A STAR TALENT TIMES
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A*STAR TALENT TIMES 1 Ms. Teo Shun Xie Research Officer, Institute of Moecuar and Ce Bioogy Dr. Adeene Sim Scientist, Bioinformatics Institute Dr. Teo Tat Joo, Danie Scientist, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technoogy 2 Setting Her Sight on Science 4 An Edifying Addiction 6 Changing the Game Mr. Dary Lee Assistant Head, Organisationa Exceence Dr. Khor Chiea Chuen Senior Research Scientist & Principa Investigator, Genome Institute of Singapore Dr. Lin Zhaoru Research Feow, P53 Laboratory 8 Focusing on Peope 10 Decoding Genes for Truth 12 Optimism to Change the Word Dr. Tan Wui Siew Scientist, Institute of Materias Research and Engineering 14 Pursuing Answers, Creating Impact Dr. Yap Ghim Eng Data Scientist and Principa Investigator, Institute for Infocomm Research 16 Soving Rea-Word Chaenges SCAN for exciting new content on our A*STAR Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/hqastar http://twitter.com/astarhq
2 A*STAR TALENT TIMES SETTING HER SIGHT ONSCIENCE Keeping a coo head is her craft, especiay when the stakes are high. That was how sharp shooter Teo Shun Xie secured the god in the 2014 Commonweath Games in Gasgow. Tough competitors, a foreign shooting range and immense pressure to win were but mere distractions. She set her sight cooy on target, and waked away the winner of the Women s 10-metre air pisto, cad in nationa coours. Shooting, I woud say, is a very unique sport. Unike other sports, this is one where you reay need to contro your thoughts and emotions, anaysed Shun Xie. You can t et adrenaine take over your body. You have to keep as cam as possibe during competition and go into an amost zenike mode. Nothing can distract or affect you. The 26 year od has been shooting since junior coege. The years of honing her craft have shaped her character and perspectives in ife as we. She shares, This sport has taught me a ot on controing my thoughts and keeping my emotions in check. During times of adversity, sometimes, the best soution is to reay keep a coo head. CHARTING OUT A PATH IN SCIENCE This capacity to stay coo and coected is an important asset when it comes to scientific inquiry. Today, Shun Xie is a budding research officer at A*STAR. Here, a typica day for her invoves managing and maintaining the mouse coony for the aboratory she is attached to, carrying out genotyping and supporting her coeagues in their research projects. dissect it right down to the ceuar and genetic eves. It is fascinating to see how it a comes together, and how from experimentation on other ife forms such as mice, we can earn more about ourseves. FUN MATTERS TOO! She may be deady serious when it comes to naiing her target, but Shun Xie certainy has a strong sense of fun which beies her quiet demeanour. This abiity to have fun and see the bright side keeps her going even when the going gets tough, such as during demanding sessions of training, competing on the range and jugging research work at the aboratory. She puts it this way, Hard work pays off. You may be experiencing a thunderstorm now, but it wi pass, and you wi see a nice, huge rainbow! Give your best in anything you do, because you never know when you wi be abe to get a second chance again. In designing and conducting experiments, it is important to be patient and not rush through things. My years of training in shooting have certainy ingrained in me the necessity of precision, which is something you need in science too, Shun Xie compares. Her enthusiasm for science began in her secondary schoo years. Life sciences attracted her in particuar. It was then that I decided that I wanted to focus on ife sciences, she recas. What motivate me are things ike how we can uncover how our bodies work and
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 3 At work, that is the first word that pops to mind when she describes her aboratory. The young researcher confides, This is a fun aboratory I m working at. We have our own aboratory t-shirt, and we even went for the A*STAR famiy day together as a aboratory! That is how cose we are. Given her natura curiosity and strong interest in science, setting sight on a path of science is ony to be expected. However, Shun Xie dreams about becoming a shooting coach or baker at times too. Shooting coach because that is my passion. As for baking, it is because baking is a science too, Shun Xie expains. You put different things together, mix them, and they come together to create something ese. This is another kind of experimentation, and I get to innovate and create different recipes, expore favours and have fun at the same time! Ms. Teo Shun Xie Research Officer, Institute of Moecuar and Ce Bioogy
