Sakura Science Program (SSP) was implemented at Hokkaido University from January 27 to February 5, 2025. Ten students and two assistant professors from Chemistry, Biotechnology, and Biomedical Engineering backgrounds from three different institute/university in India namely Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Science and Technology University (JSSTU), University of Mysore (UOM) and Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) participated in this program. To ensure the program benefited students of all branches, interdisciplinary laboratory trainings were planned for each day from the areas of life science, food science, environmental science, chemistry, and Medical AI.

[January 27, 2025]

On the late evening, 9 participants accompanied by an assistant professor arrived at the new Chitose airport from Bangalore, India and they were taken to the hotel in Sapporo city.

[January 28, 2025]

On this day one more student and a teacher from UOM were joined. All the 12 members were taken to the department of health science and official protocols to initiate the program were completed in the afternoon. All the participants are visited the Hokkaido University campus and later a networking event between Japanese students and invitees was held along with a welcome dinner.

[January 29, 2025]

In the morning SSP members participated in the training program on smart molecules held at Professor TAMAOKI Laboratory in the Research Institute for Electronic Science (RIES). The training was performed by Dr. Amrutha, assistant professor of the laboratory. In the afternoon they visited two laboratories Nikon Imaging Center in RIES followed by Professor SUGIMORI Lab in Faculty of Health Science. At the imaging center students were learned about the advanced imaging techniques and their applications in life science research. Later at Prof. SUGIMORI laboratory they have learned about Medical AI technology and its applications in medical diagnosis.

[January 30, 2025]

In the morning the SSP members visited the Hokkaido Wine Center on campus and Prof. SONE Teruo, the director of the center, received them and guided various aspects of wine-making technologies. Students had a chance to interact with him and asked several questions about wine education and research. Further, they had laboratory training about yeast culture, glucose and ethanol measurements at Prof. SONE laboratory. In the noon, the students visited the Laboratory for Advanced Lipid Analysis (LALA), and Dr. Gowda hosted them. Students learned about the application of mass spectrometric technologies in clinical and food analysis. Students also had hand-on experience in using the mass spectrophotometer to characterize the authentic lipid standards.

[January 31, 2025]

In the morning the SSP members visited Prof. NORO Lab in the Graduate School of Environmental Sciences volunteered by Dr. Shivakumar (postdoctoral researcher) about material chemistry. Students had a hand-on training on how to use the material characterization instruments. In the afternoon, they visited the Prof. KAWAGUCHI laboratory at the Graduate School of Environmental Sciences. Prof. KAWAGUCHI himself given the lecture about sensors and their applications in food sciences. He introduced the concept about e-NOSE and also given hands on training to the SSP members using sensors for various fruit juices to test their volatile compounds.

[February 01, 2025]

On this day of the program, the SSP members were taken to Otaru aquarium and Nikka Whiskey Yoichi Distillery. The students were learned about the marine animal research and their maintenance at the aquarium followed by explored the whiskey making technology in Yoichi. They have tasted the traditionally made whisky and soft drinks at Nikka Whiskey Museum.

[February 02, 2025]

On this day they visited the Sapporo Science Center in Shin Sapporo city. The students learned about astrophysics and experienced the science learning education technologies that are implemented in the center. Further, in the afternoon they have visited Sapporo Beer Museum and learned about the beer making technology and history.

[February 03, 2025]

In the morning, SSP members attended lectures by Dr. Tsuki from Sapporo University of Health Sciences, and Dr. Takahashi from Health Sciences University of Hokkaido. The lectures were held at the Faculty of Health Science. Participants learned about seaweed carotenoids and their significance in obesity, lipoproteins and their importance in clinical chemistry. In the afternoon, they went to the Faculty of Advanced Life Sciences and visited Prof. MONDE Kenji lab where they learned about the chiral analysis technologies such as Vibrational Circular Dichroism. Both prof. MONDE and Prof. TANIGUCHI conducted the hands-on training on this latest technology and its applications in chemistry. Then the participated visited Prof. HINOU Hiroshi lab. In his lab they learned about glycoblotting technologies and their applications in life science research.

[February 04, 2025]

On this day the Certificate Award Ceremony was held in the morning. Dr. Yashawant, Counsellor S & T Embassy of India, inaugurated the ceremony and gave the welcome address by participating online. Then several other professors from Hokkaido University, JSSTU, UOM and CFTRI were also participated. Namely, Prof. YANO Rika, Dean, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University; Prof. Shu-Ping Hui, Director of LALA, Faculty of Health Science, Hokkaido University; Prof. Santosh Kumar, Vice Chancellor, JSSTU, India; Prof. Sridevi Annapurna Singh, Director, CFTRI, India. It was a special advantage that Mr. NISHIKAWA Yuji, Advisor, Sakura Science Program, joined the program online and taught us the significance of SSP for the mutual benefits of India and Japan relationships. Later in the evening they participants visited the Hokkaido University Museum.

Overall, it was a very packed program, and students enjoyed it by actively participating in questions and discussions. In the meantime, they enjoyed the Hokkaido snow for the first time and delicious foods such as ramen. All of them happily departed to India on February 5, 2024 early in the morning. We are looking forward to hosting many more students across the globe to introduce unique technologies at Hokkaido University.