Zihao graduated from Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 2020 with a Master's degree in food safety. Since coming to Ireland in 2021, he has worked under the supervision of Professor Michael Prentice and Professor Mark Tangney. Outside the lab, Zihao enjoys cycling, traveling, and tennis.

Project

Zihao’s research is on the application of bacterial microcompartment engineering to deliver therapeutic molecules to tumour cells. Bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) are small protein enclosures containing enzymes that form inside many bacteria. They can be re-purposed to carry many different proteins and peptides. Zihao first became interested in these intriguing structures during his MSc.