First year of doctor,s course, The University of Tokyo
Graduate School of Science Ken Saito

　I belong to the seminar of Professor Shinya Kuroda of the University of Tokyo, a member of the Brain and Neural System Research and Development team which analyzes intracellular signaling pathways using mathematical models (particularly time-series statistical models). A senior associate in the seminar introduced this summer school to me, and I participated in the summer school because I wanted to meet people in different fields who are related to my research theme, but with whom it is difficult to exchange opinions in my daily research life.

　I have been interested in the work of the Data Analysis Fusion Research and Development Team estimating the structure of gene networks using time line data about gene expression, such as SiGN and LiSDAS. Because I have difficulty in appreciating the significance of explanations of signaling pathways using mathematical models, I wanted to hear other opinions about it. When I actually heard the lecture at the summer school, it was impressive that a lot of researchers wanted to apply it in medical practice through modeling. I also heard the story of researchers who have the same directionality as mine, and it was a very valuable experience for me.

　Since other lectures handled the theme across various levels from brain and organs to molecules, I was anxious about keeping up with the contents before participation, but actually, the lectures were explained so that the unprofessional people can understand, so I could interestingly hear the lecture of the people far from my specialty to the end. It was particularly good that the presentation topic was explained carefully, especially the motivation for the research and why a supercomputer is required. I had been struggling with the question, “why supercomputers are required for analyzing the functions of organisms,” but now I could sweep away that question.

　Particularly, the presentation by the High-performance Computing Team was even more impressive than I had expected. Since the mathematical model that I use now does not require the performance of a computer so much, I was not so interested in the extra speed of parallel computation, but I heard the tuning methodology behind this at the summer school, and this prompted me to have more motivation to study it seriously. In the future, I want to describe thousands of molecular behaviors in cells with one model in an integrated manner, and to utilize the knowledge learned at this summer school.

　The matter that I expect from the summer school to be held next year and so on is aggressive participation of students. In all, only 8 students including me participated in this summer school. I think that there is no student who does not know of the “supercomputer project” which came up in conversation at the screening process for government revitalization, but I think that there are few students who really understand what is going on in terms of research themes actually using supercomputers. In order to understand the positioning of scientific research as a national project, I thought it would be very meaningful if more students participate in such an event.

　Finally, since not only research, but there were also many recreation events like football and night networking, etc., at this summer school, I think that participants could have a real opportunity to discuss and exchange opinions. I would like express my thanks to the people in the Secretariat of the summer school.

■Program of the summer school 2010
for the Integrated Simulation of Living Matter