Joint PIs

Weiping YU

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	Weiping YU Animal Gene Editing Unit
Weiping YU Weiping Yu received his BSc from Nankai University in 1983, MSc from Peking Union Medical College in 1986, and his Ph.D in Neurobiology from University College London in 1995. He then moved to IMCB for postdoctoral training first with Prof Catherine Pallen and later with Prof Byrappa Venkatesh. In 2003, he set up his own lab at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) where his research focuses on study of gene regulation mechanisms involved in the neurodegenerative diseases. In 2011, He moved to Biological Resource Centre (BRC), A*STAR, helping set up a service oriented Animal Gene Editing Laboratory (AGEL). In 2015, he took a joint position (while his primary employment is with BRC) and re-joined IMCB as a Group Leader in the Infrastructure, Technology & Translational Division.
Research Publications Resources

Xiaomeng WANG

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	Xiaomeng WANG Vascular Biology
Xiaomeng WANG Dr Wang Xiaomeng is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University. Prior to this appointment, Dr Wang spent her scientific career at the world-renowned University College London, UK. Dr Wang obtained her BSc. in Biology at Beijing Normal University, China and her PhD in Genetics at Newcastle University, UK. She then undertook post-doctoral training at Manchester University, UK. Dr Wang is interested in the role of TGFβ signalling in development and under disease conditions. Her earlier work demonstrated that type IV collagen not only function as an affinity matrix for binding and immobilizing TGFβ family growth factor, Decapentaplegic (Dpp), but also regulates its signalling during Drosophila development. Her recent study led to the identification of another novel regulator of TGFβ signalling, Leucine rich alpha 2 glycoprotin 1 (Lrg1). This work revealed for the first time the function and molecular mechanism of Lrg1 regulated TGFβ signalling in pathological angiogenesis and raised the intriguing possibility of targeting Lrg1 as a novel treatment for diseases such as diabetic vascular complications, cancer, atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Both studies have been published in Nature as an article. Dr Wang is the co-inventor of two international patents, Treatment of vasculoproliferative conditions and Treatment of Cancer. To gain a better understanding of drug discovery, development and commercialization, Dr Wang received practical training in small molecule drug discovery from Wellcome trust advanced course and studied new technology ventures at London Business School after winning competitive bursaries.
Research Publications

Jean Paul THIERY

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	Jean Paul THIERY Molecular controls of Morphogenesis & Tumour Progression
Jean Paul THIERY Principal Investigator Jean Paul THIERY Jean Paul Thiery obtained his PhD from the University of Paris. He did his postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller University, New York. In 1978, he established his research group at the Developmental Biology Institute of the CNRS in Paris. He became the head of a CNRS laboratory at the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1987 and joined the Institut Curie in 1995. His expertise was recognized by his appointment as the inaugural Director of the Department of Translational Research in Cancer at the Institut Curie in 2003. Professor Jean Paul Thiery joined IMCB in October 2006. From 16 April 2012, he is Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at NUS as well as Research Director at IMCB. Molecular controls of morphogenesis and tumour progression The epithelial cell has a strictly defined shape and polarity in contrast to the potentially migratory mesenchymal cell. Many critical developmental processes involve the transition and interaction between epithelial and mesenchymal cells, processes which may be recapitulated in cancer. Growth factors and adhesion molecules are key regulators of embryonic development, playing a major role in signal transduction pathways governing fundamental aspects of cell function, shape and polarity. Although signal transduction pathways controlling histogenesis are highly complex, they must be unravelled to understand the basic principles of morphogenesis. Activation of signal transduction pathways may also regulate stem/progenitor cell morphogenesis and tumour progression. Therefore our ultimate goal is to identify critical nodes in signal transduction pathways pivotal to development and cancer that may also provide new therapeutic targets. Our laboratory combines biophysical approaches and advanced imaging techniques to study the mechanochemistry of cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion (Click here to see more...). A dual pipette assay has been modified to measure the force required to separate cell doublets expressing different levels of type I or type II-cadherins (Fig. 1). Our studies indicate that initial adhesion not exceeding several nano-Newtons is reinforced only following cortical actin polymerization. Type II cadherin-7 and -11 is significantly less adhesive than E- and N-cadherin. These findings suggest that in vivo, cadherin-7 and -11 mediates transient adhesion, favouring motility and invasion, while E- and N-cadherin mediates stable adhesive contacts. Crosstalk mechanisms regulating the adhesive strength of cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion are also being analysed using cell lines that undergo reversible epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). We are currently developing transcriptomic and proteomic approaches to investigate the respective contribution of tyrosine kinase and phosphatase receptor signalling to EMT. Other approaches are also being used in our laboratory to investigate EMT. Studies of in vivo cell adhesion and migration have benefited from the establishment of a transgenic mouse line driving the expression of transgenes in migratory neural crest cells following lineage specification (Fig. 2). The murine mammary gland is being used as a model to identify the molecular mechanisms governing induction, growth and branching morphogenesis (Fig. 3). Distinct signalling pathways including FGF10/FGFR2b, Wnt and Gli3 are active during the initial phase of mammary placode development. However, each placode is characterized by a unique molecular code established at initiation of induction. Our studies using a number of transgenic lines aim to further define this molecular code (Click here to see more...). The laboratory has characterized a murine breast stem progenitor cell that exhibits a basal phenotype. Targeting of an activated form of b-catenin in the basal layer of the developing mammary gland induces focal hyperplasia. These hyperplastic nodules develop in situ and invasive breast carcinomas of the basal phenotype. Using this tumour model we aim to identify tumour suppressors and oncogenes involved in oncogenesis of the basal carcinoma subtype. In parallel, the laboratory will pursue oncogenomic studies on human breast carcinoma with the basal phenotype.
Research Publications