4 A*STAR TALENT TIMES AN EDIFYING ADDICTION Making a cup of hot green tea that s her ritua to start the day. That is about the ony thing that is routine or expected in her ine of work. Dr. Adeene Sim is a computationa structura bioogist. Here, she works with powerfu computers, puing cuttingedge research from the fieds of physics, chemistry and bioogy to search for answers to compex questions. She shares, I work on computationa modeing of bioogica systems, with the goa of understanding how the moecues work and function in the body. To Adeene, routine is a stranger. There s an hour or two of earning, and some significant time set aside to keep up to date with scientific iterature. And then, there s some amount of coding for data anaysis, or setting up simuation experiments, and attending taks or meetings. I dedicate time to teaching interns as we, describes Adeene. Nothing is quite typica in my day! SEARCHING AND RESEARCHING FOR CLUES Her projects revea just how diverse her work is. What we do can hep us in different ways, such as designing better drugs to inhibit various diseases, says Adeene. So, a project we work on ooks at reactivating a tumoursuppressing protein in cancer ces using peptide-based drugs. We aso ook at how viruses work. For instance, we study the changes of the dengue virus as it matures, so that we can design drugs that inhibit these changes, and these can serve as potentia medication for dengue patients. A career in science gives me the chance to keep earning and to ask questions to decipher how the word works. The knowedge wi hopefuy hep us to improve ives. Dr. Adeene Sim Scientist, Bioinformatics Institute
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 5 In a fied where mutipe discipines converge, probem-soving can get pretty compicated. Adeene comments, There s a reason it s caed RE-search, rather than just search. Tria and error and testing out new methods or ideas is standard fare. But the chaenge sometimes is in finding out where the issue ies. It coud be having to debug a code, or improving an agorithm so that it runs faster. Or sometimes, specific knowedge is needed, and I have to go back to basic bioogy to ask the right questions, she expains. It is necessary to think out of the box, and often a soution can come days, weeks or even months ater. Returning to the probem again and again, and researching for answers require a degree of determination, couped with the abiity to expore the same confounding issue from different perspectives. I m a bit obsessive, which works great in research, confesses Adeene. I ike ooking for new and interesting ideas, and I enjoy ogica and systematic trains of thoughts to expain what I observe. In my spare time, I take onine courses for eisure. There s a weath of reay good casses out there for free and I get to earn ots of different things, work-reated or not. I enjoy reading biographies and non-fiction books too; they open my eyes to the way others think. I m addicted to earning. PASSING ON THE ADDICTION TO LEARNING Besides satiating her natura urge to acquire more knowedge, Adeene is aso eager to pass on this addiction to younger generations. At A*STAR, Adeene takes care to work cosey with young scientists and interns, and to mentor and teach them. I get excited when I see a spark in the student s eyes when an idea suddeny cicks in pace, smies Adeene. It is not easy outreach and mentoring requires time commitment, and it comes with a ot of frustration. But there is a great sense of fufiment when you see the individua deveop in various ways under your guidance. Besides igniting the passion for earning and science, Adeene is aso interested in shaping characters too. She says, What I do in outreach and mentorship is aso about teaching character, integrity and critica thinking skis to students. To Adeene, mentorship is a more sustainabe approach to deveop the next generation of scientists. Refecting on her persona journey to a career in science, she shares, I reca that when I was 19, I didn t know many peope in science. The decision to go into a scientific career was a stab in the dark then. These days, students have a ot more opportunities to make informed decisions, and I fee obiged to be part of passing on accurate information, so that they can make the best decisions. To me, it is my responsibiity to contribute to the society that has sponsored a arge part of my education. I ve had nice thank you notes from students in the past, which is a good motivation!
