My heart was fully content when I first received the acceptance email from NIG. Being a part of NIG community for a short time truly means a lot to my research journey. NIG exposed me to such supportive research circumstances. From joining lab visits and seminars, I reckoned how passionate each lab is with its unique cutting-edge research technique.

I was admitted to the Genome Informatics Laboratory under Professor Nakamura’s supervision. We had an initial meeting to first align our interests and research expectations. During my internship, I tried to extend the lab's previous study upon the annotation of neuropeptides. In this project, I worked on discovering the corresponding neuropeptide receptors and their drug inhibitors in cricket by integrating both neighboring and structural analysis. I am beyond happy that I was allowed to tackle many kinds of bioinformatics analysis I wish to explore.

Aside from conducting my research project, I also traveled to Tokyo and Kawaguchiko with other interns. Mishima is a hidden gem in Japan, with many mesmerizing places, especially Rakujuen Park and Genbei River, which captured my attention most. Apart from that, I was also given the opportunity to visit one of the lab collaborators in Nagoya and look around several temples there. This internship has simply been astonishing, allowing me to also make friends with many amazing interns from across the continent.

NIGINTERN truly opened my eyes further on how I should reshape and redirect my future research direction. Joining NIGINTERN is truly a lifetime opportunity, and I would be more than happy to visit NIG again.