Lei SUN

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	Lei SUN Adipocytes and energy balance
Lei SUN Dr Sun Lei is an Assistant Professor in the Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. He received a B.S degree from Beijing University in 2001 followed a Ph.D in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 2008. From 2008 to 2012, he underwent postdoctoral fellowship training in the lab of Harvey Lodish at the Whitehead Institute in Boston, MA. In 2012 he was awarded an NRF fellowship award in Singapore and joined the faculty at Duke-NUS. His research focuses on epigenetic regulation of adipocyte development.
Research Publications

Marius SUDOL

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	Marius SUDOL Cancer Signaling & Domainopathies
Marius SUDOL Marius Sudol earned his PhD degree in 1983 at The Rockefeller University in NYC, USA, in molecular and cellular biology and continued on at his Alma Mater as a postdoctoral fellow and faculty member until he became an Associate Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1995. In 2004, he moved his laboratory to a private research institute, Weis Center for Research, at Geisinger Health Systems in Pennsylvania, while continuing his academic association with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC as an adjunct faculty member in the Medicine Department. In 2014, he joined the Department of Physiology at the National University of Singapore with joint appointments at the Mechanobiology Institute and the IMCB. He is actively involved in leading the Protein Modules Consortium and serves on Editorial Boards of several journals including “Oncogene”, “Science Signaling” and “Journal of Biological Chemistry”.
Research Publications

Huilin SHAO

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	Huilin SHAO Multiscale Molecular Diagnostics
Huilin SHAO Lab Location: #6-07 Email: hshao@imcb.a-star.edu.sg Tel: 65869536 Dr. Huilin Shao received her BA from Cornell University, with a double major in Biological Sciences and in Physics. She completed her dual PhD in Biophysics (Harvard University) and PhD in Medical Engineering (Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, HST) under the guidance of Profs. Ralph Weissleder and Robert S. Langer. After a postdoctoral fellowship with Prof. Hakho Lee at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Shao returned to Singapore and started her research group at IMCB, where she maintains a joint appointment. Dr. Shao is currently Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, and Department of Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). She is also Principal Investigator at Biomedical Institute for Global Health Research and Technology (BIGHEART), NUS. Her research focuses on developing integrated nanotechnology-based platforms for molecular analyses of novel biomarkers. Her work has been published in top journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications and highlighted in major reviews and popular news media. For more information about our research group, please visit http://bioeng.nus.edu.sg/shaolab/
Research Publications

Timothy SAUNDERS

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	Timothy SAUNDERS Mechanics of Development
Timothy SAUNDERS Timothy Saunders received his undergraduate and masters degrees in physics from Cambridge University (2000-2004). He then completed his D.Phil. in theoretical physics at the University of Oxford (2004-2007). For his first post-doctoral position, he worked for Prof. Martin Howard at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. There, he developed models for understanding how morphogen gradients could be reliably interpreted in the presence of biochemical noise. Following this, he received an EIPOD fellowship and moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. There he worked in the labs of Dr. Lars Hufnagel and Dr. Eileen Furlong applying biophysical techniques to better understand the robust development of the Drosophile embryo. In 2013 he won an NRF Fellowship to start his own laboratory in Singapore. Since September 2013 he has been principally based at the Mechanobiology Institute, a Research Centre of Excellence, with joint appointments with the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore and IMCB.
Research Publications

