OUR 2022 HIGHLY CITED RESEARCHERS

“My lab focuses on precision immunology using cutting edge single-cell multi-omics (Method of the Year 2019) and spatial transcriptomics (Method of the Year 2020) in conjunction with novel AI methods. Single-cell multi-omics allows multiple types of measurements to be made simultaneously on single cells. Spatial transcriptomics simultaneously measures gene expression and cell locations, enabling us to dissect tissue heterogeneity and map out inter-cellular communications.

We are developing AI methods to: 1) jointly project multi-omics to one shared latent space, in order to discover new cell types and functions, and uncover relationships across -omics; and 2) to integrate gene expression, cell locations and images of spatial transcriptomics for cell segmentation, cell embedding and inference of cell-cell interactions. We are also constructing human cell atlases by deep integration of publicly available single-cell omics data (DISCO), and are working towards integrating the different -omics data to create a single cell multi-omics reference atlas. Using integrative single-cell analysis, we study crosstalk between tumour, immune cells, and pathogens in human cancers, aiming to improve diagnosis and cancer immunotherapy. Meanwhile, we collaborate closely with biologists and clinicians, who are actively involved in data analysis.”

Dr Chen Jinmiao obtained a PhD in machine learning and artificial intelligence from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2007. In 2009, as a postdoctoral research fellow, she joined the Bioinformatics core of SIgN. She became a Project Leader in 2014 and established her own research lab. She is now a Principal Investigator and her lab focuses on single-cell and AI for precision immunology.

“Dendritic cells (DCs), monocytes and macrophages play crucial and distinct roles in tissue homeostasis and immunity, but also contribute to a broad spectrum of pathologies and are thus attractive therapeutic targets. Potential intervention strategies aiming at manipulation of these cells will require in-depth insights of their origins and the mechanisms that govern their homeostasis.

The focus of our laboratory is to understand the ontogeny of DCs, monocytes and macrophages, their differentiation pathways and how their unique ontogeny dictates their immune functions. Our approach encompasses the integration of high dimensional platforms such as RNAseq, single cell transcriptome analysis using microfluidic RNA sequencing and deep immunophenotypic assessment using state of the art 18 parameters flow cytometry or Cytometry by Time-Of-Flight mass spectrometry (CyTOF). Such high-density molecular profiling at the single level and at unprecedented dimensionality and complexity will provide new insights in the biology of DC, monocyte and macrophage cell populations.”

Dr Florent Ginhoux joined SIgN in 2009 and is currently a Senior Principal Investigator on a joint appointment. He is now a Laboratory Director in Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France focusing on pediatric cancers and the role of myeloid cells in tumor progression.

“My research focus has always been understanding exosomes secreted by Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSC). What are the underlying mechanisms of MSC exosomes in treating various diseases, and how to transform this scientific discovery to the clinic are the questions that are always on my mind.”

Dr Lai Ruenn Chai did his PhD in Biology with Dr Lim Sai Kiang’s guidance at A*STAR’s Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) under the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering Scholarship, where he discovered the MSC exosome is the active component in the secretion of MSC that treats myocardial infarction/reperfusion injury. He joined A*STAR in 2011 and is now a research scientist under Dr Lim Sai Kiang’s group. Currently, he is trying to bring the MSC exosome to clinical trial to treat psoriasis.

Professor Xiaodong Chen is Principal Scientist II and Scientific Director at IMRE. He is the President’s Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, Professor of Chemistry (by courtesy) and Medicine (by courtesy) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU), and. His current research interests include mechano-materials science and engineering, flexible electronics technology, sense digitalization, cyber-human interfaces and systems, and carbon negative technology.

He has created a wide range of soft composite materials for flexible electrodes which have superior stretchability and electronic conductivity. These electrodes can conform and adhere to human skin and animal tissues and are also easily scalable. Through these efforts, he pioneered an emerging field called mechanomaterials, by establishing a method that proactively programs the functionalities of materials by leveraging the force-geometry-property relationships. As a result, he advanced soft bioelectronic interfaces capable of digitising biological senses and extending human sensing capabilities.

So far, he has published more than 380 high-profiled papers and filed/applied more than 40 patents. He is the Editor-in-Chief of ACS Nano, a flagship journal in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and serves as editorial advisory board member for various international journals. He was recognized by multiple prestigious awards and honors including Singapore President’s Science Award and Singapore NRF Investigatorship.

The availability of robust cell-surface markers for identifying and isolating epithelial stem cells is essential for studying both their normal in-vivo function during tissue renewal and for evaluating their contribution to cancer. Such markers are also invaluable for facilitating purification of these stem cell populations for therapeutic applications.

