University of Montpellier student participates in GSB's "Global Frontier in Life Science" program (1 February-31 March 2016)

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From 1 February through 31 March, the Graduate School of Biostudies (GSB) hosted a "Global Frontier in Life Science" laboratory course for a student from the Institute for Human Genetics, the University of Montpellier (UM2), France. The course was organized as part of the partnership agreement concluded between GSB and UM2 in 2014. KU welcomed Mr Walid Zaddam, a master's student in Prof Angelos Constantinou's laboratory at UM2.

During the internship, Mr Zaddam conducted research on Drosophila genetics at Prof Tatsushi Igaki's laboratory, whose expertise is in cell competition.

Mr Zaddam's research in France focused on basic cellular processes; in the Igaki lab, he applied this to Drosophila . In addition to performing experiments, he regularly attended lab meetings and frequently discussed his project with Prof Igaki and other students, demonstrating his profound knowledge of his research topic on those occasions. A talented young scientist, Mr Zaddam quickly mastered the new techniques he learned in the Igaki lab.

Mr Zaddam also built further networks with GSB students and faculty at the 14th annual International Student Seminar, which was organized by students and early-career researchers at GSB, the Institute for Virus Research, and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science.

Finally, on 24 March, Mr Zaddam received a special internship completion certificate at the GSB graduation ceremony.

He left for Montpellier after viewing Kyoto's celebrated cherry trees just as they began to blossom.

Mr Zaddam in lab work

Working on an experiment

Receiving the certificate of completion