Ajay S MATHURU

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	Ajay S MATHURU Mechanisms Underlying Behavior
Ajay S MATHURU Dr Ajay Mathuru received his Bachelor' degree in Science (Genetics, Microbiology and Chemistry) from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India in 1996. In 1998, he was awarded the university gold medal and a Master's degree in Life Sciences (Plant Sciences) at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India. During his Master's programme, Dr Mathuru spent a summer studying olfactory conditioning and odour-evoked behaviours in Drosophila melanogaster larvae in the late Professor Obaid Siddiqi's laboratory in Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India which culminated in a lifelong interest in neuroscience. During his PhD in neuroscience at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India, he studied the coupling of biophysical and biochemical agents at the hippocampal synapses with Upi Bhalla. He developed an interest in addressing neuroethological questions using zebrafish and moved to Singapore in 2006, to work with Suresh Jesuthasan, first at Temasek Lifesciences Labs, then at Duke-NUS/ASTAR as a Research Fellow. Prior to joining Yale-NUS, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at IMCB, ASTAR, where he continues to study neural mechanisms underlying natural behaviour.
Research Publications

Kanagas SABAPATHY

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	Kanagas SABAPATHY Molecular Carcinogenesis
The Sabapathy lab (https://www.thesabapathylab.com) is focused (i) on understanding the mechanistic basis of cellular transformation, and resistance to cancer therapy, by investigating the key p53/p73 tumor-suppressor pathway; & (ii) on generating novel therapeutic strategies to develop tumor- and mutation-specific therapeutic molecules. Please peruse the detailed information in the Research Tab below.
Research Publication

Prof Nordlund Paer Lennart

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Prof Nordlund Paer Lennart

Visiting Professor, School of Biological Sciences

Email: pnordlund@ntu.edu.sg

Biography
Pär Nordlund is structural biologist at Nanyang Technological University as well as at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. His research is focused on establishing structural and mechanistic insights into disease related proteins, with a particular emphasis on proteins in cancer, inflammation and infectious disease. Early work focused on ribonucleotide reductase and protein phosphatases, where the group has provided extensive mechanistic understanding. More recently the group has developed a “systems structural biology” strategy where entire pathways are studied using structural and biochemical methodology. This approach has been applied to lipid signaling, receptor signaling, nucleotide metabolism and innate immunity, and the group has solved the structures of more than 60 proteins in these pathways in the last 7 years. In addition to providing detailed mechanistic insights, a number of these structures are used by Pharma to drive the development of novel drugs.

The group has also developed expertise in membrane proteins and did in 2007 solve the first crystal structure of a human integral membrane protein (Martinez-Molina, Nature 2007). The group has a strong track record in developing protein science technologies, some which has been enabling for their systems structural biology approach and for their membrane protein projects.

In 2009 he established a laboratory at Nanyang Technological University, where the systems structural biology approach is being applied for herpes biology, lipid signaling and membrane transport processes. The group has also established a platform for fragment based ligand development in Singapore that allows for the rapid generation of high-quality chemical probes and experimental therapeutics, as well as a platform for high-throughput protein production (Headed by Dr. Tobias Cornvik). Both of these platforms are made available to academic research groups as well as industry.

Pär Nordlund is a members of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute and the Chemistry Class at the Swedish Academy of Science, as well as a Reviewing Editor at Science Magazine. He is the funder of the biotech companies Evitra Proteoma AB and Sprint Biosciences AB.

Current Projects

Generation of domain antibodies for therapeutic applications
MS-CETSA Experiments (1st Contract Research Agreement)
MS-CETSA Experiments (2nd Contract Research Agreement)
Target Engagement Using Cellular Thermal Shift Assay

Selected Publications

Lingyun Dai, Nayana Prabhu, Liang Ying Yu, Smaranda Bacanu, Anderson Daniel Ramos, Pär Nordlund. (2019). Horizontal Cell Biology: Monitoring Global Changes of Protein Interaction States with the Proteome-Wide Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA). Annual Review of Biochemistry, 88.
Wendi Sun, Lingyun Dai, Han Yu, Brenda Puspita, Tianyun Zhao, Feng Li, Justin L Tan, Yan Ting Lim, Ming Wei Chen, Radoslaw M Sobota, Daniel G Tenen, Nayana Prabhu, Pär Nordlund. (2019). Monitoring structural modulation of redox-sensitive proteins in cells with MS-CETSA. Redox biology, .
Dziekan JM, Yu H, Chen D, Dai L, Wirjanata G, Larsson A, Prabhu N, Sobota RM, Bozdech Z, Nordlund P. (2019). Identifying purine nucleoside phosphorylase as the target of quinine using cellular thermal shift assay.. Science Translational Medicine, 11(473).
Lim YT, Prabhu N, Dai L, Go KD, Chen D, Sreekumar L, Egeblad L, Eriksson S, Chen L, Veerappan S, Teo HL, Tan CSH, Lengqvist J, Larsson A, Sobota RM, Nordlund P. (2018). An efficient proteome-wide strategy for discovery and characterization of cellular nucleotide-protein interactions.. PLoS ONE, .
Lingyun Dai, Tianyun Zhao, Xavier Bisteau, Wendi Sun, Nayana Prabhu, Yan Ting Lim, Radoslaw M. Sobota, Philipp Kaldis, Pär Nordlund. (2018). Modulation of Protein-Interaction States through the Cell Cycle. Cell, 173(6), 1481-1494.

