I believe that life is full of exciting experiments. My new experiment started when I received the invitation letter from National Institute of Genetics. When I first received the letter from NIG I couldn’t believe myself because I first discovered about NIGINTERN program when I was a second year student of Medical School. Since from that moment I waited for over 3 years to become a prefinal year student to apply for the program and go to NIG for internship. I was so lucky to be chosen from all of those students who applied from many different countries.

After I came to NIG, I joined the Saito sensei lab- Invertebrate Genetics Laboratory for 6 weeks. Invertebrate Genetics Laboratory studies the mechanism of retrotransposon regulation in Drosophila which was quite different from my field/study in Medical School. Even though I was not so familiar with this field, I tried to broaden my knowledge about laboratory work in that given time and I learned so many laboratory basics from my supervisor Saito sensei who helped me a lot while during my stay in NIG.

Beside my laboratory work, I also had the chance to meet a lot of nice NIG students and other professors from different laboratory and got to hear about their studies/research jobs which I found really interesting. Furthermore, during weekends I had time to go around Mishima as well as Tokyo and experienced Japanese culture and their famous cuisines which I loved so much.

I would like to thank the NIG for giving me this great opportunity to experience laboratory life in Japan. I will not forget to thank Saito-san, Miyoshi-san, Tomoko-san whom without their patience, guidance and understanding, I wouldn’t have done my experiment.

Lastly, I would also like to thank for all my laboratory mates and NIG educational team members whom have managed and guided me throughout my time of internship in Japan.