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Congratulation to our colleagues at Pharmacology on receiving the Long Service Award.

Photo 1 from left: Dr. Muthu Kumaraswamy Shanmugam (10Y), Prof. Fred Wong (25Y), Dr. Alan Prem Kumar (15Y)

Photo 2 from left: Dr. Mitchell Lai (10Y), Dr. Judy Sng (5Y)

Photo 3 from left: K Suthanthira Manie (20Y), Fan Lu (20Y), Tan Yen Ling (25Y)

Photo 4 from left: Rajagopal Iyer Vinaya (5Y), Joyce Chong Ruifen (5Y), Dr. Inthrani Raja Indran (10Y)

Not in photo: Haridass S/O Suppiah Perumal (45Y), Dr. Wong Peiyan (10Y)

Because dengue viruses are spread by mosquitoes during biting, transmission capacity depends on mosquito-biting behavior. For this reason, it is critical to understand how infection in mosquitoes influences biting.

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Congratulation to Dr Inthrani Raja INDRAN on being appointed as Assistant Dean (Students) with effect from 01 January 2022.

Dr Inthrani Raja Indran is a Senior Lecturer and Education Director in the Department of Pharmacology. She also serves as the director for the NUS Medicine Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. She was recently accredited as a Newfield/Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Associate Coach. Dr Indran has been leading a study focused on disruptive behaviour (DB) in our healthcare system, the findings of which have raised awareness at the national level on the need for effective measures to mitigate the causes and impact of DB. She has been serving in the Student Affairs team for the past year. She is committed to support students develop their self-mastery and resilience. Doing so will enable them not only to manage the rigours of medical school, but more importantly, become well-adjusted colleagues and mentors for the future generations of healthcare professionals.

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With new data on therapies emerging almost every week, artificial intelligence could play a key role in the search for COVID-19 treatment options. Prof Dean Ho, Joint Professor at Department of Pharmacology (NUS Medicine), shared his team’s work in optimising the most effective combination of drugs and doses, while A/Prof David Allen, Associate Vice President (Health Innovation and Translation) at NUS, added that it is critical to be flexible in studying treatment options, as everyone interacts with the virus diffenrently.

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PProtein refolding is a complex procedure in bacterial recombinant expression. Aggregation and misfolding are the two challenges that can affect the overall yield and specific activity of the folded proteins. Thermostable exoshells (tES) are being considered as a novel nanoparticle solution for in vitro folding proteins. The tES are 12 nm diameter engineered particles derived from the thermophilic bacteria Archaeoglobus fulgidus with an eight nm aqueous cavity, a volume that can theoretically accommodate any molecules up to a volume of ~270 nm3. The shells, an assembly of 24 subunits contain 4.5 nm pores, which allow for easy permeation of solutes. A single mutation (Phe116 → His) at the three-fold symmetry axis disassembles them at pH 5.8 and assembles at pH 8.0. Twelve highly diverse proteins of interest (POIs) ranging from small toxins to human albumin, a dimeric protein (alkaline phosphatase), a trimeric ion channel (Omp2a), and the tetrameric tumor suppressor, p53 were folded successfully using tES. These proteins differed widely in their size, volume, disulfide linkages, isoelectric point, and multi versus monomeric nature of their functional units. Crude soluble yield (3-fold to >100-fold), functional yield (2-fold to >100-fold), and specific activity (3-fold to >100-fold) were increased for all the proteins tested. The average soluble yield was determined as 6.5 mg of folded protein per 100 mg of tES utilized. The electrostatic charge complementation between the tES interior and the protein substrate appears to be the primary determinant for functional folding.

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Congratulation to our staff Nageiswari Parathy on being appointed as a member of the NUHS Women in Science and Health (WISH) Executive Council. The NUHS WISH Group works towards advancing women in Science and Healthcare by empowering and supporting them as leaders in education, research, clinical practice and administration.

A team lead by Research Assistant Professor Koh Cho Yeow from the Cardiovascular Diseases Translational Research Programme at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) and Cardiovascular Research Institute, Associate Professor Mark Chan, from the Department of Medicine, NUS Medicine, who is also the Deputy Director (Clinical Research Matters) from the Cardiovascular Research Institute and National University Heart Centre, as well as, Professor R. Manjunatha Kini from the Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Pharmacology at NUS, developed a series of thrombin inhibitors to be powerful anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners or anticlotting medications.

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A/P LOW Chian Ming has been championing the human brain imaging effort through participation in the SYNAPSE (Synchrotron for Neuroscience: an Asia-Pacific Strategic Enterprise) programme. His work has attracted attention from CNA on their “Why It Matters” series.

On 07 Dec 2021, A/P LOW and his team members, Francis TAN and Yoke Ping were featured in the latest episode of “How Do I Cheat Death”. The link to the episode is available here:

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Congratulation to A/P Gautam Sethi, Dr Alan Prem Kumar and Dr Muthu Kumaraswamy Shanmugam (former Senior Research Fellow) on being among the 32 NUS researchers that have been placed among some of the world’s most highly cited researchers, according to the Highly Cited Researchers 2021 List published by data analytics firm Clarivate.

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Dr. LE was featured in a book titled “Stories of Integration”. This book showcases the journeys of 30 naturalised Singaporeans (Dr. LE is one of them), whose skills and talents brought much benefit to the country. They have adapted to the social and religious fabric of the country, nurtured respect for its culture and traditions, and honoured its history while forging connections within the community.

The book was also featured in CNA, channel 5, channel 8 and several newspapers. A copy of the book is available on Department bookshelf. A video of the book launch is also available on YouTube.

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