6 A*STAR TALENT TIMES CHANGING THE GAME When it comes to high-precision systems, it is crucia to have fast and accurate positioning within the working range of a few miimetres. Yet, since nanotechnoogy kicked off a few decades ago, actuators the devices with nano-positioning capacities coud ony work within the range of micrometres. But things are set to change now, thanks to the work of A*STAR scientist, Dr. Danie Teo Tat Joo, at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technoogy (SIMTech). Enter the Fexure-based Eectromagnetic Linear Actuator (FELA). Invented by Danie, FELA is a new cass of nanopositioning actuators that is abe to move within the nanometre range with a wide dispacement range of a few miimetres. With this invention, the way for the next generation of high-precision systems, such as biomedica devices and nanoithography, is paved. This game-changing invention has not gone unnoticed in the word. Just ast year, Danie cinched the prestigious R&D 100 Awards for their invention. Danie shares, It is a great honour to receive such a prestigious award. This is a source of motivation for me to work even harder and do more substantia research work, so as to eave footprints in the fied of science and engineering! MELDING PASSION WITH WORK Changing the game is what the young scientist is after in the fied of science and engineering. At SIMTech, he eads his team to deve into technoogica areas, such as biomedica devices and energy harvesting, to seek better soutions. Danie shares, In the past, the kind of difference I hoped for was to create a new technoogy that can enhance the ife of mankind. Now, I aso hope that my knowedge coud be used for creating new innovations that can provide new hope in the ives of the ess fortunate. For Danie, his job at A*STAR is a perfect meding of his passion for maths, engineering and creating impact on society at arge. Science and engineering is a natura choice for me because it invoves a ot of formuations and cacuations, which is exacty the kind of anguage I am comfortabe with. Pursuing this career aows me to exhibit my strength, he eaborates. I don t ike routine jobs, so research and deveopment is a good patform for me to expore new ideas and innovate! For me, research is not a job. It is a constant pursuit of new knowedge. Dr. Teo Tat Joo, Danie Scientist, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technoogy
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 7 Such ove for innovation and exporation started from his passion for motor-racing. The car and motorracing enthusiast raves, I became passionate about performance enhancement of cars because the process made me appreciate engineering! From engine, gearbox, suspension, tyres to aerodynamic parts etc., every part of a car is the resut of evoution in science and engineering. Lots of formuations and precise cacuations are required to buid a race-spec engine. For exampe, enhancing an engine requires knowedge on crank-puey mechanisms, materia expansion coefficients and reiabiity, therma and fuidic dynamics, mutipe sensing and contro etc. There is so much to share on this topic! ON THE LOOK-OUT FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE It is hardy surprising that what fues Danie are chaenges. My motto in ife is If others can do it, I can achieve the same or even better, as ong as the other person is human, he states. Perseverance and courage best describe my character. I am never afraid of faiure because it is a step towards success. At the same time, achievements, awards and success are just miestones or cosure of what I have set to achieve right from the beginning. A typica day at work for Danie invoves getting updates from research projects in the morning, understanding industria needs and chaenges in the afternoon and sharing his research knowedge with his peers around the word through writing journa artices, conference papers, monographs etc. at night. Amidst his intense pursuit of science and engineering knowedge, he spends time with his famiy. He refects, A*STAR has over and over again given me the opportunity to expore various research interests, providing me with funding and fexibiity. Being a big famiy of many institutes, inter-research institute coaborations aow me to everage on different ski sets and resources from the many great minds under one roof. My roe here is to assist A*STAR in training postgraduate students and transating new technoogies to the manufacturing industry. Whie innovation and invention are set in the cards for Danie, he muses about his ife as a researcher now and then. His concusion? I m a person who oves to share my knowedge and experience, he summarises. If I run out of new ideas and motivation in research one day, I wi go into academia to nurture the next generation of engineers!
