Faculty of Science at University of British Columbia

How small pills make patients feel more comfortable or how surgical operations cure diseases has been fascination to me ever since my childhood when I always wanted to look for answers to mysteries of life. This curiosity motivated me to pursue my education in the Faculty of Science at University of British Columbia. However, it was not until my sophomore year I finally realized how immense the biology field was, as it could join together with almost every field of study to form a new subject such as biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, biostatistics or biotechnology. Among different sub-categories of biology, I chose biochemistry as my major because it could provide me with deeper understanding of compositions, functions and mechanisms of life, and being in top percentage of my classes allowed me to be accepted by the Department of Biochemistry in the third year. It was when I started to seize every opportunity to learn and develop my skills in biochemical research.

During my undergraduate studies, I was exposed to many courses like biochemistry, microbiology, molecular cell biology, genetics, biophysics and enzymology, which allowed me to develop better understanding of biochemistry. I also underwent the basic training in laboratory techniques, which provided me with a firm foundation and took me a step closer to real-life researches. In my senior year, I worked in Dr. Reinhard Jetter's lab. My duties there included extraction of chemical compounds on Arabidopsis thalianaand and compounds analysis via Liquid Chromatography. I also learned how to write scientific reports and give a formal project presentation. From Dr. Jetter's lab, I not only applied what I had learned in research, but also understood the importance of accuracy and carefulness and in experimental manipulation.

In order to gain further insight in biochemistry research, I have been working in Dr. Ming-Daw Tsai's lab at Genomic Research Centre in Academia Sinica after graduation. Here I have been involved in several projects, namely, genetic regulations of Klebsiella pneumoniae in collaboration with Dr. Tsung-Lin Li, structures of Polymerase X solved with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, NMR under supervision of Dr. Mei-I Su, purification of full-length α-subunits of human AMPK for enzyme activity assays and phosphorylation of FHA domains in kinases Rad53 and Dun1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiaeiae. From these projects, I have learned to operate delicate techniques and advanced facilities such as isotope labelled protein purifications, Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography and NMR. Besides, because of the abundant resources in Academia Sinica, I have also participated in some of the lectures and equipment training courses. As a result, I have widened and deepened my ability in biochemical research.

With the knowledge learned from undergraduate study and the skills obtained in both laboratories,