Wei Li Thong received her B.Sc. Hons. in Industrial Chemistry from the Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia (2008). She was awarded the Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship to do her M.Sc (2011-2013) and Ph.D (2013-2016) studies at The University of Tokyo. Under the supervision of Associate Professor Tomohisa Kuzuyama, her research in Japan was on the structural elucidation and biosynthesis of novel polyketides discovered via activation of cryptic gene clusters in Streptomyces.
She joined the Micklefield’s group in 2017 to focus on designing and engineering of non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) and biosynthetic pathways for the total biosynthesis of semi-synthetic antibiotics.