Anna was born in Tokyo but spent majority of her childhood in Singapore and Australia before moving to East Sussex, England in 2015. She studied her MChem at the University of York. In her final year, she completed her masters project at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Pharmaceuticals. Her work focused on the synthesis of the phosphorylated left segment of Duocarmycin as part of Professor Tokuyama’s Antibody Mimetic Drug Conjugate project. During her time abroad, she had the opportunity to take part in cultural activities such as Miyagi’s Dontosai festival (also known as the Half-Naked Pilgrimage) which was an incredibly fun experience. Reading literature on antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for her masters inspired her to search for ADC research opportunities. Then in October 2026, Anna joined the Burley lab to pursue a PhD in cysteine labelling strategies to prepare antibody-drug-conjugate (ADC) delivery vectors.