From Student to Professor - Linna An

From Student to Professor - Linna An

From The Baker Lab Podcast by David Baker

August 1, 2025 · 54 min · Episode 9

About this episode

Linna An discusses her journey from chemistry student to computational biologist and the emotional aspects of science.

When is it time to walk away from a research project? For Linna, it happened after a year of frustrating experiments — when her PhD advisor helped her reframe what it means to do science well. In this episode, Linna traces her path from chemistry student to computational biologist. Now ready to mentor others, she will soon lead a research lab of her own as a new professor. We explore how machine learning is transforming what enzymes can do and get into the emotional side of science, the future of therapeutic enzymes, and what it really takes to build a supportive lab environment. You can check out her new lab here: https://lanalchemist.github.io // This podcast was produced at the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine by Ian Haydon, Roni Weissman, Enisha Sehgal, Nora McNamara-Bordewick, Riti Biswas, Joe Min, and Nathan Forest Greenwood. // Music by Kevin MacLeod.

People in this episode

Host: David Baker

Guest: Linna An

Topics covered

  • transition from student to professor
  • machine learning in science
  • mentorship in research
  • emotional aspects of science
  • therapeutic enzymes
  • supportive lab environments

Keywords

  • research projects
  • computational biology
  • mentorship
  • machine learning
  • enzymes
  • lab environment
  • PhD
  • science

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington School of Medicine

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