A/Prof Justin Chu

Appointment(s)

Assistant Dean (Academic Affairs), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
Director of NUS Medicine BSL-3 & ABSL-3 Core Facility
Joint Senior Principal Investigator, IMCB A*STAR

Degree(s)

PhD (Virology) 2005, National University of Singapore.

Biography

Dr Justin Jang Hann Chu is currently the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Infectious Diseases Translational Research Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/mbio/about-us/our-people/academic-staff/justin-chu.html. He is holding a Joint Senior Principal Investigator in the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR. A/P Chu is also the Director of the 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 positive-sense RNA viruses of medical importance including SARS CoV-2, human enteroviruses that cause HFMD as well as mosquito-borne viruses including Dengue, Zika, Japanese Encephalitis and Chikungunya. The outcomes of these studies are helping to pave the roadmap towards the development of a number of antiviral strategies. Eight patents and numerous scientific awards have been received from his current research. A/P Chu has published over 150 international peer-reviewed scientific publications, six book chapters and over 200 conference papers. A number of these scientific papers are published in prestigious journals including Science, Nature Immunology, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, PNAS, PLoS Pathogens. 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. He is the current elected President of the Asia-Pacific Society of Medical Virology and the elected President of the Singapore Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology.

Selected Publications

An epidemiological surveillance of hand foot and mouth disease in paediatric patients and in community: A Singapore retrospective cohort study, 2013-2018. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 15(2):e0008885.

Min N, Ong YHB, Han AX, Ho SX, Yen EWP, Ban KHK, Maurer-Stroh S, Chong CY, Chu JJH (2021).

Evaluation of In Vitro and In Vivo Antiviral Activities of Vitamin D for SARS-CoV-2 and Variants. Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(3),925;

Mok CK, Ng YL, Ahidjo BA, Aw ZQ, Chen HX, Wong YH, Lee RCH, Loe MWC, Liu J, Tan KS, Kaur P, Wang DY, Hao EW, Hou XT, Tan YW, Deng JG and Chu JJH (2023)

Attenuation of Neurovirulence of Chikungunya Virus by a Single Amino Acid Mutation in Viral E2 Envelope Protein. J Biomed Sci. 2024 Jan 17;31(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s12929-024-00995-x. [JCR IF:11(2022)] (SJR:Q1)

Chen H, Phuektes P, Yeo LS, Wong YH, Lee RCH, Yi B, Hou X, Liu S, Cai Y, Chu JJH (2023)

Potential relevance of salivary legumain for the clinical diagnostic of hand, foot, and mouth disease. J Med Virol. 2023 Nov;95(11):e29243.doi: 10.1002/jmv.29243. [JCR IF:12.7(2022)] (SJR:Q1)

Tan YW, Teo FMS, Ler SG, Alli-Shaik A, Nyo M, Chong CY, Tan NWH, Wang RYL, Gunaratne J, Chu JJH (2023)

Red Blood Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Display Endogenous Antiviral Effects and Enhance the Efficacy of Antiviral Oligonucleotide Therapy. ACS Nano. 2023 Oct 18. [JCR IF:17.1(2022)] (SJR: Q1)

Jayasinghe MK, Gao C, Yap G, Yeo BZJ , Vu LT, Tay DJW, Loh WX, Aw ZQ, Chen H, Phung DC , Hoang DV, Prajogo RC, Hooi L, Lim FQ, Pirisinu M, Mok CK, Lim KW, Tang SJ, Tan KS, Chow EKH, Chen L, Phan AT, Chu JJH, Le MT (2023)

AAV-CRISPR-Cas13 eliminates human enterovirus and prevents death of infected mice. EBioMedicine 2023 Jun 28;93:104682. https://doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104682. [JCR IF:11.1(2022)]

Keng CT, Yogarajah T, Lee RCH, Muhammad IBH, Chia BS, Vasandani SR, Lim DS, Guo K, Wong YH, Mok CK, Chu JJH, Chew WL. (2023)

The host-targeting compound peruvoside has a broad-spectrum antiviral activity against positive-sense RNA viruses. Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B March 2023

Wu KX, Yogarajah T, Loe MWC, Kaur P, Lee RCH, Mok CK, Wong YH, Phuektes P, Yeo LS, Chow VTK, Tan YW, Chu JJH (2023)

Infection with wild-type SARS-CoV-2 elicits broadly neutralizing and protective antibodies against omicron subvariants. Nature Immunology 2023

Ju et al (2023)

Broadly neutralizing and protective nanobodies against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants BA.1, BA.2, and BA.4/5 and diverse sarbecoviruses. Nature Communications 13, Article number: 7957.

Li et al. (2022)

Early pathogenesis profiles across SARS-CoV-2 variants in K18-hACE2 mice revealed differential triggers of lung damages. Frontiers in Immunology 13:950666.

Aw ZQ, Mok CK, Wong YH, Chen H, Mak TM , Lin RTP, Lye DC, Tan KS and Chu JJH (2022)

Natural products as Zika antivirals. Medicinal Research Reviews 2022 May 20.

Fong YD, Chu JJH. (2022)