On a sunny morning in October 2023, I started my long-cherished dream of pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience. I vividly remember that I was experiencing a mix of two key human emotions: excitement and fear. The excitement came naturally as I took this important step in my life, while my own expectations produced a sense of fear. Yet, as wise people often say, “combining fear with excitement is the best strategy to achieve something or defend against your worst enemy.” Embracing this wisdom, I chose to be mindful of this resurgence of mixed emotions, letting it drive my motivation rather than hinder it.
Actually, the journey to this moment – my PhD – began a few months earlier. In the middle of July, after finishing my master’s degree in Paris, I returned to my home country to reconnect with my roots, and longing nostalgia. I spent valuable time with my parents and close friends, and most importantly, I met the love of my life for the first time — a person who is now my proud wife. Those two months of complete rest allowed me to recharge, both mentally and emotionally, giving me the energy I needed for the road ahead.
By late August, I was back in Paris, with three weeks on my hands before the PhD program began. Determined to make the most of this time, I invested my time in reading (my most favourite vocation). During this time, I read mostly Russian novels, and found myself mesmerised by the writings of Dostoyevsky and Turgenev. Alongside reading, I wrote a few blogs on higher education, led an online IELTS course, and completed a Fall school on Computational Neuroscience (EITN) that took place in Paris. Overall, these experiences left me feeling blessed and optimistic as I prepared to begin my PhD.
Starting my PhD in the same lab where I completed my master’s internship gave me an advantage. As a result, I wasn’t nervous when I arrived at the lab on my first day. I met my supervisor and other lab mates, many of whom I already knew, and they welcomed me warmly. As the day ended and I packed my bag to head home, I realised that, in terms of daily routine, a PhD is quite similar to a master’s internship. However, as time went on, later I found out that the real difference lies in the level of responsibility and the ability to handle pressure within tight deadlines.
In addition, doing a PhD means gaining skills in collaboration, learning to openly discuss the challenges you’re facing, and confidently presenting your research to experts. It’s about how you perceive your data and the confidence you build around it. The journey involves repeating both painful and straightforward experiments, refining complex experimental plans, and enduring sleepless nights to tackle seemingly insurmountable tasks. Yet, there are also long weekends where the mind can wander without any specific task in sight. Overall, a PhD requires patience, keen observation, and the ability to respond proactively each day. Ultimately, it is about taking consistent action (it does not matter how small the action is), no matter the challenges.
If I want to Reflect on my first year of PhD, I can easily divide it into three stages.
The first quarter was a period of juggling multiple tasks — exploring new ideas, conducting fresh experiments, and finishing projects that I had started during my master’s internship or inherited from graduate students before me. During this time, I conducted an experiment that combined genetics, behavior, and immunochemistry. For almost two years, our lab had struggled with a particular issue, trying various methods without obtaining the clear results we were hoping for. To address this, during the summer (between the end of my master’s internship and the start of my PhD), our lab manager laid the groundwork to resolve this persistent problem by creating a complex genetic line.
In simple terms, this genetic technique allowed us to generate individual animals with random and stochastic labeling of neurons. In a single animal, this technique could produce a mix of two neuron groups, display a specific proportion, or show only one of them separately. After setting up this genetic base, I proceeded with behavioral experiments involving the optogenetic activation of individual neurons. Optogenetics is a method that uses light to control cells within living tissue, typically neurons, which have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. Our experiment was demanding, requiring the examination of individual fly larvae, one by one.
Following the behavioral experiments, I dissected the larval brains to examine their anatomical profiles. Fortunately, we were able to observe the distinct roles of individual neurons underlying specific decisions or behaviors. It was one of those moments when everything aligned perfectly after a long, arduous experimental process. Looking back, this was one of the highlights of my first year as a PhD student. This successful experiment played a crucial role in guiding our decision to submit our paper to Nature Communications instead of eLife (Click here to read the paper from bioRxiv).
After completing this experiment, I became increasingly busy organizing the paper for submission. During this process, I learned many valuable skills: how to construct comprehensive figures, and how to organize results in a way that supports and rationalises arguments and interpretations. Until Christmas, I was fully immersed in this work, day in and day out, addressing the smallest details of each figure and preparing the source data as required by the journal. Finally, just a day before our institution closed for the Christmas vacation, I managed to complete and organise all the figures for the paper.
When the vacation began, I initially felt a sense of relief, freed from the routine pressures of work and study. I enjoyed the sunrise, leisurely mornings, and found happiness in cooking and taking long walks. However, since I hadn’t planned any travel, after a few days, I began to feel a sense of boredom, and the onset of winter seemed to bring a touch of light depression. To counter this, I started going out more regularly—whether during the day to catch some sun at the park or at night to enjoy the nightlife and lights of Paris. It helped immensely—the sun, the exercise, the books, and the company of friends with whom I could chat without any worries all played a part in lifting my spirits.
… to be continued.