by Timea Jarosova
This summer, I completed a 6 week internship at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, with the Frith Lab, a computational biology lab. At my home university, I worked in a wet lab focusing on viruses, but I wanted to gain experience in genetics, one of my favourite fields. This program was the perfect opportunity. Dr. Frith and the other members of the lab were very welcoming and supported me throughout my project. I chose to analyze previously unclassified mobile genetic sequences in the human genome. Working entirely in code was new for me, which presented a fantastic challenge that helped me grow as a scientist. I was able to use several types of software to pull out genetic data from databanks and create a consensus sequence, allowing me to find more spots in the human genome where the sequence is present. I discovered a lot about the field of evolutionary biology. I was even able to attend a conference with my lab, where I met many experts in the field and heard interesting lectures. In fact, I even got inspiration for what I might want to study as a graduate student. I feel that this program hugely boosted my career, scientific ability, and introduced me to fantastic people who made the program wonderful. I am so thankful to the University of Tokyo and FUTI for the experience.
