[No. 113] Yugo Ishino

I am currently a researcher at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience in the United States, where I conduct research to elucidate the mechanisms of how our brains are constructed. I would like to take this wonderful opportunity to introduce my career, focusing on my life in research.

I entered the Department of Biosciences and Informatics with a vague desire to study life phenomena. In this department, we study life phenomena from various angles, including cell biology, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. For an organism to live, the very complex mechanisms throughout its body must work together in an orderly fashion, and when this system breaks down, problems such as disease arise. As I learned about these complex and elaborate biological mechanisms, I began to see a path forward for myself in the life sciences, wanting to "unravel a part of these life phenomena." In my classes, I had the opportunity to hear about the research being conducted by my professors, who generously shared the results of their cutting-edge research, things not found in any textbook. I remember being particularly captivated and inspired by the discussions on research using stem cells, such as ES cells, which further strengthened my desire to conduct stem cell research myself.

In my fourth year, it was finally time for my lab assignment. My research theme was to analyze the properties of stem cells in an organism called the planarian. Planarians have stem cells that can become cells of any tissue, so even if a single planarian is cut into small pieces, it can regenerate all its tissues and recover into a complete organism. I was fascinated by this amazing ability of stem cells and became engrossed in my research. I recall the days of struggle, trying various methods to figure out how to maximize the potential of these stem cells. Although 80 to 90 percent of the time did not yield good results, I never once came to dislike research, thanks to the extremely careful guidance I received from my professors and senior students on how to think and what to do to discover phenomena unknown to anyone else in the world. In fact, the joy of research is what remains more vividly in my memory. Research is a very strange thing; a few successes make you forget all the hard days that came before and become the driving force for the next project. A research success means that you are the first person in the world to witness a new phenomenon. At such times, you can feel an irrepressible excitement. I believe this is the true thrill of research, and it is what allows one to continue. I am very grateful to my professors, senior students, and peers who sometimes passionately discussed the fun of research with me until morning. There is no doubt that I am in the world of research today because I was able to start my research life in such an environment. The members from that time continue to be a great source of inspiration for me.

Starting with my doctoral program, I left Keio University and began research on the development of the nervous system, focusing on the brain. I have been conducting research on the nervous system ever since. Our brains contain countless nerve cells, all of which are produced from neural stem cells. A wide variety of nerve cells are produced, but much remains unknown about the mechanisms that create this diversity. My goal is to understand this ability of neural stem cells in detail. By advancing this research, it will become possible to artificially create specific nerve cells from special stem cells like ES cells and iPS cells, which many people have now heard of. I am conducting my research with the belief that using these for cell transplantation will make it possible to approach diseases that have been considered difficult to treat.

Considering that I have carried this interest in stem cells to the present day, the kind of information one is exposed to during university is very important. In that respect, I believe Keio University provided an environment where I could be exposed to a wide range of high-level information.

Graduates of Keio University are active in various fields all over the country. In my case, it is in the world of research, where researchers from Keio University are developing studies at a very high level. What is more surprising is that this is not limited to Japan. In fact, even at the American research institute where I currently work, there is a professor from the Keio Faculty of Science and Technology conducting research. From this, I hope you can see that Keio University offers a high level of education that produces global talent. At the time I was a student, I never thought about how precious the time I was spending was, but looking back now, I realize that it was an irreplaceable experience. I hope that those who are currently thinking about taking entrance exams will also have a wonderful time in the environment of Keio University. And I would be delighted if, someday, a researcher emerges from among the readers of this article, and we could have a passionate discussion.