Xunying is a PhD student in the Department of Ocean Science and Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology, under Assistant Professor Shengwei Hou’s group. Her research focuses on the growth rate and replication of marine microorganisms, a key ecological parameter reflecting population adaptability and community structure. She aims to develop methods using the base analogue BrdU to calculate microbial growth rates by analysing its distribution in newly synthesised DNA, contributing to the understanding of microbial adaptive evolution.