Anaïs received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with honors in May 2025. She transferred to UNC-Chapel Hill from Loyola University, Chicago where she conducted medicinal chemistry research with a focus in organic synthesis. This involved the multistep synthesis of substrate analogs to aid in the characterization of bacterial enzyme DapE as an antibiotic target. Anaïs has a passion for organic synthesis and its applications to solving real-world issues ranging from treating infections to decontaminating water. In the Waters Lab, she worked with Kyra Tripp on using dynamic combinatorial libraries to detect PFAS. Throughout middle and high school, she did competitive figure skating and played the violin in symphony orchestras. In her free time, she also enjoys going to cycling classes and playing sand volleyball. She is excited to contribute to the Waters Group’s molecular recognition research that addresses biological problems!