Our Epithelial Stem Cells group employs genetic mouse models and ex-vivo organoid culture methods to dissect the role of Lgr5-expressing stem cells in epithelial self-renewal and cancer of various organs, including the stomach and ovary. The ultimate goal is to harness the regenerative capacity of these adult stem cells for therapeutic use, as well as developing ways of blocking the cancer-promoting activities of mutated Lgr5-expressing stem cells.”

Prof Nick Barker joined A*STAR’s Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) in 2010 as a Senior Principal Investigator. He now holds the position of Research Director. Prof Barker and his Epithelial Stem Cell Group transferred to IMCB in 2020, where they continue to focus on the role of Lgr5 adult stem cells in epithelial renewal and cancer in various organs. He recently identified Aqp5 as a novel membrane marker of mouse and human and gastric stem cells and established pyloric stem cells as a major source of gastric cancer in the stomach. He also generated the first mouse model of advanced human gastric cancer for use in identifying new biomarkers and drug targets that can potentially be used to improve diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer in the clinic. In 2017, he received the National Research Foundation Investigatorship. In 2022, he was elected to EMBO as an associate member and received the JCA International award for Cancer Research. He has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher since 2019. Prof Barker also holds an adjunct Professorship at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS and a visiting Professorship at Kanazawa University, Japan.

“My research focuses on the study of myeloid cell dynamics and their heterogeneity, with a specific focus on neutrophils. In particular, we employ the use of advanced microscopy techniques such as multi-photon microscopy and light-sheet microscopy, to examine the cellular dynamics and spatial behaviour of immune cells.

Our imaging data has provided important clues about the functional heterogeneity of myeloid cells as they were observed to have different cellular behaviour depending on the tissue micro-environment. These findings have since driven my interest towards the study of heterogeneity among myeloid cells by concurrently examining their developmental pathway and tissue origin, as I believe that these two factors confer their heterogeneity.”

Dr Ng Lai Guan is a Principal Investigator at SIgN. Following his postdoctoral training, he joined SIgN in 2009 to establish his own laboratory. He is now Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. Dr Ng has also been appointed as an Adjunct Investigator at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, and more recently he has taken up an Adjunct Investigator position with the National Skin Centre Singapore.

“My lab was the first to discover MSC exosomes more than 10 years ago. MSC exosomes are small vesicles secreted by Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) aka adult stem cells. We also showed at that time that these exosomes mediate the therapeutic activity of the stem cells and could be used in place of the cells to treat diseases. Over the last decade, my lab studied and developed a deep understanding of MSC exosome biology, their applications and manufacture to prepare the ground for clinical applications. In May 2022, we completed a phase 1 study on topically applied MSC exosomes to treat psorisasis. This study scored several firsts. First to use an immortalized MSC exosome producer cell line that will facilitate scalable reproducible exosome manufacture; first topical administration of exosomes; first ambient temperature stable pharmaceutical exosome formulation. “

Dr Sai-Kiang Lim is a Research Director at A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. She has founded two start-ups, Paracrine Therapeutics and Vesiderm, and is also a founding member of the Singapore Society of Stem Cell Research (SSCR), Society for Clinical, Research and Translation of Extracellular Vesicles (SOCRATES) and International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV). She is also co-chair of International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) Exosome Committee. She is a key opinion leader in therapeutic EVs and has been invited as plenary speaker at major international meetings. As of November 2022, she has a patent portfolio of 12 families with 97 granted patents and 17 pending applications.

“Lithium-ion batteries today are reaching their theoretical energy limits. To overcome these limits, my team works on next-generation sodium-, magnesium- and aluminum-ion batteries, which can offer higher energy density and/or lower cost due to the different material chemistries. For example, a magnesium ion carries twice the charge of a lithium ion, which means that a magnesium battery has twice the charge capacity of its lithium counterpart and can last twice as long on a single charge. By combining experiment and theory, we design novel battery materials (cathode, anode, electrolyte), understand structure-property relationships, and construct battery prototypes. These advanced batteries can be used to power both stationary and electromobile applications for a sustainable energy future.”

Dr Seh Zhi Wei is a Senior Scientist at IMRE. Dr Seh’s research interests lie in the design of new materials for energy storage and conversion, and he is widely recognized for designing the first yolk-shell nanostructure in lithium-sulfur batteries, which is currently a licensed technology. Dr Seh has published in many top journals such as Science, Science Advances, Nature Energy, Nature Materials, Nature Reviews Materials, Nature Catalysis, Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Synthesis, and Nature Communications. For his research achievements, he also received awards including Highly Cited Researchers, World’s Top 2% Scientists, Central Research Fund Award, Vebleo Fellow Award, Ten Outstanding Young Persons, Emerging Investigators, Singapore NRF Fellowship, Innovators under 35 Asia, MRS Graduate Student Award, and National Science Scholarship.

