Qiu Yu (Judy) Huang is Chinese Canadian and grew up in between Beijing and various regions of Canada. Huang was set on law school until she took a biotechnology class her senior year of high school.

“I knew for sure that I wanted to be a research scientist and pursue graduate school when I spent a summer purifying a protein without success but was still interested in research afterward!” Huang said.

Huang earned her bachelor's degree in microbiology and immunology from McGill University, where she also did some graphic design work.

“The visual nature of graphic design led me to pursue a PhD in structural biology, which is an intrinsically visual field. Knowing my way around graphic design tools has proven to be extremely beneficial in my graduate school career for optimal figure design.”

Huang is a PhD candidate in the Program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology at UMass Chan Medical School, working in the lab of Celia A. Schiffer, PhD, the Arthur F. and Helen P. Koskinas Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology and chair and professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology.

“One of my criteria for graduate programs was that I wanted an excellent cryoEM core. I was super excited about the science at UMass Chan, but it was during my interviews that I realized this was the place,” said Huang.

Huang’s thesis project uses cryo-electron tomography, a process where biological samples are flash frozen, thinned and then imaged through an electron microscope, to study influenza viruses. Since influenza virions are pleomorphic, they can look drastically different, which makes quantification of structural diversity difficult. To combat this problem, Huang developed a deep learning-based pipeline to semi-automatically characterize influenza morphology, from size and shape to distribution and classification of surface glycoproteins.

Huang focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion as an executive board member of the Student Government Alliance. She is also one of the diversity and inclusion co-chairs for the Graduate Student Body Council. Upon graduation, she aspires to either pursue an academic postdoctoral fellowship to prepare for a career as a principal investigator, or to pivot to computational biology research at a technology company.