Joey Ongkingco obtained his B.A. in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 2020. At SUNY Geneseo, Joey did his undergraduate research in an Analytical Chemistry laboratory advised by James A. Boiani, Ph.D. developing HPLC and LC-MS methods for natural product analysis in red wines. He then joined New York University as a doctoral student in Paramjit S. Arora's, Ph.D. laboratory investigating protein–protein interactions and protein domain mimics, where he received the National Institute of Health Predoctoral Diversity Fellowship in 2021.