• Successfully designed SDS‐PAGE gel experiments along with western blot to illuminate the mechanism how a protein conjugated with GTP • Applied in-gel digestion for LC-MS samples, to pinpoint the modification site of a protein• Investigated an enzymatic reaction on in-vitro transcribed RNAs using 32P as a radioactive tracer

Research on liposomal drug delivery:• Established the platform to explore liposomal drug delivery against brain tumors, covering the methodologies to fabricate liposomes, to incorporate drugs, to purify liposomal drugs using SEC-HPLC and to analyze their compositions with a novel RP-HPLC method• Pharmacokinetic study of liposomal doxorubicin, employing novel reliable analytical methods based on RP-HPLC or a plate reader with fluorescence measurement, guiding a collaboration project with a pediatric brain tumor scientist and a thermal therapy specialist for an advanced cancer therapy• Already published in Current Neuropharmacology and Critical Reviews™ in Biomedical Engineering, and expecting another two

Studied how viral proteins assemble into capsids and interact with host components: • Laid the foundation for >3 research projects in Prof. Adam Zlotnick’s lab by developing the protocols for cell culture expression and the subsequent FPLC purification (with SEC, IEX and IMAC columns) of recombinant proteins including serine/threonine-protein kinase (SRPK), importin β (IMPβ), importin α (IMPα), Ross River virus (RRV) coat proteins, etc. • Studied the interaction of HBV to IMPβ through particularly-designed SEC-FPLC experiments, and consequently characterized the binding moiety, electrostatic nature and some other details at the molecular level, which illuminated how HBV entered cell nucleus and caused the chronic hepatitis, as was published on the high-impact journal of PLoS Pathogens• Employed IMAC-FPLC, centrifugation and SDS-PAGE in innovative approaches to characterize and quantify the interaction between hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the kinase SRPK, shed light on HBV’s life cycle and published on the high-impact journal of PLoS Pathogens• Created a DLS methodology to quantify viral capsid assembly, which illuminated the molecular mechanism how RRV, the cause for Ross River fever, was constructed, illustrated a new application of DLS for virology study, and led to a publication on the high-impact journal of ACS Nano • Frequent collaboration with virologists, analytical chemists and a cryo-EM expert by performing or proposing experiments, providing particular samples and suggesting data interpretation, which helped to effectively promote the novel technique of charge detection mass spectrometry (CDMS) and to visualize the nanoscale viral activities

Doctoral research on the novel hybrid system of gold nanoparticle-viral capsid and pure viral capsids: • Created the nano-system of viral capsids encapsulating gold nanoparticles, which supplied a good model for studying virus assembly, showed the direction how to package drugs into viral capsids for delivery, provided a potential agent for in-vivo imaging, and hence established a major research area in Prof. Bogdan Dragnea’s lab• Developed original methodologies involving fluorescence spectroscopy, electrophoresis, a customized laser setup and DLS to investigate viral capsid assembly, which illuminated details of the process at the molecular level, such as about the cooperativity• 6 publications in peer-reviewed journals including the high-impact Nano Letters and Journals of the American Chemical Society, with hundreds of citations

Bachelor thesis project: AFM study of polymer crystallization with confinement in two-dimensions