8 A*STAR TALENT TIMES FOCUSING ONPEOPLE We may have a heard the utterance peope are our differentiating factor ad nauseum. If this phrase has been overused, it is because it is true, Dary Lee asserts. Yet, this phrase tes us but one part of the story. Peope indeed make the difference between good and great organisations. However, we are not parts of a machine, whirring and cranking away in isoation. Our productivity is very much dependent on the cuture within which we operate. Haiing from a background of psychoogy and human resource, Dary is part of the A*STAR team behind the drive for organisationa exceence. For instance, the organisationa exceence perspective tends to focus on systems. We ask questions such as what is the current organisationa cuture, and how does it hod up to our idea organisationa cuture? expains Dary. These are critica questions, since organisationa cuture covers a wide spectrum of issues, from perceptions of acceptabe behaviour to team dynamics. Dary says, Organisationa exceence is very much the curator of cuture in A*STAR. I beieve our end-goa is to guide the organisation aong the path of high performance. MOBILITY AND DIVERSITY Driven by an innate curiosity in human cognition and behaviour, Dary woud have pursued his interest in data anaytics had he not embarked on his chaenging career with A*STAR. Since he joined the agency, his journey has brought him through diverse roes. Recruitment, buiding taent pipeines, strengthening A*STAR s brand as an empoyer, eadership deveopment and now organisationa exceence, Dary s career has been remarkaby muti-faceted. Refecting on his career, Dary says, It is definitey a huge pus that there are mechanisms in pace to aow staff to move across job roes in A*STAR. This creates tremendous earning opportunities for staff and heps them understand the organisation better from different anges. I am positive about my move as we because organisationa exceence is an area I care deepy about. Prior to his move to organisationa exceence, Dary was in human resource management, where he was in charge of panning, forecasting and executing the entire earning and deveopment process for the agency and a I m interested in understanding human cognition and behaviour, and using my insights to hep my coeagues unock their potentia. Mr. Dary Lee Assistant Head, Organisationa Exceence
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 9 its institutes. Part of the work incuded driving initiatives to equip A*STAR scientists with skis in eadership and staff mentorship so that they coud become more werounded. Scientists are ike any of us too. They are motivated by their passion, but they can be better motivated if they know where their careers are headed and if the environment supports their persona and professiona growth. So we try to draw up a earning framework that makes sense to scientists. We aim to equip them with the right skis to ead their teams. We aso seek to get the buy-in from the top management in the institutes so that the cuture of personne deveopment can cascade down, shares Dary. MAKING A DIFFERENCE Given how varied his interests are from Utimate Frisbee and dance to board games and reading it is itte wonder that Dary is focused on heping others to be more we-rounded. He says, I find great joy in baancing my interests as having varied interests provides vast a-roundedness and heps me sharpen different abiities. His background in psychoogy has greaty infuenced his approach to work. The key question in psychoogy is how peope perceive things and how this drives their behaviour. For instance, if a programme is met with resistance, I try to see it from the stakehoders perspective to understand what does not make sense to them. Then, it s a question of empathy and conveying our perspective to them, eaborates Dary. For Dary, working at A*STAR has been highy rewarding. In my previous roe, my work touched those who participated in deveopment programmes that we initiated. I had to remain very cose to the puse on the ground to understand my feow coeagues concerns and use them as the starting point. Now, through organisationa exceence, I am abe to impact individuas on a arger scae since the initiatives are much broader in scope, anayses Dary. Yet, whie the portfoio and initiatives may be different, I am sti serving the same interna customers, and utimatey, the focus is sti on peope.
