I was introduced to computer programming at a very early age and was eager to apply it in building tools and solving real-world problems. During my undergraduate studies in bioinformatics, I learned that the genetic code is comprised of numerous patterns and features that govern all biological processes and how my programming skills can be used to recode these patterns.

During the third year of my undergraduate studies, I got an opportunity to work as an intern at the National Institute of Genetics, a research institute in Japan that has been home to several leading scientists in the field of Evolution. Here, I studied the basic concepts of evolutionary theory and learned to apply my skills for the analysis of Big Data. The interesting work that I did during my internship together with the stimulating environment of academic science that I experienced made me realize that I wanted to pursue scientific research as a career.

After obtaining my Phd in Evolutionary Genetics, during which I gained further experience in understanding the complexity of the biological system through the analysis of genomic and transcriptomic data, I decided to switch fields and apply myself in the study of human diseases.