I was born in China and immigrated to Canada with my family when I was 13. I spent my formative years studying and working in North America (Canada and the United States) prior to joining Roche Shanghai in early 2020.
What is your current role and expertise area?
I am a scientist in Pharmaceutical Sciences, which is a highly interdisciplinary department focused on understanding drug disposition and safety, and bridging discovery research and clinical development.
Any exciting projects you are working on?
An exciting initiative I am currently working on is to integrate human model systems (e.g., organoids and microphysiological systems) to the drug discovery pipeline at China Innovation Center of Roche, CICoR. We know that oftentimes animals don’t predict human responses and traditional 2D human cell lines are too simplistic to capture complex tissue biology and patient heterogeneity. The goal is to leverage cutting-edge cellular and bioengineering approaches to model human biology ex vivo. By combining innovative experimental tools and modeling & simulations, we hope to better predict human responses in the clinic and reduce animal use in drug discovery and development.
What do you like about working for Roche? What do you love about your colleagues and your team?
At CICoR, we have a very collegial working environment. There are many opportunities for scientific and career development. I really enjoy working and interacting with scientists from diverse backgrounds and seeing how each person approaches the same problem from their unique perspectives and expertise. Despite our differences, we are all committed to bringing the best science to the projects and as a team we complement each other.
