あなたの研究テーマについて教えてください。What is your research theme?
My primary research is working on developing novel mini-antibodies. Traditional antibody production involves the use of mammalian cells. When you produce antibodies using mammalian cells, they are very expensive and they also take a lot of time. So you could see the crisis that happened during COVID-19 for example. So, our approach is to develop equally effective and stable antibodies, but at a lower production cost and with an easier way to synthesize them in bacterial systems, which has never been done before. It has been done before in the sense that there are single-chain Fv fragments*1 that are on the market, but they are not as effective as traditional antibodies. So, we are trying to build a novel antibody using both bench experiments and also using AI tools and software. We're trying to develop this robust new antibody as a proof of concept. I am currently working on developing an anti-cancer novel mini-antibody, as we call it, and depending on the results, we will try to scale it up or also try to do the same for some other antibody for other diseases.
Regarding the reason why I chose my research topic, I was always interested in structural biology because after my master's, I worked in various institutes in India, for example, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research and the Birla Institute of Technology and Science. So, here I found my niche, which is structural biology and computational biology. I had some previous experience outside my master's, working in these fields as a researcher, so I was more or less sure that I wanted to do something related to structural biology, but it should also have a functional aspect to it, not only just the theoretical part.
Then I was searching for various universities abroad with good resources and staff. Hirota-sensei's lab was one of the labs at a university I applied to. It wasn't essentially university-specific, but it was more professor-specific. So, thankfully, NAIST turned out to be a good university as well, which was an added bonus for me. That's how I initially ended up here. Before joining, I had a couple of discussions with Hirota-sensei as to how to take the work forward, and therefore I decided this would be a good way to use my skills and also explore new field.
*1Single-chain Fv fragments (scFv) are the smallest part of an antibody that can still recognize and bind to a specific target, like a virus or a cancer cell.
なぜ博士課程へ進学しましたか？Why did you decide to pursue a doctoral program?
During my bachelor's, I was not so sure about what I wanted to do. At that time, the professors in my institute, they more or less motivated me towards pursuing science and knowing the rationale behind things. This inquisitiveness eventually helped me decide that I want to pursue science in some way or the other. During my master's, I couldn't get a lot of experimental work done because of COVID-19, so I was mainly working on computational aspects. I was still not sure because my interest was very general at that time. So, after COVID-19 ended and after I graduated from my master's program, I decided that instead of directly going for a doctoral program, I would rather explore the field first. That's why I worked for about 1.5 years at those two institutes I mentioned before. Then I came to know whether I want to pursue the doctoral thing or not. So, working in these institutes more or less shaped my mindset, and I decided to pursue a doctoral program.
First, I had some hesitation because it was a new country, a new culture. But not with regards to "do I want to pursue it or not?", because a doctorate was something I'd wanted to do ever since I graduated from my master's.
Graniteの支援で役立っている・助かっていることを教えてください。Please share what has been helpful or beneficial through the support provided by Granite.
It provides me with good research funds and also gives you a good monthly stipend. So these things definitely help, and those are like the immediate benefits you see. But other than that, I also observed in the Granite program that they give you career counseling, they give you internship support, and they give you research allowances to visit companies and labs outside Japan and work there for like months. That’s why I see that the value goes beyond money. Not just money support and be done with it, but it gives you a very tailored guidance. Therefore, it gives you a decent exposure and resources so that you can make the best out of the opportunity. I think this program is very helpful, whether you want to pursue a career in academia or go into a good company.
将来の目標、もしくはあなたが胸に秘めた野望があればぜひ教えてください。Please share your future goals or any ambitions you hold close to your heart.
My goal would be to finish my Ph.D. on time and have a decent result out of it as well. So, this would be my short-term goal. But the long-term goal would be, from a career aspect, I would like to join a pharma or a biotech-based company which not only uses experimental approaches but also uses computational approaches to some extent. Apart from my general research, I would like to explore the application of Large Language Models (LLMs) in biological niches combining my structural biology knowledge into them, which I was doing back in India. But right now, depending on my work, I don't know how that will play out. That is another long-term goal.
If I get a good company then I would like to stay here, but if I decide to pursue an academic career, then I would probably go back to India. But I'm not sure for now.
博士課程進学を考えている人へのメッセージをください。Please share a message for those considering pursuing a doctoral program.
I am also a student, so I don't know how good my advice is, but one thing I can definitely say is “Know what you are committing yourself to”. While working in research labs in India, I often saw people join doctoral programs without a clear plan, simply because their friends were doing it or they didn't know what to do next. But I know that people working in a doctoral program require a lot of commitment from one's end and it is a long-term thing — at least three years to finish. In my case, during my master's, as I did not have a proper research exposure, I decided to work for 1.5 years and get that research understanding and then decided to pursue my niche.
So, for future students, I recommend that in your master's program itself, you can try to get a decent research exposure. Or if you don't have a decent master's program as of now, you can probably go for some internships in some labs and try out the work there and then make your decision. Therefore, one thing would be to be self-aware and know exactly what you want. If you make that decision of joining a doctoral program knowing that you actually want to do it, then your decision won't be wrong. You will be in the right place.
