Thu is a Senior Research Associate and Research Manager in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. He is also a Co-founder and CSO of YZymes, a startup in Toronto, which applies engineered enzymes to convert under-utilized agriculture and forestry biomass to biochemicals. He received a Master of Biotechnology from Flinders University, a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from Cornell University, and a certificate of project management from the University of Toronto. He has filed four patent applications and published 35 peer-reviewed papers, mainly on protein engineering and biomass modification.