Wenya Jian, B.S. Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Wenya was born in GuangZhou, China, and moved to North Carolina in high school. In 2022, she graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Chemistry (biochemistry track) with highest honors and distinction. Wenya conducted her undergraduate research under the mentorship of Dr. Leslie Hicks on mass spectrometry-based proteomics. She focused on the prediction, discovery and characterization of small open reading frame-encoded peptides in Enterococcus faecalis. Wenya is now decoding novel metabolic pathways and their biological functions at the host-microbe interface.