[No. 97] Haruna Yamanami

Among those of you aspiring to enter Keio's Faculty of Science and Technology, I'm sure many have a clear idea of the path you want to take in the future, but there are also probably some who can't yet picture it concretely. I'm one of those who chose my path in a more fluid way, so I'd like to look back on my student days in the hope that it might be helpful to the latter group.

Science subjects weren't necessarily my strong suit, but I went into the sciences out of a vague sense of admiration. I entered School 3 with the intention of studying chemistry, but when I learned that the Department of Biosciences and Informatics was being newly established in my second year, I intuitively felt "This is it!" and decided to enroll. I was originally more interested in things I could understand in relation to myself rather than purely material objects, and I thought I could explore the question of how humans and living organisms are constructed. It was an interdisciplinary department with many unique classes. Disciplines like mathematics, chemistry, physics, and information, which until then had given me the impression of dealing with inanimate objects, were brought closer to me and made understandable through the common thread of "life," and I found every class and experiment to be very interesting. Professor Hoshi's lectures on developmental biology, in particular, unfolded while touching on the history and context of science, and they were always an exciting and moving time for me.

In my fourth year, it was time to choose a laboratory. The deciding factor for me was seeing the diverse range of books on Professor Oka's bookshelf, which I found interesting, so I chose the Oka Laboratory (Biophysics and Neuroinformatics Laboratory). The Oka Lab studied a variety of organisms, including earthworms, zebra finches, nematodes, sea squirts, crickets, and cultured cells, and the lab members were also very unique individuals.

Within that environment, I became interested in observing the inside of living, moving cells and in neural development, so I chose "Elucidation of the Axon Elongation and Guidance Mechanism of Chick Embryo Dorsal Root Ganglion Neurons through Bioimaging" as my research theme. To observe the growth cones at the tip of nerve cells live under a fluorescence microscope, I spent day after day dissecting chick embryos and secluding myself in the darkroom of the microscope, going through a process of trial and error on my own.

There's something Professor Oka taught me that has left a lasting impression. He said, "When you can't see what you want to see, sometimes changing the way you shine the light makes it visible." This happened in April of my fourth year, right after I joined the lab, when he was personally teaching me how to dissect a chick embryo under a stereomicroscope. By changing the angle of the microscope's illumination to light it diffusely, the appearance of the chick embryo's tissue changed, making the target dorsal root ganglion much easier to see. While the words themselves were advice on basic microscope operation, it was a very important lesson, as bioimaging is a research field that uses fluorescent proteins, dyes, and fluorescence microscopes to visualize reactions occurring inside cells that are invisible to the naked eye. Beyond that, I often recall this advice in my current work, where I constantly think about how to present the effects of cosmetics in an easy-to-understand way, and also as a life lesson.

My current job involves verifying the effects of makeup through approaches from psychophysiology and perceptual psychology. During my student days, my research was at the cellular level, so the human physiology, psychology, cognition, and consciousness I'm researching now are issues in a completely different field. However, I feel that what I learned as a student, including the mindset, is being utilized more than I expected. For example, the "face," which is my current research subject, is extremely interdisciplinary, with research being conducted from various approaches such as engineering, psychology, and anthropology. Having been exposed to a wide range of academic fields as a student, I think I can take an interest in new fields with relatively little resistance if I have even a little prior knowledge of them.

I feel that a cosmetics company is a workplace where a woman's sensibility can be put to good use. While the logic from a research perspective is of course important, ultimately, the results of the research must move the hearts of our customers. I work with a constant awareness of this balance, never forgetting the perspective of how to deliver our products to customers.

Rather than having clearly set my path from the beginning and then realizing it, I feel that I have faced myself and made decisions at each important juncture—choosing my department, my laboratory, and my career. For those of you who can't yet imagine what you want to do, perhaps by nurturing the seeds of your own interests and sensibilities, meeting respectable teachers and friends, and maintaining a proactive attitude toward learning, the outline of your future will naturally come into focus.