Join us
The Department of Molecular Mechanisms and Immunology is currently recruiting graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and technical staff. If possible, we also accept undergraduate students (graduate students) and graduate students from other universities as external research students, so please feel free to contact us for more information.
1. I would like to join a laboratory as a graduate student (master or doctoral course) at Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
2. I would like to work in our laboratory as a post-doctoral researcher, research associate, or technical staff (shorter hours and part-time work are acceptable).
3. Students from other universities who wish to conduct experiments in our laboratory without passing the graduate school entrance examination (so-called external research students).
- Please feel free to contact us and discuss your needs.
kato.kazuki[at]tmd.ac.jp
Please send e-mail replacing [at] with ＠.
Education of Students
The time that science students spend in the laboratory is very important for their later career development. How much each student grows during his/her time as a student depends not only on his/her own motivation and ability, but also on the research environment, i.e., the laboratory. We aim to train students in our laboratory to become “professionals in protein experimentation” by the time they graduate, so that they can be active in academia, as researchers in pharmaceutical companies, or in other fields outside of research. To this end, we place importance on the following two points.
1. Do good research
I believe that “good research” fosters good researchers. Then, what kind of research is “good research” in academia? I believe that “good research” is research with originality. Originality and originality of research are always mentioned in applications for Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (DC1, DC2), but when students are asked to write them, it is not easy at first. It is not easy at first for students to understand the position of their research and explain the value and necessity of their research, what is great about it, and so on. It is that difficult to explain the value and necessity of your research, what is great about it, etc. to the people around you. I give students highly original research themes and ask them to think about the value, meaning, and standing of their own research projects on a regular basis. In order to encourage students to take responsibility for their own projects, our laboratory basically assigns one or two or more projects as original themes to each student. Of course, the entire laboratory will support students as much as possible so that they can maximize their ability to produce research results.
2. Speak with a mentor (faculty advisor)
In order for students to grow as researchers, they need to receive appropriate guidance from their professors. In our laboratory, the Principal Investigator (PI), i.e., myself, discusses directly with the students to promote their research, and it is very important to have face-to-face discussions based on live experimental data. I try to guide them on how to proceed with experiments and how to think about their research through direct communication. In Japan, it may seem unusual for a PI to look at all the experimental data himself/herself and give direct guidance on the details of an experiment. In the lab where I studied in the U.S., I had weekly 1-on-1 meetings with PIs, where I presented experimental data and received detailed feedback. I learned a lot from my mentor, and I feel that I was able to grow as a researcher through the interaction with my mentor at that time.
After becoming accustomed to research to some extent, some students will be able to think for themselves and carry out their research. In such cases, I ask them to design experiments based on their own judgment and to proceed with the experiments on their own responsibility. àBy repeating failures and successes in designing experiments, students should be able to acquire a kind of sense for conducting research. It is difficult to give direct oral guidance on this matter, and I want them to feel the joy of making new discoveries through successful experiments that they have designed themselves.
Skills Acquired in the Lab
Our laboratory employs a variety of experimental techniques in our research, with a particular emphasis on experiments involving proteins and RNA. Depending on the project you are working on, some of the experimental skills you will acquire include
- Recombinant protein preparation (expression and purification using E. coli, insect cells, and mammalian cells)
- RNA preparation (in vitro transcription and purification using RNA polymerase)
- Biochemical experiments (binding and enzymatic reaction experiments using purified proteins and nucleic acids)
- Cellular experiments (qPCR and reporter assays, cell death experiments, RNA and protein immunoprecipitation, etc.)
- Protein conformational analysis using cryo-electron microscopy
Career Opportunities after Graduation
I also actively support students in their career development by drawing on my experience as a corporate researcher and a post-doctoral fellow studying abroad. For more information, please consult with me during a laboratory visit.
How to do original research, or careers, is also discussed a bit in the following column.
