Phoebe grew up in Hsinchu, Taiwan, a city where tradition meets technology, sparking her curiosity early on to carve out her own path. She first discovered her passion for biology during her undergraduate thesis with Gwo-Jen Liaw at National Yang-Ming University. After graduation, she joined Jun-Yi Leu’s lab at Academia Sinica as a master’s student and then a technician. There, her work on genetic buffering ignited her long-term interest in evolution.

She pursued her Ph.D. with Andrew Murray at Harvard University, where she combined genetics, cell biology, and experimental evolution to explore how a single protein evolves to perform distinct roles in mitosis and meiosis—two fundamental but divergent cellular processes.

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” For Phoebe, that statement extends further: nothing in evolution makes sense without considering interspecies interactions. During her postdoctoral training with Harmit Malik at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and Ajai Dandekar at the University of Washington, she investigated how fungi and bacteria compete—and how such microbial battles shape evolutionary outcomes. She discovered that competition for a vital cation, Mg2+, is a novel axis of competition between fungi and Gram-negative bacteria. Such competition profoundly alters antibiotic resistance evolution in bacteria, providing an evolution-guided approach to treat drug resistance more effectively.

Phoebe returns to Academia Sinica in 2025 to launch her independent research group. She’s excited to uncover the hidden rules of microbial "frienemies" and how these microscopic relationships ripple into the larger biological world.

Phoebe is committed to mentoring scientists from all backgrounds and to fostering a collaborative, inclusive research environment. Her lab is a supportive space where junior scientists are encouraged to grow, take intellectual challenges, and drive their own futures.

Outside of the lab, Phoebe is drawn to traditional markets in Taiwan and enjoys making decent meals.  She finds her happiness when exploring nature and traveling with her family.

Microbes—fungi, bacteria, and phages—rarely live in isolation. They constantly interact, cooperating or competing in diverse niches, like soil or within plant and animal hosts. Microbial competition is especially intense in polymicrobial infections, where multiple microbes co-colonize the same host and must contend with nutrient limitation and host immune responses.

How these microbial battles unfold and how they drive microbial evolution remain poorly understood. At the lab of PIE, we study polymicrobial interactions using fungi and bacteria that cause infectious diseases in plants or humans. We are interested in understanding the mechanisms and consequences of polymicrobial competition and how these interactions shape host-microbe dynamics.

Using bottom-up approaches — including functional genomics and experimental evolution —  we study how bacterial pathogens, like Pseudomonas aeruginosa (in humans) and Pseudomonas syringae (in plants), engage with fungal and phage rivals, in both in vitro and in vivo models. Through these models, we aim to uncover fundamental principles of microbial competition and adaptation to complex biotic pressures. Our long-term goal is to harness this knowledge to engineer microbial communities or develop effective antimicrobial strategies for medical and agricultural purposes.