Camilo LIBEDINSKY

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	Camilo LIBEDINSKY NeuroTechnology
Camilo LIBEDINSKY Camilo Libedinsky obtained his B.Sc. in Biology at Universidad de Chile and got his Ph.D. in Neurosciences at Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke-NUS and SICS, ASTAR, before becoming an Assistant Professor at NUS, Department of Psychology, a PI at the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology, and a joint PI at IMCB, ASTART in 2015.
Research Publications Job Opening

Suresh JESUTHASAN

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	Suresh JESUTHASAN Neural Circuitry and Behavior
Suresh JESUTHASAN Suresh obtained an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, California, in 1990. His interest in biology was spurred by two summers at the Hopkins Marine Station, in Monterey. He then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he obtained a D. Phil. in Zoology working in the laboratory of Julian Lewis. During this time, he spent two summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, learning microscopy and embryology. Suresh began experimenting in neuroscience during a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, in the department of Friedrich Bonhoeffer. He joined A*Star in February 2009.
Research Publications

Philip INGHAM

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	Philip INGHAM Developmental and Biomedical Genetics
Philip INGHAM Philip Ingham FRS received his D. Phil from Sussex University, UK, after reading Philosophy, Theology and Genetics at Cambridge University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the CNRS LGME in Strasbourg, France and at the ICRF Mill Hill laboratories in London, England, before becoming a junior Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. In 1986 he was appointed Research Scientist at the ICRF Developmental Biology Unit in Oxford and became a Principal Scientist at the ICRF Lincoln's Inn Fields Laboratories in London in 1994. In 1996 was appointed Professor of Developmental Genetics at the University of Sheffield, UK where he established the MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics, of which he is currently Director. He was Chairman of the British Society for Developmental Biology from 1999 to 2004 and has served on the editorial boards of a number of leading journals including Developmental Cell, Genes & Development, Current Biology and the EMBO Journal. He was elected a member of EMBO in 1995, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001 a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002 and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2007. He received the Medal of the Genetics Society of Great Britain in 2005 and the Waddington Medal in 2014. (A YouTube video of Phil’s lecture is available here.)
	Tom CARNEY Research
Tom CARNEY Tom Carney graduated from the Genetics Department at the University of Adelaide before embarking on a PhD in zebrafish developmental biology in the laboratory of Robert Kelsh at the University of Bath, UK, studying specification of neural crest derivatives. He continued zebrafish research as a postdoctoral fellow with Matthias Hammerschmidt at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany from 2004. Here, he analysed a number of epidermal mutants, elucidating the role of novel extracellular matrix proteins and serine proteases in development. Tom moved to Singapore in October 2008. He is currently co-Principal Investigator with Prof Ingham in the Developmental and Biomedical Genetics Laboratory. His current research focuses on proteolytic pathways in development and disease. Research in the Ingham Laboratory The powerful genetics and exquisite embryology of the zebrafish has established this organism as an outstanding non-mammalian model for the analysis of vertebrate embryonic development. The unique experimental advantages of the zebrafish include the optical clarity, accessibility and rapid development of its embryo, the availability of large collections of mutations disrupting essential genes and the relative simplicity of its organ systems. Despite this simplicity, the zebrafish shares many fundamental similarities with other vertebrates; for instance, the patterning of the neural tube, the control of neural and glial differentiation, the specification and differentiation of blood cell lineages and the development and function of the heart. Thus insights from studies in zebrafish can readily be applied directly to higher vertebrates, including humans. Our research group uses the zebrafish Danio rerio as a model system to study a number of related processes in vertebrate development. In particular, we focus on the role of signaling pathways and the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that they control. We also use the fish to model human disease related processes such as the inflammatory response and tumour angiogenesis and metastasis. Our approach is based on understanding complex biological processes in the context of the whole organism: we use a range of techniques that take advantage of the properties of the zebrafish, including in vivo imaging, transgenesis, antisense mediated gene knockdown, Zinc finger nuclease mediated targeted gene knock-out, Tandem Affinity Purification of protein complexes and Chromatin Immuno Precipitation (ChIP). Research in the Carney Laboratory The mechanisms animals employ to generate their tissues and organise constituent cells are highly conserved across species. Within an individual, they are also re-deployed in multiple organs at different times of development, and so understanding the patterning of simple tissues can be informative for more complex tissues of other species. We wish to understand how the epidermis evolved, develops and patterns. The epidermis forms an essential barrier to external insults and infection in all organisms and thus can be considered a first line of defence. In addition, during limb development, the epidermis folds to forms an important signalling centre called the Apical Ectodermal Ridge (AER). How the epidermis forms this structure and the signalling systems it uses to converse with other cells of the developing limb are unclear. We are using the unique properties of the zebrafish as an experimental model to analyse epidermal development and disease. The zebrafish epidermis shows high conservation with the basal layer of mammalian epidermis at the cellular and genetic levels. Crucially, the zebrafish allows both forward and reverse genetic analysis, with rapid and efficient overexpression, transgenesis, antisense and gene knockout technologies well established. Large scale mutagenesis screens also continue to yield a wealth of data on gene function in numerous developmental processes. The accessibility and transparency of zebrafish embryos allow processes to be analysed at cellular resolution and we make use of in vivo timelapse imaging, transplantation and lineage analysis to study cellular functions in different genetic contexts.
Research Publications

