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Our Scientists

Adeline CHUA

Education: University of Otago, New Zealand
Contact: Adeline_Chua@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Infectious Diseases; Drug Discovery
Research Interest: My keen interest in “bench to bedside” research stems from my drug discovery experience in diverse diseases like cancer (e.g. NSCLC, pancreatic) and infectious diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, dengue, malaria). Currently, I am exploring physiologically relevant in vitro platforms to better understand the biology of diseases to facilitate the design of better diagnostics and therapeutics.

Angeline ROUERS

Education: Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Sorbonne; Université, Paris, France
Contact: Angeline_Rouers@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology; Virology; Cell Biology
Research Interest: During my PhD, I studied the impact of HIV infection on follicular helper T cells and memory B cell responses. I joined A*STAR in 2017 to pursue my research about B cells and antibody responses in dengue-infected patients. My current focus is on COVID-19 and mosquito-borne diseases as dengue and malaria.

Eve CHOW

Education: University of Queensland
Contact: Eve_Chow@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field:Fungal pathogenesis, Antifungal Resistance
Research Interest:My interests lie in understanding how fungal pathogens adapt to the stresses of a human host and subsequently cause disease. This includes asking questions about host-pathogen interactions and the selective pressures driving antifungal resistance. I am using functional genomic screens to provide new insight into fungal pathogenesis and antifungal resistance.

Fok Moon LUM

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Lum_Fok_Moon@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology, Infectious Diseases, General Neuroscience
Research Interest: I am interested in studying the cross-talk between the host immune and nervous systems in driving the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Understanding this intriguing relationship will provide critical insights into novel neuro-immune pathways that will aid in the future development of more efficient therapeutic strategies.

Guisheng Zeng

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Zeng_Guisheng@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Infectious Diseases; Fungal biology
Research Interest: After studying the organization of actin cytoskeleton in budding yeast for about 10 years, I switched my research interest to the most prevalent fungal pathogen − Candida albicans. My current focus is to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying the hyphal morphogenesis (a key virulence factor of C. albicans) and the development of antifungal drug resistance.

Jerry TOH

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Jerry_Toh@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Biomedical Engineering; Biotechnology
Research Interest: Development of microplate and lateral flow-based immunoassay technologies for healthcare, biomonitoring, and research applications.

Juergen PIPPER

Education: Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany
Contact: Juergen_Pipper@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Diagnostic: Analytical instrumentation
Research Interest: Utilizing components produced for various mass markets we try to strike a balance between performance and cost in conceptualizing devices for MDx applications. Our focus is on testing highly diverse sample sets simultaneously on one platform. This is unlike current concepts, which only permit discontinuous batch processing of single assays.

Ken LOH

Education: University of Queensland, Australia
Contact: Ken_Loh_Zhixuan@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Fish Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Drug Discovery
Research Interest: Fishes and shellfish have been increasing in demands lately, with projected global consumption to be doubled in the next three decades. However, emerging infectious diseases are causing significant production losses, which in turn threaten food sustainability. My research interest focuses on developing vaccines against marine pathogens to combat economic impact on aquaculture farmers and to strengthen Singapore’s food security.

Kian Ping CHAN

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Chan_Kian_Ping@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Biomedical Engineering: Biotechnology
Research Interest: Infectious diseases remain a major concern in today’s interconnected world, contributing to high morbidity and mortality globally. Our goal is to design highly sensitive and specific lateral flow assays for mass screening as they are cost-effective and have short result turnaround times. Thus, they will be useful to prevent pandemics.

Yilong LIAN

Education: Nayang Technological University, Singapore
Contact: Lian_Yilong@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Infectious diseases, Bacteria Biology
Research Interest: The dynamics of host-pathogen interactions determine infection outcomes and there is a constant arms race between the two. I am interested in how the host detects and response to the presence of bacteria and vice versa. The understanding of these interactions would provide insights and potentially provides provides new therapeutic strategies to combat infections, especially against drug-resistance bacteria.

Nathan WONG

Education: University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Contact: Nathan_Wong@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Skin Immunology, Virology
Research Interest: My research interests revolve around understanding the host-pathogen interactions between human skin and alphaviruses. Understanding these early interactions may hopefully provide insight as to how it later dictates later stage pathogenesis.

Nicholas LIN

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Nicholas_Lin@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Biomedical Engineering; Biotechnology
Research Interest: My main research motivation is to accelerate biology through the development of assistive microfluidic tools. Currently, I am developing droplet microfluidic platforms for applications in drug discovery as well as for the study of cell-cell interactions.

