What sort of department is the Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience?

The aim of the department is to make use of scientific and engineering knowledge in the fields of medicine and bio-science. For example, the approach taken to a disease will vary between the respective disciplines. A medical doctor will attempt to treat diseases directly, but a person majoring in engineering might try to develop materials or systems that would be of help in treatment. On the other hand, a science major might try to delve into or verify the cause of the disease. So the approach taken differs depending on the field of your major.

So do you study a variety of disciplines?

Actually, the faculty of the department is quite varied. Of course we have medical scientists, but the faculty also includes specialists from fields such as chemistry and physics, so we can learn in each of those fields. The department also conducts research with Tokyo Women’s Medical University at a cooperative facility called “TWIns,” so we can also learn from the researchers at TWMU.

What course has been your most memorable?

That would be experimental studies! We have four to six periods of experiments per week, and each time we have to prepare a report, making it quite demanding. However, from the second year we start doing “biomedical science experiments,” and these are quite interesting, so the reports don’t feel like a burden.
It seems that Waseda is big on experiments. A professor with experience teaching at other universities said that, “I don’t think there is any other school where students do so many experiments.” Even the Department of Mathematics does fundamental experiments, so the practice extends everywhere.

Do you take part in any extracurricular school activities?

I am serving as chairman of the “Biomedical Committee.” This committee is in charge of managing department events. There are three main events each year, including an orientation session that we hold in Karuizawa each April for new students, the open campus event in August, in which we participate as the committee for explanation; and an exhibit that we put on each November during the “Science and Technology Exhibition” (a school fair that is sponsored by the Faculty of Science and Engineering). At the Science and Technology Exhibition, we did exhibits on topics such as DNA extraction and the anatomy of the anchovy, and these were well received. This gave me a strong sense of the great interest that people have in the fields of biology and medicine.

Are you doing any part-time work?

I was working as a register attendant at the Kinokuniya bookstore. My mother worked as a librarian, and I’ve always liked books. I enjoyed science books like those that Kodansha Ltd. puts out in its pocket-size “Bluebacks” series. Recently, I borrowed five or six such books in fields of current interest, and have been reading them all together. Taking an in-depth look at the same subject from various perspectives makes it easier to comprehend.
If time permits, I recommend that anyone entering the department go back to basics and take such a look at concepts that they take for granted.