My beginning in the subject was very simple; I thought chemistry was the perfect middle ground between everything. Working in Bovonsombat’s lab toward the synthesis of marine sponge’s natural product in my early days at MUIC taught me the fundamentals. However, I was also obsessed with the idea of engineering something new and the best approach to go about it. This led me down the journey from animal research –> genetic engineering –> molecular biology –> and protein engineering. I eventually joined Prof. David Leigh after realizing that biology is just one way life brings about functionalities from scratch. My master’s research focused on utilizing the physical concepts of ratchet mechanism and kinetic asymmetry to design the first chemically driven intrinsic directional rotary molecular motor.

Following my work in the Leigh group, I plan to delve deeper into molecular mechanisms, drawn to the most complicated machine there is in full circle, Life. The emergence of life fascinates me in many ways; it encompasses yet to discover principles and the synergy of the known ones in unexpected non-linear dynamics. My ambition is to collaborate with DarChem as a platform to finally connect everything and to probe the very question of complexity.