Ria SORAYAH

Education: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Contact: Ria_Sorayah@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Infectious diseases, Host-pathogen interactions
Research Interest: My current research interests focus on investigating host-pathogen interactions that occur during Mycobacteria infections using zebrafish as a model organism. I am interested on how we can exploit these interactions to improve treatment and better control Mycobacterial infections.

Samantha NGUEE

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Samantha_Nguee@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Infectious diseases; Immunology and Microbiology; Parasitology
Research Interest: My research interest has been centered on understanding the mechanisms of pathogenesis and host immune responses to infectious pathogens. This remains a strong interest from my undergraduate and doctorate research on infection by malaria parasite on T cells responses. My current focus is to dissect key mechanisms and host immune responses, in order to develop potential interventions and therapeutics.

Samuel TONG

Education: University of Queensland, Australia
Contact: Samuel_Tong@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Infectious Diseases, Virology, Host-pathogen Interactions
Research Interest: My professional goal is to utilise my training in cell biology and immunology to drive clinical research that benefits society. A key step before developing any therapeutic is to first identify a draggable clinical target. Thus, I hope to channel my energies into research that uncovers novel molecular mechanisms behind host-pathogen interactions to identify these targets.

Siew Wai FONG

Education: Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Contact: Fong_Siew_Wai@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology; Microbiology; Clinical biochemistry
Research Interest: My research interests focus on characterizing human immune responses to virus infections. In particular, I am interested in bridging the knowledge gap of vector–pathogen−host interactions in arbovirus transmission, which focuses on a new approach to target mosquito saliva. I believe with substantial understanding on the immunopathogenesis, it will permit development of intervention and therapeutics to tackle viral infections.

Teck Hui TEO

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Teo_Teck_Hui@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Bacterial pathogenesis, anti-microbial resistance, commensal and gut immunology, infectious disease modelling
Research Interest: My current research interest is understanding the pathogenesis of anti-microbial resistance gram-negative bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumonia and Acinetobacter baumannii during severe complication. Specifically, I develop in vivo mouse models that mimics clinical manifestation using clinical isolates of these bacteria. Understanding the pathogenesis and identification of virulence factor involved provides new therapeutic targets for these difficult to treat bacterial infection.

Thomas LOY

Education: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Contact: Thomas_Loy@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology; Virology; Infectious disease
Research Interest: Studying Dengue virus infection is a strong interest of mine and has been my focus at both the undergraduate and doctoral level. Development of vaccines and drugs require a thorough understanding of the host immune response to dengue infection. Currently, my projects are centered on the development of diagnostics, prognostics and repurposing small molecule drugs as a host-directed anti-viral therapy for dengue infection.

Wenning FANG

Education: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Contact: Fang_Wenning@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Molecular Biology; immunology; infectious diseases
Research Interest: Study the role of long non-coding RNA in Mtb infection and nucleic acid therapies.
Metabolic reprograming and epigenetic modification in Tuberculosis pathogenesis; Develop Host-targeted Therapeutic strategies for TB.

Yao CHEN

Education: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Contact: Chen_Yao@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Genetics; Immunology; Infectious Diseases
Research Interest: My research interests focus on the effect of Covid infection on the epigenetic profiles of the offspring as well as the epigenetic changes followed by BCG vaccination in newborns.

Yew Wai LEONG

Education: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Contact: Leong_Yew_Wai@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Microbiology; Immunology; Cell biology
Research Interest: My research focuses on the interaction between the malarial parasite and the host’s red blood cells. I am particularly interested in how the parasite affects red blood cell development and in turn, how this affects disease pathology.

Yi Hao CHAN

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Chan_Yi_Hao@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology and Microbiology; Infectious Diseases: Genetics (clinical)
Research Interest: My research interest focuses on identifying and understanding key immune pathways involved in the protection and pathogenesis of infectious diseases through genetics. Identification of human genetic predispositions to severe illness can accelerate the development of mechanism-based therapeutic interventions against infectious diseases.

Yun Shan GOH

Education: University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Contact: Goh_Yun_Shan@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology; Parasitology; Virology
Research Interest: The humoral immunity has a crucial role in the containment and the eventual clearance of an infection. By studying the immune responses following either natural infection or vaccination, we identify targets and potential correlates of protection. We also develop assays based on the targets for diagnostics or clinical investigation.

Zi Wei CHANG

Education: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Contact: Chang_Zi_Wei@idlabs.a-star.edu.sg
Research Field: Immunology; Infectious disease; Drug discovery
Research Interest: The complex relationship between therapeutics, host immune system and infectious agent can hinder the success in combating infectious disease. My research interest includes the investigation on how the host immune system coordinate with therapeutics in infectious disease elimination and prevention.