“My research at A*STAR focuses on a class of cells (called Monocytes and Macrophages) that forms the first line of defence of our immune system, helps in wound healing and other key physiological activities. Any defects in these cells can contribute to diseases such as uncontrolled infection, cancer or obesity/diabetes. Through our work, we identify the mechanisms that drive these defects so as to find ways to 're-program’ these cells to check disease progression.

Typically, we use a combination of deep immunoprofiling, mechanistic studies in ex vivo human disease cohorts and in vivo in preclinical mouse models to identify dysregulated immune-signatures related to the disease (biomarkers) and discovery of potential targets thereof to modulate disease progression.”

Dr Subhra K. Biswas first joined A*STAR in 2005 as the Research Scientist (In-Charge) of the Cell Interaction group in the Bioinformatics Institute. In 2007, he moved to the SIgN as a Principal Investigator, where he still heads the Human Innate Immunity Lab. Dr Biswas has held adjunct associate professor positions at the Department of Microbiology, National University of Singapore and LKC School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Visiting Professor at Humanitas University, Milan, Italy. He holds a joint research position at National Cancer Centre Singapore.

Energy, environment and sustainability are among the most urgent issues faced by human civilization in the 21st century. We are taking the “Materials-enabling” approaches to address them. For energy storage, we are developing batteries going much beyond lithium ion batteries in terms of much better performance, lower cost and higher recyclability. In various energy conversion processes, advanced catalysts are the keys to their success. For water and clean environment, we are working on the new-generation membranes and technologies for both liquid and gas separations.

Professor John Wang holds joint appointment (25%) as Principal Scientist II in the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, (IMRE), A*Star. He is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He served as the Head of Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NUS for two terms. Professor John Wang has published >500 papers in prestigious, top international refereed journals, and citations received is >34,000 (H-index = 95). He has been Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for the past two consecutive years (2020 and 2021). Professor John Wang is elected Academician of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM), Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3, UK), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore, and Fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS).

“My work at A*STAR employs and develops theories, and modelling and simulation tools to investigate the structural, mechanical, electronic, thermal and chemical properties of materials, with focus on new material design, additive manufacturing, nanoelectronics, and green energy. Currently, I lead several research projects, including an NRF CRP project on 2D materials-based in-memory computing, an AME Programmatic project on accelerated materials development for high entropy alloys, an A*STAR SERC CRF Award project on materials for green energy, and an AME IAF PP project on developing digital twin for additive manufacturing.”

Prof Zhang Yong-Wei is a Distinguished Institute Fellow at IHPC. He is an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore and Singapore University of Technology and Design. He has published more than 500 peer reviewed international journal papers and was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher every year from 2018 to 2021 by Clarivate. He is an Editorial Board Member for Advanced Theory and Simulation (Wiley), Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering (IOP), and International Journal of Applied Mechanics (World Scientific).

“Infectious diseases represent a never-ending threat to Singapore and the rest of the world with the recent epidemics/outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2, vector-borne diseases (Chikungunya, Dengue, Zika, malaria) and the spread of bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics. They have serious consequences on population health and economy, and for most, there are no licensed vaccines for protection, and either no new drugs or a limited number of drugs for treatment. My scientific interests cover the immunology of infectious diseases, in particular mosquito-borne diseases and newly emerging viruses like (SARS-CoV-2). My research focuses on the development of new immunological, assays and concepts, as well as animal models, that can be used to study communicable and non-communicable diseases, such as cancer.”

Prof Laurent Rénia first joined A*STAR as a Senior Principal Investigator at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) in 2007. He was its Executive Director from 2013 to 2020. In 2020, he founded the A*STAR Infectious Disease Labs as its Executive Director from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, he is now an A*STAR Senior Fellow and has taken a joint position as Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Respiratory and Infectious Diseases Programme at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, and in the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University.

“My current research mainly focuses on probiotics and food functional ingredients, including (1) the discovery of probiotic candidate strains (e.g., Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria) from fermented foods and gut microbiota, the evaluation of their probiotic potential, and the application of them in food product development; (2) understanding the interaction between food functional ingredients (e.g., phytochemicals and polysaccharides) and gut microbiota, and mining gut bacterial strains, key metabolic genes and enzymes responsible for the metabolism of important dietary phytochemicals.”

Dr. Gan joined SIFBI as a Principal Investigator in June, 2022. He obtained his Medical Bachelor degree at Sun Yat-Sen University (China) in 2009 and PhD at the University of Hong Kong (HK, China) in 2016. He joined Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China) as an Assistant Professor from 2017-2019, and then joined Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (China) as a Chief Scientist from 2019-2022 and took charge of a Research Center for Plants and Human Health. He has published more than 180 SCIE-indexed publications in the field of Food Science and Nutrition, with citations more than 10,000 times and an H index of 50 (Google Scholar). He is a Highly Cited Researcher in 2021 and 2022 (Clarivate) in the field of Agricultural/Food Sciences.