Weiping HAN

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	Weiping HAN Metabolism in Human Diseases
Weiping HAN Deputy Director, SBIC Head, Laboratory of Metabolic Medicine, SBIC Research Director, MHDU, IMCB Professor, Department of Biochemistry, YLL School of Medicine, National University of Singapore Professor, Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Weiping Han obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology from Cornell University in 1996. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh and HHMI/UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. In 2003, he was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Basic Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he studied molecular mechanisms of hormone secretion and signaling. In 2005, he moved to Singapore to set up a research program in the Laboratory of Metabolic Medicine (LMM) at Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC), and was promoted to Research Director / Professor in 2013. Currently he is Deputy Director of SBIC with concurrent appointment as Head of LMM. He is also Research Director at Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology; Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at National University of Singapore and Program in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders, Duke-NUS.
Research Publications

Assoc Prof Gao Yonggui

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Assoc Prof Gao Yonggui

Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences

Email: ygao@ntu.edu.sg

Biography
I got my Ph.D major in biochemical engineering, Zhejiang University, China, I worked as a lecturer in College of Life Science, Zhejiang University. In 2003, I moved to Professor Tanaka’s Lab funded by Center of Excellence (COE) project, Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Hokkaido University. The research topic is the structural and functional research on transcription, translational initiation control, and cellulose synthesis. Since 2008, I worked as a senior scientist in Professor Ramakrishnan Venki’s group where Nobel Prize is awarded in 2009, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. There, I made breakthrough in understanding structure and function of ribosome with GTPase factors, for which two landmark papers were published.

Research Interests
I am interested in the field of DNA/RNA-protein interactions, particularly in the structural and functional research of translation initiation control and protein synthesis by ribosome. For the first time, I recently discovered a new crystal form from ribosome lacking the subunit L9, that allows crystallization of the ribosome in the presence of GTPase factors. Based on this, the crystal structures of the 70S ribosome with elongation factor G (EF-G) trapped by fusidic acid in the post-translocational state, and with elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) and aminoacyl-tRNA were solved, respectively. Both structures reveal many significant aspects of ribosome functions at atomic level with regard to elongation, the heart of translation. Meanwhile, I solved crystal structures of E. coli RelE (a toxin related to riboendonucleases) bound to 70S ribosomes in the precleavage and postcleavage states, which provides a clear basis for understanding the mechanism of ribosome-dependent endonucleases (mRNA shutdown). I want to pursue further research on the structure and function of translational factors with ribosome in Singapore. I will focus on further understanding EF-G function in translation as well as in the post-termination complex with ribosome recycling factor (RRF). Meanwhile, the structural and functional protein complex associated with disease and industrial application will be targed.

Positions for Postdoc, Ph.D. Scholarship, Research Assistant or Technician are available, interested candidates are invited to email me.

Current Projects

A tagging approach to natively extract bacterial cellulose-synthesizing terminal complex for in vitro biosynthesis reconstitution and structure determination
EOM & OOE Top-Up
Fat Hope - Innovation Strategy Towards Small Molecule Probe of FTO as Potential Treatment for Obesity
Molecular basis of Kindlin-3 in integrin activation and translation regulation
Molecular basis of LCIB and LCIC in CO2 concentrating mechanisms (CCMs)
Molecular basis of genetic colonizal Agrobacteria exiting the infectious mode by release of defense signal salicylic acid
Molecular mechanism of back-translocation involving LepA and fusidic acid
Structural and functional research of macromolecules: ribosome and cellulose terminal complex
Structural basis of ATP-dependent dsDNA helicases lrc3p/CSB functioning in mitochondrial DNA maintenance
Structure and Functional Interactions of Translational Factors with Ribosome by X-Ray Crystallography
Structure and Functional Interactions of Translational Factors with Ribosome by X-Ray Crystallography