10 A*STAR TALENT TIMES DECODING GENESFOR TRUTH The truth is aways beautifu, states geneticist Dr. Khor Chiea Chuen. Amazingy so. Getting to the very bottom of things and turning up scientific truth is what drives Chiea Chuen to research. I quaify as a medica doctor, he expains. One of the most striking observations made by medica practitioners is that some otherwise heathy peope fa severey i and fare bady as opposed to others who recover without asting sequeae. What are the differences between them, and are they hereditabe? That is what motivates me; to know the truth behind causa reationships underying bioogica eements and the reason we fa i. With his team, Chiea Chuen anayses the genes of patient groups to ook for cear differences in gene marker frequencies. If big differences are found, the team compares them to other independent patient groups, whether oca or overseas, to see if the same patterns can be found. If the differences are rea and reproducibe, it is a home run. Such hits occur very rarey. One such shocking moment was when we competed the genome scan on typhoid sepsis back in 2013, recas Chiea Chuen. It was a sma scan, so we weren t expecting anything out of the ordinary. Instead, we saw an extraordinary signa of association. Peope who have the variant HLA gene enjoy up to five-fod increased resistance against getting typhoid. Five-fod protection! This breakthrough, behind which was an internationa team of scientists, was pubished in Nature Genetics in December ast year with Chiea Chuen as co-ead author. We ony ive once. Let s do our very best, to do the best science which can one day impact human heath positivey. Dr. Khor Chiea Chuen Senior Research Scientist & Principa Investigator, Genome Institute of Singapore
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 11 DOING ROBUST SCIENCE On most days, the geneticist arrives in office before daybreak. There, he catches up with correspondences from coaborators and feow researchers around the word, engages oca coaborative partners and participates in research group discussions. The scientific cuture at A*STAR is invigorating, he refects. We try to do the best science possibe, in equa partnership with our oca and internationa coaborators. This environment, where research can fourish, is a resut of mutipe factors, incuding a strong network of A*STAR research institutes and the avaiabiity of competitive grants. As internationa coaboration among scientists, cinicians and pharmacists becomes increasingy a norm, important breakthroughs are further made possibe. The discovery of the variant HLA gene s roe in typhoid resistance is an exceent case in point. Researchers and cinicians from Singapore, Austraia, the Netherands, USA and Vietnam brought different insights and sets of data together, and the resuts coud now pave the way for a more effective typhoid vaccine. Says Chiea Chuen, There is very strong core-funding which aows researchers and their cinica partners to perform arge-scae genetic studies. Large numbers aow robustness and beievabiity of data. I have shown that it is possibe to do very robust genetic studies in Singapore, and that our efforts coud best be compemented with overseas efforts to achieve resuts of exceptiona impact. If we combine our efforts with these of our partners, we can make outstanding observations which individua sites and countries wi not be abe to do. PLANTING TREES Quiet introspection is a source of insight for Chiea Chuen. In his spare hours, he takes ong evening waks in the nature reserves of Bukit Batok and Bukit Timah. There, refections and inspiration occur, he shares. As with his quest for excavating truths behind inesses, Chiea Chuen was inspired to embark on a journey of research during his training as a medica doctor. He reveas, During this time, I reaised that the fruit of current best medica practices we currenty enjoy were made possibe by researchers who preceded us 50 years ago. To pay this forward and to ensure that we keep pushing back the tide on chronic diseases, we must continue our efforts. These efforts coud mean better care in the future. Like him, many doctors around the word are reaising that genes pay a crucia roe in human heath and disease. The increasing awareness has prompted many doctors to enro their consenting patients for genetic research. With the data avaiabe, genetic hits from research carried out by scientists such as Chiea Chuen coud inform and change the medicines of tomorrow. I hope to show that good genetic studies can give us very profound and strong insights into how human diseases take hod within us. With that, the knowedge wi aow us to design better medicines for the future, Chiea Chuen shares. Knowedge is power, and power enabes. It may not be our generation who wi reap the benefits of a these efforts. It may be the next generation. But we must pant the trees today for those who wi foow us.
