The summer that I spent at NIG was truly a turning point for me. I arrived here, full of doubts if I was cut out for a career in research, whether I would be able to manage something of that magnitude. This internship was in very way a precursor to graduate research life. Working with Prof Hiromi was a wonderful experience. It was from him that I learnt the joy of doing something you want to purely because it interests you. Right at the beginning, he had cautioned me that I would work hard and yet not get results and I shouldn’t let that deter me. It was that advice which kept me going even when I got frustrated about negative results.
My project here involved screening for identification of imaginal disc growth factor receptors in Drosophila melanogaster, under the guidance of Dr. Takashi Hayashi, which involved working with a large number of strains of flies. Learning to handle them was, in itself, a great feeling. Here, I learnt a new technique of performing gene knockdown experiments by which I could screen for growth factor receptors out of almost 400 genes. Working full time on a project involved not only dedication but the ability to design my own experiment, analyse and also troubleshoot when things went wrong. Moreover, Dr. Hayashi and the other lab members made life very easy for me as they were approachable at any point of time to clarify any doubts I had. Further, during my time here, I had the opportunity to attend the annual conference in Developmental Biology where I interacted with a number of scientists from various fields, who each widened my perspective.
The guest house at NIG was well equipped and ensured that my stay there was very comfortable. The kitchens brought an interest to cook, and cooking with my co-interns was a wonderful experience. Further, we had the graduate students, Pradeep and Neha, who helped us out in every way possible from taking us to the supermarket to showing us all around the place. With them, I would look forward to the weekends to explore new places – Atami, Numazu, FujiQ. My initial inhibitions about the availability of food for a vegetarian such as myself also vanished as I learnt how to order custom made food, thanks to the Japanese classes we had here.
To summarise, I would say this internship strengthened my conviction that I wanted to do a Ph.D, gave me the belief that I would be able to manage it by giving me a feel of what real research was like. I learnt how and where experiments failed, how to fix them and above all, have the fortitude to keep pushing until I reached the goal.