Selected Publications

Jin S, Sun J, Wunder T, Tang D, Cousins AB, Sze SK, Mueller-Cajar O, Gao YG. (2016). Structural insights into the LCIB protein family reveals a new group of β-carbonic anhydrases.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 113(51), 14716-14721.
Kumar V, Ero R, Ahmed T, Goh KJ, Zhan Y, Bhushan S, and Gao YG. (2016). The Structure of Elongation Factor 4 (EF4/LepA) in GTP Form Bound to the Ribosome. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 291(Cover Image July), 12943-50.
Kumar V, Chen Y, Ero R, Ahmed T, Tan J, Li Z, wong AS, Bhushan S, Gao YG. (2015). Structure of BipA in GTP form bound to the ratcheted ribosome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 112(35), 10944-9.
Chen Y, Feng S, Kumar V, Ero R, Gao YG. (2013). Structure of EF-G-Ribosome complex in a pretranslocation state. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, , 2013, 20: 1077–1084 (online on 4 August 2013).
Gao, Y.G., Selmer M, Dunham CM, Weixlbaumer A, Kelley AC, and Ramakrishnan, V. (2009). The structure of the ribosome with elongation factor G trapped in the posttranslocational state. Science, 326, 694-699.

Melissa FULLWOOD

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	Melissa FULLWOOD Cancer Epigenomics Lab
Melissa FULLWOOD Melissa Fullwood completed her B.Sc. (Honours) in Biological Sciences at Stanford University and received her Ph.D. from the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering (NGS) at the Genome Institute of Singapore. She was a Lee Kuan Yew Post-Doctoral Fellow at Duke-NUS. She became an Assistant Professor at Yale-NUS and a Special Fellow at the Cancer Science Institute in 2012. Following the award of a National Research Foundation Fellowship in 2013, she became a Junior Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute. She was a recipient of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) National Science Scholarships, a recipient of the L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science National Fellowship Singapore in 2009, and the international winner of the GE and Science prize in 2010. Melissa is a co-inventor on two patents on chromatin interaction analysis with paired-end tag sequencing (ChIA-PET).
Research Publications

Kam Man HUI

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	Kam Man HUI Human Cancer Genomics and Therapeutics
Professor Hui Kam Man is currently serving as Deputy Group Director (Translational Research) at SingHealth. He is also a Principal Investigator at the Division of Cellular and Molecular Research, National Cancer Centre Singapore. In addition, he holds Adjunct Professorships with the Program in Cancer & Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the Dept of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Besides being a Joint Research Director at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Prof. Hui also holds an Adjunct Senior Investigator position at the Singapore BioImaging Consortium (SBIC), A*STAR. Prof. Hui, a Singaporean, received his BSc and MSc from the Dept of Bacteriology & Public Health, Washington State University, Pullman, USA and his PhD in Immunology, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, U.S.A. Prior to Singapore, Prof. Hui was employed at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, London; and as a scientific member at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, United Kingdom. Prof Hui was awarded the Fellowship of The Royal College of Pathologists, FRCPath (UK) in 2001 and the Singapore National Science Award (now the President's Science Award) in 1996 for his work in cancer genes and therapy.
Research Publication

Adam CLARIDGE-CHANG

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	Adam CLARIDGE-CHANG Translational Neurogenetics
Adam CLARIDGE-CHANG Lab Location: #8-04 Email: acchang@imcb.a-star.edu.sg Tel: 65869540 Adam did his undergraduate studies at the Australian National University, pursued his doctoral work on circadian rhythms with Michael Young at The Rockefeller University and did postdoctoral work on olfactory learning with Gero Miesenböck at Yale University. He was a Nuffield Leadership Fellow in the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. He is an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in the Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders program and a Principal Investigator (Joint) at IMCB.
Research Publications

John CHUA

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	John CHUA Interactomics and Intracellular Trafficking
John CHUA John Chua obtained his B.Sc. (Honours) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and his PhD at the University of Hamburg (Germany) where he worked on translational regulation at the post-synapse. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, he studied the composition and organization of protein complexes involved in presynaptic function. He was appointed a Research Group Leader at the institute and a faculty member of the Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences (GGNB). In 2015, he joined the Department of Physiology at NUS as an Assistant Professor and IMCB as a joint PI.
Research Publications

Justin Chu

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	Justin Chu Collaborative Translation Unit for Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease
Justin CHU Lab Location: #6-06B Email: jhchu@imcb.a-star.edu.sg Tel: 65869656 Associate Professor Justin Chu is currently a faculty member in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is holding a joint appointment Principal Investigator in the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR. A/P Chu is also the director of the largest research based high containment Biosafety Level 3 Facility in Singapore which is located in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS. A/P Chu is actively engaged in the study of the molecular biology of human enteroviruses as well as mosquito-borne viruses including Dengue, Zika, West Nile/Japanese Encephalitis and Chikungunya. The outcome of these studies have helped to pave the roadmap towards the development of a number of antiviral strategies (antivirals, vaccines, therapeutics antibodies, molecular inhibitors) that are now in the process of clinical translational evaluation for these medically important mosquito-borne viruses. Eight patents have also been generated from these current research. A/P Chu has published over 90 international peer-reviewed scientific publications, book chapters and over 100 conference papers. A number of these scientific papers are published in prestigious journals including Nature Communications, PNAS, PLoS Pathogens, Biomaterials, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Virology and Antiviral therapy. A/P Chu is currently serving as the associate editor and reviewer for a number of peer-reviewed journals in the areas of medical virology and anti-viral strategies.
Research Publications

