先輩VOICE

I’m Runkai Hu from China. After I finished my high school courses, I went to USA and obtained a bachelor degree in biomedical engineering major. I didn’t continue my education in the US, instead, I applied Waseda University’s English-based master program because I believe different educational background may generate new ideas in scientific research, and Japan is one of leading countries in the fields of physiology and medicine. Now I am a doctoral student in Takeoka Lab researching functional liposomes, a type of artificial vesicles for drug delivery.

The department of life science and medical bioscience in TWins not just focus on biological fields, such as neuroscience, oncology and microbiology, but also some cross fields with physics and chemistry, like biochemistry, biomaterial and biosensors. The multi-discipline in the life science and medical bioscience department enables new perspectives and thinking to the undergoing researches. For example, single cell analysis is dependent on microfluidic device to precisely study and manipulate a single cell’s behavior. Other than that, it also can be used in liposome preparation that enables uniformly dispersed liposomes and real-time screening. To promote communications in academic fields, the department will also invite researchers outside the university including overseas professors to share the recent findings, and subsequent discussion help both audiences and presenters to gain insightful understandings in new findings and may generate new thinking in one’s research field. Besides that, the department also provides opportunities for students to co-operate with overseas researchers. For instance, Takeoka Lab where I studied in had co-operated with Prof.Greco from IIT, Italy and Latz Lab from Bonn university, Germany.

I think one fascinating thing in researching bioscience is that we can based on our interests to dig into the underlying mechanism down to single cell’s or even molecules’ level, up to the functional tissues and organs. If you are curious about how protists live, wondering how organs function, keen to know how cancer develops and metastasizes to invade distant parts of the body, and enormous unrevealed mechanisms and activities in organisms (virus and prions if you also interested in), the department of life science and medical bioscience is definitely a good choice to lead you to the world of life science, and if you enjoy, you can pursue further education for deep understanding, like me!