Haowei is a second-year DPhil student in Biochemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, co-supervised by Prof. Colin Kleanthous and Dr. Dominika Gruszka. His research interests lie in the molecular mechanisms of bacterial protein machineries. Haowei's DPhil project focuses on studying protein import across the Gram-negative bacterial cell envelope, including the import of protein antibiotics such as bacteriocins, to combat bacterial infections.
Originally from Guangzhou, China, Haowei embarked on an adventure at the age of 14, went to Auckland, New Zealand, as an international student by himself. After completing his GCSEs in Auckland, he joined the Biochemistry department at Oxford (University College) in 2019 to pursue his undergraduate degree. During his part II project, under the supervision of Prof. Ben Berks, he investigated the lipoprotein trafficking pathway in Flavobacterium, where he developed interests in protein machineries in Gram-negative bacteria. After finishing his undergraduate degree in 2023, Haowei decided to stay in the Biochemistry department to pursue further DPhil studies.
