Yusuke Kasuga
Research Associate, Laboratory for the Neural Circuitry of Learning and Memory

How will the experiences in the program pay off for your science career?

One of the strengths of the UCSF community that I found at the UCSF retreat is that researchers share the attitude that the brain is part of the body. The UCSF retreat presentations had a variety of contents about the brain, from the scale of molecular/synaptic level to long-range circuit mechanisms. But at the same time, there were several presentations that made us aware of the connections between the brain and other body organs. This seemed to stem from the strong connection with the UCSF Medical Center, where not only research but also clinical practice is conducted. Especially when we give patients a treatment, we need to view the brain as a part of the whole body. This experience strongly motivated me to interact not only with the neuroscience community, but also with the general biomedical and physiological community, which covers other organs as well, in order to broaden the perspective of neuroscience for the treatment and research of brain diseases.

The next thing that caught my attention was the strong commitment of UCSF students themselves to be actively involved in the development of an academic environment that is conducive to learning and working for a diverse population. There was a number of interesting discussions between faculty and students to create a better academic environment. This got me thinking about how we can have better interactions between young researchers, including CBS PhDs, and lab team leaders.

Finally, during my interactions with young UCSF researchers (students and postdocs), I was able to hear their honest opinions about the research environment in their labs at UCSF and at other institutions in Europe and the US where they had previously worked. The information I gained from these forums will be an important resource as I consider my next career move.