Christine CHEUNG

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	Christine CHEUNG Molecular and Vascular Medicine
Christine CHEUNG Email: ccheung@imcb.a-star.edu.sg Tel: 65860713 Dr Christine Cheung received a PhD in Cardiovascular and Stem Cell Medicine from the University of Cambridge, and a BEng (First Class) from Imperial College London. For her pioneering approach to create organ-specific blood vessels, she was recognized with the Young Investigator Prize from the British Society for Cardiovascular Research. Notably, she is a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, Honoree of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Singapore by Junior Chamber International, and Life Science Fellow of L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science National Fellowship. To advance her work, she is an awardee of the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) research grant. Dr Cheung is also a Nanyang Assistant Professor and Provost’s Chair in Medicine at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University. She currently serves on the executive committee of Stem Cell Society Singapore.
Research Publications

Lih Feng CHEOW

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	Lih Feng CHEOW The Microfluidics Systems Biology lab
The Microfluidics Systems Biology lab Research in the MSB lab is directed by Prof. Stephen Quakeunder an ASTAR Visting Investigatorship Programme grant, and by the lab's co-principal investigators, Dr. William F. Burkholder(IMCB) and Prof. Yin Thai Chan*(IMRE and NUS). All enquiries may be directed to Dr. William Burkholder and Dr. Yin ThaiChan.
Research Publications

GEORGE J AUGUSTINE

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	George J AUGUSTINE Synaptic Mechanisms and Circuits
Laboratory Staff Dr Song Sang Ho, PhD, Senior Research Fellow Dr Kim Jin Sook, PhD, Research Fellow Dr Martin Graf, PhD, Research Fellow Dr Chantelle Fourie, Research Fellow Karen Chung, Research Assistant Sarah Kay, Research Assistant Zach Chia, PhD student Lidia Luna Puerta, PhD student Gao Xiang Ham, PhD student Introduction Professor George J. Augustine is a Professor in Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University. He founded the Center for Functional Connectomics at KIST (Seoul, Korea), where he currently serves as Director. He also is a member of the Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and is a former member of the Department of Neurobiology at the Duke Medical School in the USA, where he was the G.B. Geller Professor of Neurobiology. Prof Augustine is well-known for his studies of brain synaptic mechanisms His lab has shown that neurotransmitter release is triggered by a remarkably local calcium signal; have identified the roles of many proteins involved in neurotransmitter release; and have identified the role of calcium ions and other chemical signals in transducing brief neuronal activity into long-lasting change in brain function. His group also has developed novel optogenetic technologies and is applying these to study brain circuit function. He has published nearly 200 articles and has served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals, including Neuron, the Journal of Neuroscience, the Journal of Physiology, Frontiers in Neural Circuits, as well as serving as the founding editor of Brain Cell Biology. He also is well-known as a co-author of the highly popular Neuroscience textbook (Sinauer Associates). Research Focus One of the most striking features of the brain is the abundant synaptic connections between nerve cells. These connections allow very rapid signalling between nerve cells and serve as the fundamental mechanism for information processing and storage in the brain. Prof Augustine’s laboratory is interested in the function of these synaptic connections and they are studying 3 important questions within this general area: Molecular basis of neurotransmitter release from neurons The rapid secretion of chemical signals (neurotransmitters) serves as the basis for communication between neurons. They are identifying the proteins that are involved in the synaptic vesicle trafficking reactions underlying neurotransmitter secretion, with particular emphasis on proteins involved in exocytosis and endocytosis. Their current research is largely focused on the functions of synapsins, a family of proteins whose functions include cross-linking vesicles into a “reserve pool”. The questions they are pursuing include: (1) Why are there so many different synapsin isoforms? and (2) What unique functions do these isoforms serve at different types of synapses? Optogenetic mapping of brain circuitry Synaptic circuits between neurons form the “wiring” that allows the brain to process information. Optogenetics has revolutionised the ability to elucidate the function of these circuits: with light-activated ion channels, such as channelrhodopsins, we can photostimulate genetically-defined populations of neurons. Likewise, genetically-encoded fluorescent sensors, such as SuperClomeleon, allow Prof Augustine and his team to detect the resulting responses in postsynaptic neurons. Together, these optogenetic technologies create tremendous opportunities for understanding how the brain works and for determining how brain circuitry goes awry during various neurological and psychiatric diseases. The questions they are addressing are: (1) What is the function of a specific brain circuit? and (2) What is the spatial organization of this circuit? With this approach, they are focusing on circuits in two brain areas: the cerebellum and the claustrum. In the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved in motor coordination and other functions, theyhave mapped the functional organization of most local circuits, as well as projections from cerebellar cortex to other brain areas. Among their achievements is the discovery of an entirely new type of cerebellar interneuron. Prof Augustine laboratory’s next goal is to determine the role that these neurons, and their circuits, play in cerebellar information processing. The claustrum is a mysterious part of the brain that has been proposed to mediate higher-order functions such as consciousness. To understand the function of the claustrum, Prof Augustine laboratory’s is employing a “bottom up” approach. To date, they have classified the intrinsic electrical properties of all neurons found within the claustrum and have mapped out most of the local synaptic circuits formed by these neurons. Armed with this knowledge, their next goal is to examine the role of the claustrum in behaviours. In these projects, Prof Augustine’s lab employs a wide range of technologies including electrophysiology, neuronal cell biology, molecular biology, optical microscopy, computational approaches, and optogenetics.
Research Publications

