What is your favourite enzyme, and why?

Protein ligase. It hasn’t been found in nature, only engineered. Some natural cyclic peptides form, and some nonribosomal peptides exist- but these aren’t by protein ligases.

 

What is your favourite book?

I read mostly journal articles. And of course, Lehninger’s Principles of Biochemistry!

 

What is the most recent book you’ve read?

A book about Chlamydomonas because it refreshed my memory about my own postdoctoral training.

 

What is your favourite amino acid, and why?

Serine, because it’s the amino acid that’s our favourite for designing intein trans-splicing

 

What are some of your hobbies?

Outside lab, I like playing badminton- it’s my favourite sport!

 

What is your dream vacation?

I’m always excited for wherever I go on my next sabbatical leave!

 

What is the coolest project you’ve ever worked on?

You get so excited, and then you get to move to something else and get excited about that. I’m really enjoying my most recent project on spider silks.

 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in lab?

I’ve tried to use a fraction collector to purify proteins, and it’s stopped in the middle right before I got my protein.

Also, in early PCR attempts when we had to make our own oligonucleotide primers, it kept failing, and then we realized eventually we were using the wrong strand…

 

Do you have any advice or anything else you want to say?

If you’re thinking about research, be prepared to have surprises- take them as fun rather than a disappointment!