The NIBB Internship Program
The NIBB Internship program, which started in 2009, isa hands-on learning course for overseas students designedto give high-quality experience in real world research and afocused education in biology. At the same time, this programaims to internationalize graduate students from The Graduate
University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, giving themthe opportunity to get to know students and interns with differing cultural customs. Another goal of the program is tobuild connections through providing education to the people
who will form the core of international research networks inthe future.
To participate in this program, applicants who would liketo experience research at NIBB must supply the name of
the lab they would like to visit as well as their reasons forchoosing it, and a letter of recommendation. Based on thisinformation, applicants are chosen to spend set periods oftime participating in specific research activities in the lab
they applied for. Round trip airfare and housing expenses areprovided by the NIBB Internship Program.
In FY2021, considering the situation of COVID-19, we
called the applications from students attending universitiesabroad with the explicit understanding that the internshipprogram might cancel if the COVID-19 situation worsened.
Consequently, one student who belongs to a Vietnamese university was selected. However, due to border control by theJapanese Government, the student was unable to visit Japan.
In contrast, four international students attending universities
in Japan were accepted, and three of them came to NIBB
during FY2021.

Report from a participant
Piyusha Mongia

I am Piyusha Mongia, a graduate student from Osaka
University, Japan. I am grateful that I could take part inthis internship program and be a part of Prof. Jun-Ichi
Nakayama’s laboratory. The lab works on epigenetics- how
it regulates gene expression, the establishment of epigenetic
markers and so on.
The bigger question was to understand how epigenetic
information is inherited and what are the factors involved.
Epigenetics refers to heritable changes- not coded by DNA.
Eukaryotic chromosomes can be divided into 2 broad categories: euchromatin and heterochromatin. Euchromatin refers
to the regions on chromosomes which are transcriptionallyactive. Heterochromatin, on the hand, is generally transcriptionally silent, present at repetitive sequences or transposons. Methylation of lysine 9 of histone H3 (H3K9me) isa hallmark of heterochromatin. I created and assessed theinvolvement of four candidate gene deletions in heterochromatin inheritance in fission yeast spores. Fission yeast
is a simple eukaryote having three chromosomes, making
its study relatively easier. I first replaced the 4 genes with
nourseothricin by PCR and then visualized swi6-egfp localization by fluorescence microscopy. One of the candidate
genes seems to be important for the inheritance of heterochromatin but more studies need to be done to conclude so.
In a parallel project, I tried to express three of Tetrahymena118

proteins using a bacterial expression system. These proteins
are involved in heterochromatin assembly. Producing recombinant proteins allows us to purify and biochemically analyze
individual proteins activities and interactions in-vitro. In
the end, I managed to express all, but purify one of theproteins due to time constraints. I learned many biochemical techniques, like Gel Filtration Chromatography and Ion
Exchange Chromatography. I wish I could have had a longer
time period to do more fun experiments.
Every day I was faced with challenges, and learnt something new. All the members were very patient with me andtaught me something or the other. I’m extremely grateful toDr. Hayashi and Dr. Kataoka, who guided me throughout theproject. Prof. Nakayama was very supportive and encouraging. The research atmosphere in the lab is very exciting and it
was truly an enriching experience for me.