Profile

I grew up in the South West of England in a tiny seaside town, as the only Chinese girl in my primary school. Through secondary school, I loved creating in design and technology, and learning about computers and psychology. When I grew up, I felt like I had to choose between all these things. But now I am working, I get to do all of these things by using computers to study genetics and mental health and using my creativity to think of new ideas and ways of showing off my research! 👩🏻‍🔬

There are lots of different reasons why someone might have a mental illness. This is why I use lots of different ways to try and study it. I use computers and coding to look at people’s genetics. Our genetics are the codes that tell our bodies what to be and how to work. If we compare the genetics of people with and without mental illness, I hope we can find out what parts of our genetics might lead to mental illness.

I also work with countries such as India, Malawi and Pakistan to find out how mental illness is different or the same between countries. We do this by talking to people who have had mental illness about what happened to them. We also talk to the doctors and nurses that work with these people. By listening to what they say, we can find out more about how mental illness works around the world.

At the moment, I do all of my work from home. This means I am very lucky because I can get out of bed late! I wake up about 8:30am and have a cup of tea with my breakfast and check my emails. Then I spend the morning working on my research because my brain is most awake in the morning! I might do some coding or write something. Then in the afternoon, after lunch (when my brain is more sleepy), I will do paperwork or reading. Sometimes I have meetings with my team during the day too. After work, I like to relax by doing some reading, playing video games or painting.