How did you hear about King’s? And how did you decide on your course?
I heard about King’s through a family friend who did his degree there. I also knew King’s had a great reputation in the UK – and also in China. I was drawn to London with its iconic landmarks like Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. If you want to do your degree in the UK, London is the place to be.
I was initially looking for courses in bioinformatics. But then I started looking into smaller areas like genetics. This is when I found out about the study of microbiome and the area seemed like a good fit for me. It’s a popular area in research and there are lots of chances to publish papers.
Can you explain what studying microbiome involves?
Microbiome is the study of bacteria and fungi in your skin and gut. As researchers, we’re looking at what happens when there’s an imbalance and how it may cause disease. On the course, we looked at microbiology and microbial diversity, then we studied next generation gene sequence technology and how to implement this in microbiome research. We also looked at how to use MATLAB and carry out analysis.
How did you learn on the course?
We had seminars and lectures given by King’s academics on their different areas of research and expertise, and we also had sessions with visiting lecturers from Imperial and UCL, and from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. For seminars, our lecturers would explain how to carry out analysis. But we would also get help from PhD students. I really liked this about the teaching as the PhD students were closer to our level and knew which parts we might struggle with as they’d recently finished their studies.
What skills did the course help you develop?
By taking this course, I equipped myself with programming skills (both R and python) in the bioinformatics field, especially in processing microbiome data. The Knowledge about Python Programming module helped me apply deep learning in microbiome data analysis and R for statistical analysis of microbiome big data.
Did you carry out your own research?
We spent the first part of the course learning then we completed our own research project. I’m started to look at how to use AI to support bacterial identification in microbiome. The current challenge in this field is quantifying microbiome compositions, especially for bacteria that are not culturable.
And now you’re continuing this research?
I’m now a PhD student at our lab. My research is still looking at a deep learning approach for bacteria taxonomic profiling. So far, this has been a great experience. King’s have the high-performance computers I need to carry out my research. Carrying out analysis might normally take a few hours, but on these computers, you can carry out work in minutes. My research is helping build a tool which will help facilitate more research.
How have King’s supported you during this time?
My postgraduate study gave me all the skills I need to carry out my PhD research. But the really amazing thing here is the people. The staff encourage you to explore different areas. I never thought I would be exploring the potential of AI in microbiome research. When I was trying to decide on my project, we discussed the problem around bacterial classification. My supervisor said it would be exciting if I could try to use AI to solve this problem.
Why have you chosen academia as a career path?
I’ve been keen to do research since my undergraduate studies. Some of my family members are researchers or teach students. When I talk with them, I can tell that they really enjoy what they do.
Looking to the future, I’m not sure whether I’ll stay in academia. For now, it’s a great experience and helping me understand what I want to do next. I see myself working in the area of disease and helping to improve health. I want to look into other areas including the influence of microbiome on Parkinson’s and IBD. If we can solve some of these challenges with microbiome research that would be incredible.
Finally, what advice would you give to someone who is considering studying at King’s?
Studying at King's would be a wonderful decision. Because you choose the best city in the UK and the most diverse and inclusive cultural atmosphere at the same time. I believe you will have a wonderful study experience and an amazing start to your success story.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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