5. Lab events There were so many opportunities to get along with people in my lab. There were BBQ, going to some kind of show and a city

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1 Thank you very much for giving me this opportunit y, Professor Takeda and Dr. Hiiragi. Thank you very much for helping me so much, Dr. Hiiragi, D r. Nakayama, and Dr. Izumi. Thank you for being so nice to me, all the people in Max Planck Institute for molecular biomedicine. I went to MPI for molecular biomedicine in Muenster this summer. I spent there for 2 and half months. This summer was very precious time for me. I learned a lot of things, not only about research but about how people in Germany think and spend their time. I m writing this report for showing my appreciation to all the people involved with my study in German y. It is very good for me if my writing helps someone who is going to study in MPI. <contents> 1. About the department of vascular cell biology 2. Research 3. Seminars 4. Life in Muenster 5. Lab events 6. Kind Japanese people 7. What was most impressive 1. About the department of vascular cell biology The department has some leading people. I studied under Stefan Butz. But if you come next to me, it may be also good that you do your study under other people. I heard from PhD students that other leading people, especially Friedmann is nice; He listens to students carefull y, and he tries to give answers to questions of students. My supervisor, Stefan Butz also took much care of his PhD students, and seemed to check how their researches proceed. There are more PhD students than postdocs. So it may be easy for you to make friends with them.

2 2. Research At first, I was supposed to do 2 researches; 1 big research and 1 small one. My bigger project was about ESAM (endothelial cell adhesion molecule). It is already known that ESAM knock out mice has less vascular leakiness, and delay of neutrophil to enter inflamed tissue. So the lab tries to find out which intracellular domain(s) is related to the intracellular signaling, which results in opening the cell-cell contact. I was supposed to compare knock-in mice with each domain deleted and wild type mice. But unfortunately, the mice which was thought as knock in mice, seemed to be wild type mice. So we had to check whether the rest of ES cells have particular mutation we need. The procedure I did was as follows. PCR: amplifying the target genes Taq polymerase: add A to the end of PCR product TOPO cloning: insert PCR product into TOPO vector (plasmid) Then heat shock E.coli to get the plasmid into E.coli Culture E.coli Plasmid purification: get plasmids with target genes Sequencing: check the sequence of DNA, and judge whether the ES cell has target mutation I also did mice experiment. I made specimen of mice cremaster muscles, and lung lysates for protein analysis. Cremaster muscle is very thin muscle, and appropriate for observing vascular abnormalit y. I couldn t use confocal microscope. But it couldn t be helped The other project was about expression of cell surface molecules. I used mouse brain endothelioma cell line (bend3 and bend5). I compared the expression of JAM-A, JAM-B, JAM-C, and ESAM between half confluent cells and full confluent cells. ESAM was always expressed, but different members of JAMs had different expressions. I didn t think JAM-B was expressed so much. I think there are better ways to compare the expression. Merging the

3 images may be better than just looking at specimen with microscope. I helped one of the postdocs in my lab work. He was such a nice person that he left part of his work to me completel y. I felt relieved when finally I got some results he needed. 3. Seminars In our department, we had seminars in which PhD students give presentation about their lab work. In addition to lab seminars, we had a big seminar called MISS seminar. It is for all the researchers in MPI, and for introducing new methods. MISS seminars were easier than lab seminars. It was impressive that even professors asked questions when they can t understand some part of the seminar. I think it is better to take a seat in the front because you can understand and concentrate on the seminar more easil y. 4. Life in Muenster You can get almost everything you want in your life in Muenster. You will find 4 supermarkets near the Institute. There are so many drugstores in Muenster. The climate in Muenster is changing rapidl y. So you cannot feel easy even when it is fine in the morning. It may begin to rain in the afternoon. So you should bring an umbrella, and a rain jacket. People in Muenster use a bicycle so often. You can borrow one in the Institute. When you go somewhere with people in the Institute, you should put on the rain jacket if it seems to begin to rain. They will keep riding a bicycle even when it begins to rain. You can go for lunch to cafeterias near the Institute. Its food isn t like Asian food. You can get mensa card when you use cafeterias. The card is like Japanese coop card. 5. Lab events There were so many opportunities to get along with people in my lab. There were BBQ, going to some kind of show and a city

4 festival, and a short trip to the north of German y, etc. You may be surprised to find that people in Germany enjoy their lives so much. They work so hard when they are working, but they enjoy their pastime fully when they aren t working. Maybe we should emulate their life style. 6. Kind Japanese people As I wrote in the beginning, there were some really kind Japanese people. Dr. Hiiragi invited us to MPI, bought us some dinner, and listened to my problems. His advice was really to the point as he works as PI. Dr. Nakayama was a kind of our senior because he was also from Kyoto Universit y. He was from Kaibuchi lab in Nagoya Universit y. He also listened to my problems so many times, and sometimes he asked Dr. Kaibuchi for some advice. He is working in Ralf s department. Dr. Izumi is also working in Ralf s department. She lived with us for a while before she found her apartment. She gave us Japanese rice when we missed Japanese food, and gave us some advice while we were talking. I also show my appreciation to a secretary of Dr. Hiiragi. She was a very brave woman, I think. She has a lot of things I should emulate. 7. What was most impressive As a summer student, I saw a lot of people in my department. I found different people worked in different ways. Frankly speaking, I found some PhD students who didn t concentrate on his work. I don t think their way of working suit German lab. Most people in my department finish their work early in the evening, and went back home earl y. I learned that one should work efficiently from them. People who worked efficiently made a list of what to do in the day and didn t make so many mistakes in their experiments. I think it may be because they think about and understand their experiments before they do them. In my department, not only German people but people from other countries worked. Especially

5 the latter interested me because I m going to be like them if I work as PhD student in the future. Anyway, you can t help feeling the differences between labs in Japan and ones in foreign countries. So it may be good for you to go to a foreign lab and observe PhD students and supervisors there if you haven t decided whether you are a doctor or a researcher in the future. In my case, my colleagues didn t conceal what they really are because I m just a summer student and they didn t have to care me too much. If you are in the surroundings like mine, you may be able to imagine your future as a researcher a little bit more clearl y.

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