DrMichael Widjaja

Michael's science research interests lie in microbiology and teaching. He is now looking into breaking into the education research space and wants to investigate how to maximise student engagement both inside the classroom and online.

Michael’s PhD characterized a bacterium called Mycoplasma pneumoniae and looked at how it interacts with the human host on the protein level. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a tiny "simple" bacterium that causes pneumonia in humans. He investigated which proteins (think of them as tools) does this pathogen use to infect the human epithelium and cause disease.