12 A*STAR TALENT TIMES OPTIMISM TO CHANGE THE WORLD I aways try to maintain a positive outook as being negative rarey soves probems. Dr. Lin Zhaoru Research Feow, p53 Laboratory
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14 A*STAR TALENT TIMES PURSUING ANSWERS, IMPACT CREATING Dr. Tan Wui Siew is a materias scientist by day, but on her days off, you might very we run into her working at the potter s whee. Or she coud be beting out tunes in a karaoke session, traversing the country on a hike, or jazzing things up on the dance foor with new indy hop and swing moves. The sef-confessed workahoic may spend most of her time in the ab, but to her, working hard and paying hard are two sides of a coin. The more I put into my work, the more I enjoy my eisure time. Enjoying ife refreshes my mind and enabes me to be creative and productive at work. I cannot imagine a fu ife without motivating and fufiing hard work, peppered with time spent with famiy, friends, earning and the pursuit of random adventures. Curiosity is her trademark, and it has brought her to expore many a thing in ife. She muses, Had I not become a scientist, I might have become an entrepreneur, medica doctor or socia worker. Yet among a her passions, it was science that she chose. Science was my first ove in schoo, Wui Siew confessed. My curiosity drove me to ask many questions as a student. Stubborn refusa to accept answers such as That s a we know or That s a we can do ed me to a path in science and technoogy. The excitement of discovery and the opportunity to sove probems that impact human ives motivate me in my scientific pursuits. Dr. Tan Wui Siew Scientist, Institute of Materias Research and Engineering
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 15 DOGGEDNESS IN ACTION Today, Wui Siew appies the same doggedness to her research. Learning, observing, anaysing, communicating and faiing, faiing a ot that is what my work invoves, says Wui Siew. Faiing is a arge part of research and experimentation, and inevitabe when one tries to do things no one ese has succeeded in before. At A*STAR, Wui Siew eads a team to understand and sove compex mutidiscipinary probems invoving how surfaces interact with water and oi, food or body fuids. The potentia impact of their work is far-reaching. For instance, surfaces can be engineered to resist funga and bacteria growth, to encourage integration of medica devices into human bodies, to prevent infection, to increase diagnostic accuracy the ist goes on. Their research can enabe the deveopment of safer, cost-effective technoogies in a wide range of fieds, from medica devices to househod products. To find the right answers, or even more importanty, to ask the right questions, Wui Siew and her team scour scientific iterature and engage with both academia and industry. From there, the team identifies chaenges that remain to be soved, and areas where new knowedge is needed for progress. Continua education and diaogue ensure we remain reevant in our research. Furthermore, effective networks in the scientific community enabe us to set up coaborations with other scientists to carry out mutidiscipinary research aimed at buiding new knowedge and technoogica capabiity. This way, scientific research runs in fu circe, from earning, ideation, experimentation, anaysing data to understand new science, deveopment of functiona design and innovation, Wui Siew concudes. MAKING THE MAXIMAL IMPACT Pursuing answers, however, is not just a rigorous inteectua exercise for Wui Siew. It is as much about making a difference in society. Speaking of her vision, Wui Siew shares, In this ife, I hope to create the maxima positive impact on as many peope as I can. Doing things for the right reasons is important to me. For my work, I hope that it wi eventuay impact Singapore s society in two ways first, through scientific innovation, and second, through changing the way science is funded and perceived through outreach and communication. To Wui Siew, Singapore is a fast-paced country accustomed to quick changes and resuts. However, scientific endeavours often require ong-term incubation and nurturing. Science is ike a chid, and its maturity cannot be rushed. To change that mindset, we need to have constant diaogue among a the stakehoders, incuding scientists, egisators and the pubic, opines Wui Siew. With Science and Technoogy paying an increasingy important roe in Singapore s socio-economic growth, research agencies such as A*STAR wi have even bigger roes to assume. A*STAR is one of the agencies with the capabiity to significanty infuence our research ecosystem, says Wui Siew. I beieve that we can create greater impact in time to come, by impementing unconventiona research strategies that wi resut in arger coordinated efforts. I dream of the day we can say This is what we did in A*STAR that has enabed us to uniquey take first pace in the word.
16 A*STAR TALENT TIMES REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES
A*STAR TALENT TIMES 17 Dr. Yap Ghim Eng Data Scientist and Principa Investigator, Institute for Infocomm Research