Justice (Hsiu-Yi) Lu, PhD, a 2025 graduate of the PhD program in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, said that the diverse expertise around him in MGM during his time as a graduate student gave him the opportunity to expand beyond his training as a wet-lab scientist and develop computational exploration that became central to his research. “The collaborative environment and willingness of faculty and trainees to share knowledge made it easy to explore and tackle questions from new angles and pursue projects that would have been difficult within a single discipline,” he said.
Currently he leverages data science to solve complex biological questions as a machine learning engineer at Gutz Technologies, a biotechnology company that builds multi-omics AI for drug repositioning and experimental design.
Liu encourages current and future trainees to step outside of their comfort zones to develop skills outside their main area of expertise. “That's what grad school is for: trying and failing,” he said.