Gareth Tang

While taking general sciences at Langara, Gareth Tang transferred into bioinformatics after attending his first dry lab (a lab that requires computer data work) in General Biology 1. Tang says he got to see DNA in from a new perspective while conducting a “blast search.”

ARC struck Tang’s interest when he first attended Applied Research Day in 2019. Tang says, “I got to see all these different faculties that had their individual booths, and I was quite amazed at what they had to present. Rather than simply being from science, you could see people that were from business, people from the arts. There was even a 3D printer there.”

Tang began working with Dr. Prashant Kumar when the latter needed students for his work on novel antimicrobial compounds of cannabis. The research tested samples of cannabis against bacterial species to find out the lowest concentration needed to prevent bacteria from growing. Tang says if the research has promise and can show concrete results, there could be development of an antimicrobial product.

He adds that working with ARC has helped him decide to further his career in data science.