Education
2021-2025: PhD in Biology, Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, UK.
Supervised by Prof. Stephen Bentley, Dr. John Lees and Prof. Henrik Salje
Quantifying the invasiveness and spread of pneumococcus using genomic data.
My main PhD work was building mathematical models and utilising whole genome sequenceing data to understand the disease progression and transmission dynamics of pneumococcal diseases. I developed methods that make use of the growing availability of both genomic and spatial data.
2018-2019: Master’s degree – Genome Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
Supervised by Dr. Wen-Ya Ko
Identifying genomic signatures of natural selection and the implications in disease susceptibility of the Taiwanese people
My main Master work was investigating the signatures of natural selection in human genomes using statistical tests to explore the rates of substitutions and unique haplotype structures.
Research experience
2025-Now: Research Associate, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London, UK
Funded by Gates Foundation. Dr. Nicholas Croucher's group
2021-2025: PhD student, Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, UK
Funded by Wellcome Sanger Institute 4-year PhD Programme. Supervised by Prof. Stephen Bentley.
2020-2021: Research assistant, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Working with Prof. Chung-Yen Lin.
- Establish algorithm of de novo Human genome assembly utilising both 10X genomic and Illumina data
- Designing SNP array platform for aquatic species in Taiwan on the purpose of selective and sustainable breeding
2017-2018: Research intern, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
Supervised by Prof. Wen-Ya Ko
Molecular evolution of the S-crystallin gene family in squids
Awards & Honor
- 2025 Invited Webinar, EMBL-EBI, UK
- 2025 Invited talk, Cambridge Infectious Disease, UK
- 2024 Invited talk, National Health Research Institute, Taiwan
- 2024 Conference talk, International Society of Pneumonia and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD-13) conference
- 2024 President of the Cambridge Taiwanese Society
- 2023 Travel Award, Asian Pneumococcal Symposium (APS-4)
- 2022 Taiwan Ministry of Education schloarship
- 2021 Wellcome Sanger Institute PhD scholarship
- 2018 Taiwan BioGenome program scholarship, Academia Sinica grant 23-23
- 2016 Academia Achievement Award, National Yang Ming University
- 2015 Golden Medal, iGEM competition
Brief Introduction
Raymond is a Research Associate at Imperial College London in Dr. Nicholas Croucher's group. He is currently working on understanding the evolutiona and invasiveness of global group B Streptococcus populations. He did his PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge in Prof. Stephen Bentley’s group and working closely with Prof. Henrik Salje in the University of Cambridge and Dr. John Lees at the European Bioinformatic Institute. He is focusing on quantifying the invasiveness of bacteria with different genetic backgrounds and host environments by using the whole genome sequence data among multiple populations. He is also interested in studying various modes of evolution including migration and selection in pathogenic bacteria and how they shape different population structures.