Graduate Students

Mikel received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 2015 from De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines. There he worked under Dr. Gladys Completo on the synthesis of probes for the specificity of UDP-galactofuranosyltransferase 2 (GlfT2) involved in the galactan biosynthesis. He then worked as a research assistant in the lab of Dr. Completo in the University of the Philippines-Los Baños. He joined Dr. Lowary’s group in 2017 as a Ph.D. and his research work focuses on the synthesis of highly immunogenic oligosaccharide fragment from glycoprotein gp72 from Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite causing Chagas disease.
Mikel Jason Allas
Graduate Student
Richard recieved his B.Sc. (Honors) in 2014 from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. There he worked on the isolation and characterization of natural products from marine and terrestrial enviroments. In 2015, Richard joined Dr. Todd Lowary’s group as a Ph.D. student. Project: Synthesis of complex oligosaccharides for use in tuberculosis enzyme assays.
Richard Brunton
Graduate Student
Cheng Kai received his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2020 from Newcastle University, UK. He then undertook an M.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Manchester, UK. Following his graduation, he joined Professor Lowary’s group as a Ph.D. student through the TIGP-SCST program in 2022
Cheng Kai (James) Cheng
Graduate Student
Min-Yu Chiang received his B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2021 at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. He worked under Dr. Ching-Ching Yu’s group in 2019 and his work focuses on the enzymatic synthesis of tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen: Fucosyl type-I hexasaccharide (Leb-Lea-Lac) and its derivatives. Subsequently, He joined Dr. Lowary’s group in 2021 as a M.Sc. and his research work focuses on the chemoenzymatic synthesis of asymmetrically-substituted trehalose.
Min-Yu Chiang
Graduate Student
Nam received his B.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Vietnam National University, Hanoi in 2019. There he worked on isolation and characterization of natural products on a plant belong to the daisy family named Eupatorium japonicum Thunb. In 2019, he spent 5 months in Dr. Lowary’s group as a spring intern. One year later, he joined Dr. Lowary’s group as a Ph.D. student and currently working on synthesizing a small molecular for degrading mammalian cytosolic protein Neu2
Ha Nam Duong
Graduate Student
Dong-Kyun obtained his B.Sc. in Life Science in 2022 at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan. There he worked on effects of algae-bacteria symbiosis on bioenergy production. He joined Dr. Lowary's group as an M.Sc. student in the same year, currently working on mycobacteriophage arabinanase identification using dye-labeled arabinan enzyme assay.
Dong-Kyun (David) Han
Graduate Student
Chih-Lan (Tracy) Lin received her B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2015 at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. She received her M.Sc. degree in Chemistry in 2017 from National Tsing Hua University under the supervision of Prof. Chun-Cheng Lin. She then worked as a Research Assistant from 2017-2018 under the supervision of Prof. Chun-Cheng Lin. She joined Dr. Lowary's group as a Ph.D. student in 2018.
Chih-Lan Lin
Graduate Student
Li-An received her bachelor’s degree in the Department of Medical Laboratory and Biotechnology in 2020 from Chung Shan Medical University. She joined Dr. Lowary’s group as an M.Sc. student in 2021. In the lab, she is currently working on phage program for diagnostics and treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Li-An Tsai
Graduate Student
Sheng received his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2017 from the National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. After military duty, he worked as a research assistant under professor Jiun-Jie Shie from Academia Sinica for two years. Then in 2019, he applied TIGP and worked as a Ph.D. student in the same lab till 2021. In 2021, he joined Dr. Lowary’s group as a Ph.D. student, and he is currently working on the improvement of the synthetic pathway of the 3,6-dideoxy sugars.