Postdoctoral Fellows

After finishing my Doctoral Research at Prof. Anup Kumar Misra Lab, (Bose Institute, Kolkata, India) I moved to Prof. Clay S. Bennett Lab (Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA) as a Post-Doctoral Research fellow and gained lot of experience about reagent controlled deoxy sugar glycosylation. Now here, I am to explore myself more about oligosaccharide synthesis of Streptococcus suis serotype 2 CPS and its application as glycoconjugate.

Dr. Pei-Jhen Li received her B.Sc. from National Chiayi University in 2013 and obtained her Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Chun- Cheng Lin at National Tsing Hua University in 2019. Her Ph.D. research focused on the carbohydrate probes of lectins modification and receptor labeling studies of cell membranes. She joined Dr. Lowary’s group as a postdoctoral fellow in 2019. Her research focused on the synthesis of capsular polysaccharide (CPS)-based vaccines against Streptococcus suis serotype 2.

Sicheng received his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2014 from St. Francis Xaiver University. Under the supervision of Dr. Truis Smith-Palmer, he worked on the study of biofilm initiation using Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy in flow cell. He later joined Dr. Todd Lowary’s group in 2014 as a Master student. His research will focus on the chemical synthesis of chiral phosphoramidates.

Chun-Jui (Anthony) Chu received his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2011 at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. After a year of research under Dr. Cheng-Chung Wang’s supervision in Academia Sinica, Taiwan, he joined Dr. Lowary’s group as a Ph.D. student in 2013. His current research involves the synthesis of caryophyllose, an unusual monosaccharide in a component of LOS-III produced by Mycobacterium marinum.

Dr. Mohammad Tarique Anwar obtained his Master’s in Medicinal chemistry from NIPER-Kolkata (India) in 2013. Later, he joined PhD in Dr. Chun-Cheng Lin’s group at National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan). His PhD research focused on the development of an efficient route for chemoenzymatic synthesis of complex type N-glycans and their mimics. In 2019, he joined Dr. Lowary’s group as a postdoctoral fellow. His research is focused on chemoenzymatic synthesis of extended O-Polysaccharide found in Klebsiella pneumoniae O2a.

Teddy grew up in Lagos Nigeria. He obtained his Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) and MSc degrees from the University of Lagos where he studied Pharmacy and then Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry. In 2015, he began doctoral studies under the direction of Prof. Biao Yu at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), China. The highlight of his PhD research is the engagement of competitive gold (I) catalyst loadings (≤ 0.5 mol%) as a practical alternative to the conventional ≥ 10 mol% loadings of traditional promoters used in glycosylation. This concept was further employed in the synthesis of Polyphyllin D and congeners in a “pot-economy” approach. In 2019, he joined Prof Lowary’s group as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC), Academia Sinica. His current research focuses on the synthesis of functionalized 5-methylthio-α-xylofuranoside (α-MTX) epitopes applicable as diagnostic probes for Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical samples. Outside the lab, he enjoys spending time with family, friends and seeing movies.

Joemark received his B. S. (Biology) and M. S. in Marine Science (Major in Marine Biotechnology) at the University of the Philippines in 2010 and 2016, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. at Hokkaido University, Japan under the supervision of Dr. Takao Ojima and Dr. Akira Inoue. His Ph.D. research was targeted on the overexpression and characterization of enzymes from Hydrogenophaga sp. UMI-18 that depolymerize alginate, a polysaccharide from brown seaweeds. He joined the Lowary Lab in August 2020 as a postdoctoral fellow. His research is primarily focused on the structural and functional characterization of GlfT2, a galactosyltransferase that is responsible for the polymerization of arabinogalactan of the mycolylarabinogalactan-peptidoglycan complex, an essential component of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall. Aside from his research interests, he is also interested in Art Studies, Sociology, Science Communication, and History.

Ryan obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from The Ohio State University in 2011, and he completed his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Todd Lowary at the University of Alberta in 2018. His Ph.D. project focused on the preparation of polyprenol pyrophosphate-based probes of lipopolysaccharide O-antigen biosynthesis from Klebsiella pneumoniae. He then joined the University of British Columbia as a post-doctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Professor Stephen Withers, where he developed novel reagents and inhibitors for a-amylases. In 2020, he returned to Professor Lowary’s lab at the University of Alberta, and his current research focuses on the synthesis of capsular polysaccharide (CPS) glycoconjugates found in Streptococcus suis.

Dr. Tzu-Ting Kao obtained her B.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from National Taiwan Normal University and received her Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Kak-Shan Shia with Dr. Chun-Cheng Lin at National Tsing Hua University as a co-advisor in 2016. Her Ph.D. research focused on the development of an efficient radical tandem cyclization and applied the strategy to synthesize three natural products: retrojusticidin B, justicidin E and helioxanth. In 2017, she joined Dr. Lowary’s group as a postdoctoral fellow. Her research focused on the synthesis of acceptor substrates for an enzyme GlfT2, which is involved in arabinogalactan biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.