Introducing new member of Bio2Q

We are pleased to welcome  Dr. Kaoru Leong as our Jr. PI at Bio1 core of Bio2Q.

The greeting from Dr. Leong is as follows:

“Hello, my name is Kaoru Leong and I am excited to be joining the Bio2Q team. After completing my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, I worked in both government (U.S. FDA) and industry (Novavax) and now I am happy to be back in academic research. My current research focuses on the impact of the gut microbiome on drug efficacy. The gut microbiome is often overlooked during the drug discovery process but encodes for 150-fold more genes than the human genome and holds enormous metabolic capacity. These bacterial enzymes can de-activate drugs and create metabolites that produce undesired side effects. Simultaneously, drugs can alter the composition and function of the gut microbiome. By elucidating the two-way interactions between gut bacteria and drugs, we hope to improve the efficacy and safety of existing drugs.

I am very much looking forward to collaborating with experts from various other fields in this new inter-disciplinary research center!”

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