Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo Department of
Integrated Biosciences

For my graduation research, I joined the laboratory using Drosophila. This was my first time to use Drosophila and study developmental biology. During course of my graduation study, I was much amazed at how dynamically during development and how easily by change in only one gene, the “shape” of the organism changes. When observing under a microscope, I was also highly impressed by the intricate and elaborate “shapes” of organisms. Since then, I have been obsessed with the mystery of how “shapes” of living organisms are formed. Initially, my interest was limited to Drosophila, but as I learned about other insects, I became more interested in the evolution and diversity of “shapes”. Drosophila is one of the most excellent model organisms, and in principle, you can change the activity of the gene of interest, in the desired cell, at the desired time, and at the desired level. In addition, you can use a full range of strains that allows you to observe the expression and localization of various proteins in real time. Although I am mainly using Drosophila as a research material for these reasons, I would like to conduct research that leads to an understanding of evolution and diversity, by always considering the relationship with other organisms. In research on the “shaping” of organisms, it is essential to actually “look” at things using a microscope. The closer you look at organisms, the more you will find out how wonderfully well they are made. Just looking through a microscope is very exciting, and I would like everyone to experience this excitement as well.