	Chit Fang CHEOK Molecular Therapeutics in Cancer and Aging Lab Location: #6-19B Email: cheokcf@imcb.a-star.edu.sg Tel: 65869679
Chit Fang received her B.Sc (Hons) from Imperial College London and her DPhil degree from the University of Oxford. While at the Molecular Oncology group in Cancer Research UK (Oxford), she studied the role of a causative mutation in BLM in a rare chromosomal instability disorder, Bloom’s syndrome and identified a novel activity of BLM in DNA repair. She completed her postdoctoral training at IMCB and A*STAR p53Lab with Sir David Lane. Her interest in tumor suppressive mechanisms, genomic instability and cancer forms the basis of her interest and search for new therapeutic modalities for cancer. Using a combination of approaches including highthroughput screening, sequencing and animal models to probe for defects in tumor suppressor pathways, she is identifying molecular vulnerabilities in tumor cells which provide the rationale for design of promising new therapeutic strategies. This work has also broadened to encompass the study of cancer metabolism. Her expertise in genomic stability has also led her to explore the molecular basis of age-related DNA damage.
Research Publications

	Johnny ONG Advanced Cancer Translational Therapeutics
Dr Johnny Ong is a Consultant in the Department of Sarcoma, Peritoneal and Rare Tumours (SPRinT), Division of Surgery and Surgical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Applied Human Genetics in NCCS and a Joint Research Clinician at IMCB. Dr Johnny has trained and practiced extensively in the Surgical Oncology unit in the treatment for peritoneal disease. Spurred on by his interest in scientific research, he pursued a PhD in the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge, UK, which was funded by the NRF-MOH research scholarship in 2009. His PhD experience coupled with his clinical background has provided him a firm understanding of the pathogenesis of peritoneal disease. Due to his interest in translational science, Dr Johnny was awarded the NMRC Transition Award in 2017 and will continue to strive towards his goal as a surgeon-scientist, setting his sights on battling peritoneal disease by identifying novel mutations and biomarkers that could serve as diagnostic or prognostic markers of disease as well as to identify novel therapeutic strategies. The Laboratory of Applied Human Genetics is an interdisciplinary laboratory, with a specific focus in peritoneal and sarcoma malignancies. We are a young and enthusiastic team of researchers with a vision of making an impact on patients’ lives through sound scientific research and innovative thinking. The dual-hatting of surgeon-scientists in the laboratory also provides an intrinsic advantage of combining clinical practice with laboratory research, effectively paving the way for bench-to-bedside translational research. Leveraging on the team’s strengths and with a dedication to translational research, we successfully filed a patent (PCT/SG2020/050177) for the discovery of a biomarker to prognosticate patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis. As part of our collaborative efforts to push the frontiers of translational biomedical science, we actively seek collaborations with numerous disciplines and institutions to synergize our strengths in different expertise. We welcome post-docs / collaborators who share the same vision to join us in translating scientific endeavours into real life scenarios.
Research Publications

Joint PIs

Weiping YU

Xiaomeng WANG

Jean Paul THIERY

Lei SUN

Marius SUDOL

Huilin SHAO

Timothy SAUNDERS

Ajay S MATHURU

Kanagas SABAPATHY

Prof Nordlund Paer Lennart

Camilo LIBEDINSKY

Suresh JESUTHASAN

Philip INGHAM

Weiping HAN

Assoc Prof Gao Yonggui

Melissa FULLWOOD

Kam Man HUI

Adam CLARIDGE-CHANG

John CHUA

Justin Chu

Christine CHEUNG

Lih Feng CHEOW

GEORGE J AUGUSTINE

Chit Fang CHEOK

Johnny ONG

A*STAR celebrates International Women's Day