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Assistant Professor Su Xinyi

Co-Director, Centre for Innovation & Precision Eye Health

MB BChir (Cantab), PhD

  Email    Google Scholar    Linkedin    Website 

Research Interests and Achievements

As a vitreo-retinal surgeon, my research interest lies in developing innovative technologies for the treatment of common blinding retinal conditions. I seek to understand how combinatorial biomaterial and retinal regenerative cell therapies can be used to prevent blindness. I lead a broad-based retinal research program at A*STAR, NUHS and SERI, focussing on two key interrelated research programs in (1) Advanced Biomaterials for Retinal Therapeutics and (2) Retinal Stem Cell Therapeutics.


Advanced Biomaterials for Retinal Therapeutics.

Leading a multi-disciplinary program funded by a national competitive IAF-PP grant, my team developed a biodegradable hydrogel as a vitreous tamponade for retinal detachment surgery. This work, done in collaboration with Prof Loh Xian Jun from IMRE, described the first biodegradable biomaterial to act as a scaffold for vitreous regeneration in-situ. Published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, this work was hailed by Prof Stanley Chang from Columbia university to be a “disruptive” advance in retinal detachment surgery” in a NBE News and Views article. It garnered local media interest in Singapore’s local media “Lianhe Zaobao”. In recognition of the impact and novelty of this work, I received multiple academic awards including Ten Outstanding Young People Award (TOYP, 2022), NUS Young Researcher Award (2022), APAO Young Ophthalmologist Award (for 2 consecutive years 2019 2020) and Grand Challenge for Global Vision Innovation at World Young Scientist Summit (Silver Prize). This work was featured both in the Inaugural NUS Yearbook and video-series in 2019. Passionate to translate this technology to impact patient care, we patented this technology and co-founded a start-up “Vitreogel Innovations”. In addition, we have further developed this technology for ocular drug delivery published in Biomaterials Science and Advanced Materials.


Retinal Stem Cell Therapeutics Retinal Pigment Epithelial Therapeutics:

Our team has developed a cord-lining derived induced pluripotent stem cell (CLiPS) resource with hypo-immunogenic properties for RPE therapy with Prof Lim Kah Leong (from NTU). CLiPs has to potential to be a somatically pristine, hypo-immunogenic and universal cells resource for all forms of cell therapy. A patent has been filed for this technology. Photoreceptor Therapeutics: My lab aims to develop hypo-immunogenic photoreceptor therapies for retinal degenerative disease in collaboration with a US biotech company RxCELL. We published pre-clinical data demonstrating that RxCELL’s clinical grade retinal progenitors can mature into cone photoreceptors in a non-human primate disease models. Future plans, includes running a pivotal FDA trial for treatment of Retinitis Pigmentosa in Singapore by 2024.


Selected Publications

  • Parikh BH, Liu Z, Blakeley P, Lin Q, Singh M, Ong JY, Ho KH, Lai JW, Bogireddi H, Tran KC, Lim JYC, Xue K, Al-Mubaarak A, Yang B, R S, Regha K, Wong DSL, Tan QSW, Zhang Z, Jeyasekharan AD, Barathi VA, Yu W, Cheong KH, Blenkinsop TA, Hunziker W, Lingam G, Loh XJ, Su X. A bio-functional polymer that prevents retinal scarring through modulation of NRF2 signalling pathway. Nat Commun. 2022 May 19;13(1):2796. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30474-6
  • Lin Q, Liu Z, Wong DSL, Lim CC, Liu CK, Guo L, Zhao X, Boo YJ, Wong JHM, Tan RPT, Xue K, Lim JYC, Su X, Loh XJ. High molecular weight hyper-branched PCL- based thermogelling vitreous endotamponades. Biomaterials. 2022 Jan;280:121262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121262
  • Zhao X, Seah I, Xue K, Wong W, Tan QSW, Ma X, Lin Q, Lim JYC, Liu Z, Parikh BH, Mehta KN, Lai JW, Yang B, Tran KC, Barathi VA, Cheong KH, Hunziker W, Su X, Loh XJ. Antiangiogenic Nanomicelles for the Topical Delivery of Aflibercept to Treat Retinal Neovascular Disease. Adv Mater. 2022 Jun;34(25):e2108360. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202108360
  • Lingam S, Liu Z, Yang B, Wong W, Parikh BH, Ong JY, Goh D, Wong DSL, Tan QSW, Tan GSW, Holder GE, Regha K, Barathi VA, Hunziker W, Lingam G, Zeng X, Su X. cGMP-grade human iPSC-derived retinal photoreceptor precursor cells rescue cone photoreceptor damage in non-human primates. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2021 Aug 19;12(1):464. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-021-02539-8
  • Liu Z, Ilmarinen T, Tan GSW, Hongisto H, Wong EYM, Tsai ASH, Al-Nawaiseh S, Holder GE, Su X, Barathi VA, Skottman H, Stanzel BV. Submacular integration of hESC-RPE monolayer xenografts in a surgical non-human primate model. Stem Cell Res Ther. 2021 Jul 27;12(1):423. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-021-02395-6
  • Liu Z, Parikh BH, Tan QSW, Wong DSL, Ong KH, Yu W, Seah I, Holder GE, Hunziker W, Tan GSW, Barathi VA, Lingam G, Stanzel BV, Blenkinsop TA, Su X. Surgical Transplantation of Human RPE Stem Cell-Derived RPE Monolayers into Non-Human Primates with Immunosuppression. Stem Cell Reports. 2021 Feb 9;16(2):237-251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2020.12.007
  • Xue K , Liu Z , Jiang L , Kai D , Li Z , Su X , Loh XJ . A new highly transparent injectable PHA-based thermogelling vitreous substitute. Biomater Sci. 2020 Feb 4;8(3):926-936. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9bm01603a
  • Xue K, Zhao X, Zhang Z, Qiu B, Tan QSW, Ong KH, Liu Z, Parikh BH, Barathi VA, Yu W, Wang X, Lingam G, Hunziker W, Su X, Loh XJ. Sustained delivery of anti-VEGFs from thermogel depots inhibits angiogenesis without the need for multiple injections. Biomater Sci. 2019 Nov 1;7(11):4603-4614. https://doi.org/10.1039/c9bm01049a
  • Liu Z, Liow SS, Lai SL, Alli-Shaik A, Holder GE, Parikh BH, Krishnakumar S, Li Z, Tan MJ, Gunaratne J, Barathi VA, Hunziker W, Lakshminarayanan R, Tan CWT, Chee CK, Zhao P, Lingam G, Loh XJ, Su X. Retinal-detachment repair and vitreous-like-body reformation via a thermogelling polymer endotamponade. Nat Biomed Eng. 2019 Aug;3(8):598-610. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0382-7
  • Su X, Bernal JA, Venkitaraman AR. Cell-cycle coordination between DNA replication and recombination revealed by a vertebrate N-end rule degron-Rad51. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2008 Oct;15(10):1049-58. https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1490

Collaborations

View more details on the collaborations here