Beginning in 2015, before I became a PhD student I was inspired to research the native traditional medicinal plants of my home area, from working and hiking in the parks for seven years and observing the plants through the seasons. Doing basic microbiology assays on these plants, I noticed an interesting strong activity against mycobacteria, the genus of bacteria that causes tuberculosis. As an analytical chemist working in drug discovery in industry, I decided I wanted to investigate this further and that began my journey as a doctoral researcher in natural products chemistry at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, where I continue to research this plant.
