London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Educational/professional background

I was born in South Korea but I studied my undergraduate, BSc in Pre-med Biology, in the Philippines. I then completed a Master of Biotechnology in Australia. Currently, I am working as a senior researcher in a molecular diagnostics start-up in South Korea.

Research interests or career goals

During my undergraduate, I performed research on the prevalence of drug-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in Manila. When I was a graduate research student, I completed two research projects, molecular diagnostics on the bovine pathogen and kinetic analysis on antimicrobial-hydrolysing proteins. As I have experience in countries, laboratories and national institutes, I realised there are several gaps between each field/area that people are not aware of. For example, the perspective of a healthcare professional is particularly different from the view of a biotechnologist. My research goal is, as someone with experience in both biotechnology and public health, to minimise those gaps by implementing a biotechnological approach combined with a public health perspective.

Why I choose LSHTM

I chose LSHTM simply because LSHTM is the institute which will provide the opportunity to build the career I want and those modules will strengthen my foundation and knowledge for me to take one step further.