To promote scientific interactions and exchanges worldwide, NIG has been sponsoring collaboration projects and international symposia. We continued an ongoing collaboration program with IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) Pune, by inviting a graduate student for a 2-months collaboration project. PhD student Payal Arya from Dr. Mayurika Lahiri’s lab (IISER Pune) worked in the Araki Lab (Division of Microbial Genetics), under the project title “A functional analysis of BRCT-containing proteins, Dpb11 and TopBP1, in yeast cells.”.

Japan has always fascinated me with respect to its traditions and culture. I am glad I got a chance to experience it first hand. I am grateful to NIG-IISER collaboration programme that gave me an opportunity to work and see how Science is done in Japan. I work in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research which is based in Pune and is an upcoming institute for research. NIG-IISER collaboration is helpful for students in learning science and getting exposure to worldwide scientific community. As I left for Japan I was nervous as I didn’t know the language but was excited as well to be able to experience the cultural richness and amazing hospitality of Japan. When I reached Mishima, I realized all my worries were of no importance as I was welcomed and well taken care by the lab members. NIG being one of the premier institutes in Genetic studies, I came to Prof Araki’s lab to learn some basic yeast genetics so I could establish the same system in my parent institute in India. I am grateful to Prof Araki that he arranged every possible help for me to learn the system. Two months in NIG gave me an opportunity to learn a new model system and appreciate the importance of doing genetics in science. I would like to thank Prof Araki and all the lab members for providing all possible help and support that made my stay in NIG useful and memorable. I would like to thank NIG for providing financial support for my stay in Japan for two months. I am also thankful to Prof Shashidhara Head of Biology of IISER Pune for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this collaborative programme. Also special thanks to Miyauchi sensei for teaching me Japanese . I had a very good experience in NIG and I hope such collaborations keep working out every year which will help graduate students to explore new frontiers in science.

More on NIG-IISER Collaboration: >>2010 Mr. SenthilKumar’s article >>2009 Mr. Ranveer’s article