NUS Medicine educators supervised science student who wins Global Undergraduate Awards
Published: 07 Oct 2025
Raegan Sim (second from left), with her thesis mentor and supervisors Associate Professor George Yip Wai Cheong (left) from the Department of Anatomy at NUS Medicine, Assistant Professor Leong Sai Mun (second from right) and Dr Muhammad Sufyan Bin Masroni (right), both from the Department of Pathology at NUS Medicine.
Associate Professor George Yip Wai Cheong from the Department of Anatomy; together with Assistant Professor Leong Sai Mun and Dr Muhammad Sufyan Bin Masroni from the Department of Pathology have together, supervised and mentored Raegan Sim from the Faculty of Science for her final year thesis, for which she has been named the 2025 Global Winner in the Life Sciences category at the Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA). The Life Sciences major has become the only NUS student to place in the GUA this year.
The educators said, “Mentoring Raegan was a privilege. Despite beginning with no prior research skills, she applied herself with discipline and determination, rapidly gaining both competence and confidence while tackling many challenges along the way. Her success underscores the immense potential of our FoS Life Science undergraduates in advancing biomedical discovery at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and we are proud to have supported her on this journey.”
When her grandfather stopped responding to cancer therapy and eventually passed away in 2018, Raegan strengthened her resolve to dig deeper into cancer science and treatments.
Her project, “Intercellular mitochondrial transfer from poly-aneuploid cancer cells drives chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer”, investigates how a rare type of giant cancer cell “shares energy” with smaller neighbouring cells, essentially “turbocharging” them to survive the stress of chemotherapy.
The Global Winner is awarded to the top highest-ranked submission in each category, selected from thousands of entries from universities around the world, through a four-stage, anonymous review conducted by expert panels. It recognises exceptional scholarship, originality, and the potential impact of the work—celebrating recipients as leading undergraduate thinkers in their field.
Raegan said, “This achievement would not have been possible without the steadfast guidance and support of my supervisors. Their encouragement and unwavering belief in me were instrumental in this journey.”
Read more about Raegan’s project here.
