Neuro Global International Joint Graduate Program,
Tohoku University

Graduate School of Medicine
Dr. Teppei KANAYA

I was accepted as the Neuro Global Program (NGP) student for the first recruitment of the program in my Master's course year at the Graduate School of Life Sciences. Subsequently, I continued on to my PhD course at the laboratory of the Super-network Brain Physiology (PI: Prof. Ko Matsui) in the Graduate School of Medicine. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I could not physically travel overseas as a part of the Neuro Global Special Overseas Training. Instead, international collaboration was performed while staying in Japan to fulfill the requirement for the completion of the NGP. Restrictions on studying abroad still remain, and many NGP students may be anxious about what waits in the future. My fellow NGP students, as a senior, I hope to relieve some of your anxiety and help you in your future research by sharing how I spent my doctoral course and conducted collaborative research during these troubled times.

After completing my Master course degree at the Developmental Biology and Neuroscience laboratory (PI: Prof. Hiromu Yawo), I moved on to study in my current laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Matsui for the doctoral course. The first recruitment of the NGP was announced at the moment of this transition phase and I remember that I had to rush to fill out the application a week before the deadline. At the time, my research interest and focus was shifting, significantly. Honestly, I had no concrete plan for where I wanted to go for the NGP overseas study. Since I was just starting in a new lab, how an additional overseas training would help develop my own research further was too complicated for me to figure out. I just had a vague feeling that an opportunity to study abroad would become a great advantage to widen my horizon. On the other hand, the other NGP students appeared to have studied their options for overseas training well and they all seemed to have concrete plans. With my excellent peers, we participated in multiple NGP lectures and had practical neuroscience trainings. Through the time we spent together in the program, I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to conceive a lot of inspiration about research and to think deeply about studying abroad. Most of the current NGP students may already have in their mind a clear purpose for studying abroad. However, even if you do not have a specific plan just yet, exchanging ideas with other NGP students will help you develop a concrete vision for your study abroad.

For my Master’s course research, I was studying the morphological development of neural circuits. Upon moving to the Matsui Lab, I shifted my focus to study how glial cells participate in neural plasticity of learning and memory. The actual research was done by working on behavioral tests to assess motor learning in experimental mice. The results of these behavior experiments were extremely variable. The analysis required a lot of time, which did not go as smoothly as I expected. As many of you, experimental scientists, likely realize, more than half of a series of experiments is spent on troubleshooting. Prof. Matsui and all other lab members were extremely helpful in getting me through many of the troubles. Of all these helps I was fortunate to get, unexpectedly, the support from an undergraduate student, many years younger than me. He was a student from Department of Physics who was joining our lab as an RA at the time and he greatly facilitated the progress of my research. Although he did not know much about biology, he had a completely different set of skills from mine, such as computer programing and information processing. NGP often holds interdisciplinary meetings and I am sure that the networks you have built there will help your research in unexpected ways. Although it is still difficult to have face-to-face meetings today, please take advantage of the opportunities such as online exchange meetings to further deepen your interactions across borders of different fields of science.

The Covid-19 pandemic began just as I was becoming finally confident in my experimental design and in the reliability of the obtained data. Especially during the early 2020, even the access to our own laboratory became restricted. As we are not theoretical or data scientists, we needed to actually be in the lab to get any research done. The maintenance of precious transgenic animals that took years of development was also a concern. Because of this situation, sustaining research in our lab in Japan was the primal concern and it soon became apparent that studying abroad was nearly impossible.

NGP lectures continued mostly online. I came across a lecture by Prof. Wen-Sung Lai from the International University of Taiwan. Prof. Lai was introducing a new research approach to mental disorders and he was developing therapeutic drugs for the treatment. It may seem that such practical and medical research is not related to my own basic scientific research. However, I was inspired by the drug's mechanism of action. I thought that it might have the potential to enhance neural plasticity. Although we were in the midst of the pandemic, with the help from Prof. Ken-Ichiro Tsutsui, Prof. Lai was able to visit and stay in Japan for several months at the time. Therefore, we used this rare opportunity to propose a joint international collaborative research. Although the drug is still under consideration of international patent, he kindly provided us with this new drug that he had developed. After Prof. Lai returned to Taiwan, we continued our joint research by sharing research results via e-mail and we exchanged ideas via Zoom meetings. The results were as we expected. We managed to produce a body of work using this drug by the end of the doctoral course. Because of the pending patent, it may require some time for us to disclose the actual structure and mechanisms of action. This is another thing that NGP students need to consider when working with something related to patent or intellectual property. An academic paper can only be published after the patent is granted. Thus, for this particular project, years may pass before the data can finally be published. My graduate thesis does no rely on this data, thus, I was able to graduate and complete the NGP at an appropriate time.

As mentioned above, my experience as an NGP student may not be a success story. If there is anything I can tell you through these experiences, it is always to make the most of the opportunities you are given, even in difficult circumstances. Depending on your approach, you can develop the "international research capabilities" that the NGP stands for. Of course, there is a significant difference between collaborative research and studying abroad, but some of the technologies and ideas of overseas labs are available to you even in Japan. I also was able to develop my own research as the joint research. Please never give up and do the best you can in the situation you are in, and a path will surely open for you.

The second message may contradict with the first one, but I believe that as long as you can, you should commit to studying abroad. According to the stories of Dr. Onodera and Dr. Honda, who completed the NGP last year, I consider that the significance of studying abroad is to expand your horizons, as a researcher and as a member of society. In my case, I was able to achieve positive results through my joint research with Prof. Lai. However, I believe that if I had studied abroad, I would have been able to learn even more about Professor Lai's translational perspective and philosophy behind his research. These are more valuable than the research results. In my future research life, I would like to experience the overseas laboratories to further expand my own perspective. I am sure that opportunities will come to your door step as well. When you face such an opportunity, I hope that you will give it your best shot. Caerus in a personification of “opportunity” in Greek mythology. He can easily be seized by the hair hanging over his face when he is arriving. But once he has passed by, no one can grasp him, because the back of his head is bald. A neglected occasion cannot be recovered. I hope that the situation will be better in the future and that all of you will have a fruitful research life, including studying abroad.

Finally, throughout four years, my supervisor, Prof. Matsui, and all lab members supported me so that I could devote myself to the NGP. Nothing else but this support was the true driving force which led to the completion of my PhD. I greatly appreciate the support of all the lab members and the NGP faculty members as well.