My current research at University of Western Australia is focused on the discovery and ecological functions of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPPs) from Australian fungi. Before moving to University of Western Australia in 2020, I took postdoctoral positions at Scripps Institution of Oceanography/University of California San Diego, The Rockefeller University, and University of South Carolina, where I discovered novel, biologically active peptides (e.g. cadasides, salinipeptins, myxomapeptins) from marine bacteria, soil metagenomes, and human tumor-associated bacteria using integrated (meta)genomics, synthetic biology, and chemical approaches. During 2008-2016, I was professionally trained in the field of natural products chemistry and microbiology during my postgraduate study in Chinese Academy of Sciences and The University of Queensland, where my projects directed at the identification and diversification of marine fungal natural products for the treatment of infections and cancers.

My expertise includes purification and structure characterization of complex natural products, isolation and cultivation of microbes, bioinformatic analysis and heterologous expression of microbial biosynthetic gene clusters as well as bioassay screenings. Apart from natural products-based drug discovery, my research has also expanded to biosynthesis of microbial natural products, engineering of microbial biosynthetic pathways, and antibiotic mechanism of action study.