Graduates

He joined nRIM in September 2018. He has done a master in Cognitive Science, studying the application of MRI technology in the diagnosis of demyelinating diseases. Then he moved to Okinawa to take a more “fundamental” approach to neuroscience, and this is how he ended up being fascinated by the tail movement in mice. During his PhD he would like to characterize the tail kinematic and its function in balance and neuronal representation across the nervous system.
In his first year in nRIM he was awarded the JSPS Research Fellowships for Young Scientists, and he was selected to participate to TENSS, an amazing summer school where he learnt to build a 2p microscope, a behavioral set-up for animal tracking, and much more!
In his spare time he enjoy taking long walks to the beach, playing with cats and watching musicals. He also plays viola in the Okinawa Symphonic Orchestra.

PhD Thesis Title: "The role of tails in maitaining balance: neuronal and behavioral insights from the mouse"
PhD Defense: August 2024

Current position: Post-doctoral researcher, Johns Hopkins

I joined this unit in September 2019 as a co-supervised student. Before coming to OIST, I received my BSc (Bioengineering) and MSc (Neurobiology) degrees from China. I have always been fascinated by transdisciplinary findings of how the immune system impacts the nervous. During my PhD, I would like to investigate how immunological imbalance contribute to the cerebellar deficits in autism. Here in nRIM, I am enjoying monitoring and quantifying balance performance in autistic-like mouse model. In my free time, I enjoy being a fan of ARASHI.

PhD Thesis title: "Maternal Immune Activation Alters Fetal Cerebellar Development and Motor Behavior in Mouse Offspring via Type-I Interferon"
PhD Defense: May 2024
Current position: Research associate, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

I joined the unit in September 2020, few months after doing rotation in the lab. Before coming to OIST, I had my BSc in Psychology from Indonesia and MSc in Neuroscience from the UK. I’m interested to study the anatomy and functional properties of inferior olive neurons and how it affects movement. I learned some basic experimental techniques during my rotation with the lab and I’m excited to learn other cool techniques to study the neurons throughout my PhD.

Besides of my exciting (and challenging also) PhD life, I enjoyed exploring the island, having a good coffee, cakes and foods!

PhD Thesis title: "Anatomical and Functional Study of the Superior Colliculus Pathway to the Inferior Olive in Mice"
PhD Defense: March, 2025

Current position: post-doctoral researcher, University of Colorado

I joined the nRIM unit in May 2019 as a rotation student. I have a BSc in physics, chemistry and mathematics and a MSc. in theoretical physics and am hence a physicist by background. Here at OIST I am interested in using my background as a physicist to decipher the workings of biological systems. As part of my rotation at the nRIM unit I would like to gain a better understanding of the connection between movement and the cerebellum, and in general gain better insight into dealing with biological data.

In my free time I like exploring the island by bike, playing the piano, and singing.

PhD thesis title: "Of Movement and Mice: A Study of Movement Variability Using Marker-based 3D Motion Capture and Mathematical Representations of Locomotion on a Treadmill"
PhD defense: March 2025