An environment with excellent rivals helps me grow.

Looking back on my student life in high school and university,

I realized that my starting point has always been the desire "not to lose to those around me."

To grow, it's important to first place yourself in an environment with exceptional people.

I believe the Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy is an environment that will help me grow.

As of November 2021

Since I was a child, I've had severely chapped hands and often used ointments. Every time they healed after applying the medicine, my interest in drugs grew, and I would wonder, "How does this medicine work?" and "What's happening inside my body?" When deciding on my path for university entrance exams, I thought about what I wanted to study, and what came to mind were the questions I had about medicine as a child.

The Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy has two departments: the Department of Pharmacy and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. At the time of the entrance exams, I had a strong desire to create drugs, so I chose the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The Keio Faculty of Pharmacy has many distinctive laboratories (research labs), and from among them, I chose the Division of Pharmaceutics. One reason is that it deals with pharmacokinetics, which involves many calculations, and I found that enjoyable. Another is its policy of valuing independence. Each person is given one research theme, and while it's very challenging, I felt it suited me because I thought I could grow if I saw it through.

Currently, I am researching the placenta, which connects the baby and the mother. Drug treatment for pregnant women is very difficult; what is beneficial for the mother can often be harmful to the baby. The challenge of my current research is how to safely administer drugs to both mother and child.

More specifically, there are proteins called transporters that move substances into and out of cells across the cell membrane, and I am trying to understand the function of a certain transporter in the placenta. Understanding this could allow us to predict how much of a drug is transported to the baby, leading to the development of safer dosing plans for the baby and potentially to the development of new drugs that utilize that transporter.

The people in my lab aren't immersed in their research 24/7; they concentrate during crucial phases and have a clear distinction between being "on" and "off." I initially thought researchers were somewhat detached from the real world, but I was taken aback to find they were completely different. They are consistent in their logical thinking that there's no need to do anything wasteful. I learned that it is precisely because they are dealing with living organisms, where it's difficult to predict the response, that researchers must be thoroughly logical.

Outside of my research, for my student life club activities, I joined the medical and pharmaceutical schools' rugby team. I played basketball in junior high and high school, but I wanted to try something new at university, so I chose rugby. The reason I joined was that the senior players were cool. They are funny people normally, but during a match, their demeanor changes, and they fiercely tackle their opponents. I found it cool that they could sacrifice their bodies for their teammates like that. The intense physical clashes are the best part of rugby, and I find it fun to watch.

If I may boast a little, when I was a fourth-year student, I served as captain, and we were the runners-up in the second division for the first time in 17 years. At that moment, I thought that even though there were tough times, I was truly glad I had continued. I retired after my fourth year, so I lost about 15 kilograms and have become quite slim now...

I have received a job offer to work in the Pharmacovigilance (PV) department of a pharmaceutical company. The PV department is responsible for drug safety, consistently gathering information from early clinical trials to post-market, reporting to stakeholders, and planning for proper use information. In other words, it's the department that conducts drug monitoring activities. Drugs have both risks and benefits, and if we can manage and suppress the risks through monitoring, we can enhance the benefits.

The PV department at my future company has about 50 people, which is quite small, as a competitor might have over 100. For that very reason, it's an environment where I can grow, as various tasks will come my way, allowing me to gain experience from an early stage. The company itself is full of ambition, and I sensed its high aspirations to aim higher on a global scale.

Ever since my high school entrance exams, I have been in environments with many people more talented than myself. I believe I was able to work hard because I hated losing to the rivals around me. I am who I am today because I grew up being influenced by those around me, so I want to continue placing myself in environments where I can grow and improve.