• Worked on the development of a novel covalent template strategy to obtain a variety of peptide-based rotaxanes with Dr. Tian Chong, with the hope of enabling further studies on the pharmacologically-relevant properties of such molecules.• Carried out a plethora of laboratory techniques and reactions, such as esterification, amidation, nitration, bromination, protection and deprotection of functional groups, as well as the purification and analysis of products through column chromatography, mass spectrometry, and NMR.

• Worked on a project involving the encapsulation and culturing of bacteria (particularly E. coli and a variety of strains of Streptomyces) in a solid hydrogel matrix placed in liquid media, under the tutelage of Dr. Wong Fong Tian. • Investigated the application of such a procedure to efficiently coculture two distinct strains of bacteria, which may assist in the discovery and production of certain natural products. • Gained exposure to a greater variety of techniques in cell biology, such as gel-forming reactions, plasmid mini-prep, PCR, chemically competent cell preparation, and particularly the handling of Streptomyces cultures.

• Investigated the substrate scope of radical SAM enzymes, which catalyze the cyclization of linear peptides, in an effort to build a library of new cyclic peptides with antibiotic activity, as part of the research group of Assistant Professor Brandon Morinaka.• Learned a variety of biochemical and analytical lab techniques, such as bacterial transformation and culturing, cell stock and electrocompetent cell preparation, solid-phase extraction, LCMS operation, etc.

• Operated the CEM Liberty Blue peptide synthesizer to perform solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) to assist the research group of Professor Christina Chai.• Learned several synthetic chemistry techniques, particularly those pertaining to SPPS, such as resin preloading, Fmoc deprotection, and quantification via UV absorbance.