanese lesson and laboratory visits in NIG.

  I was proud to be one of the NIG interns. I was deeply grateful to NIG/NTU interns committees, Professor Fujiyama, all laboratory staffs in my host laboratory, my Japanese teacher, other interns and all the people in NIG. I became more confident and more prepared in scientific research in future.

Award

• Bryan John Jereza SUBONG

  

  Bryan John J. Subong one of the NIGINTERN 2014 participants received an award for his project during his internship entitled “Systems Approach on the Discovery of Pro-auxin Compound in Improving the Auxin-inducible degron (AID) system” at an international conference, ASIA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL MOLECULAR BIOLOGY NETWORK (A-IMBN) Conference, held on Dec.1-2, 2014.