Current Research

• FYP: Ion-paired Chiral Ligands for Asymmetric Palladium Catalysis: A Mechanistic Study
• Surface Chemistry of Graphite
• The study of catalytic mechanisms of Hydrogen storage from formic acid using density functional theory

Past Research

• Polylactic acid-biodegradable polymer
• Organometallic catalysis

Academic Interests

• Computational chemistry
• Transition Metal Chemistry—catalysis
• Polymer chemistry

Current Research

• Nanoscience / nanomaterial synthesis

Past Research

• Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanotubes
• SP2171: Poly(lactic acid) – A Biodegradable Polymer
• SP2172: Preparation of Methacrylate-Terminated PLA Macromonomer for Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Academic Interests

• Inorganic chemistry
• Nanomaterial synthesis

Current Research

• Development of novel asymmetric photocatalysis (Organic synthetic method/organic catalyst synthesis)

Past Research

• Lactam Template for Ant Repellents (Organic Chemistry)
• Carbohydrate Functionalization on Carbon Coated Surface via Photochemical Methods
• Computational Study on Intermolecular Vibrational Energy
• Transfer of Free Water Molecule and Zundel Cation
• Literature Review on Polylactic Acid (PLA) – A Biodegradable Polymer

Academic Interests

• Organic synthesis and methodology
• Medicinal chemistry
• Bio-organic chemistry

Current Research

• To use computational tools to model the events happening during cell spreading coordinated by small GTPase Rho family of proteins.

Past Research

• To investigate the effect of combination drug therapy on treatment of blood cancer and use gene expression profiling to elucidate the involved target genes and novel pathways
• To understand the effect of gap junction knockdown on hepatic stellate cell activation markers in liver fibrosis

Academic Interests

• Computational Modelling, Gene Expression and Regulation, Mechanobiology, Cancer Research

Current Research

• Event-related brain dynamics in understanding the neural basis of different types of decision making
• FYP: Developing a continuous computational model for cell migration incorporating cellular mechanics

Past Research

• Exploring the effect of positive and negative feedback on the motor imagery based brain-computer interface
• Computational analysis of growth cone morphology in understanding axon turning and environmental guidance cues
• SP2171/SP2172: Multi-scale computational modeling of Epithelial-mesenchymal transition under tumor progression

Academic Interests

• Computational Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• System Biology Modeling
• Machine Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Brain-Comptuter Interface

Specialisation: Environmental Biology

Current Research

• Prediction of plant species extinction based on land-use change in collection localities using herbarium records

Past Research

• Auxin-mediated phototropism and gravitropism
• Investigation of association between single nucleotide polymorphisms in 3′UTR of FAT10 gene and risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
• Species diversity of birds in forests and town parks of Singapore

Academic Interests

• Plant taxonomy/ systematics
• Plant conservation biology
• Plant developmental biology
• Plant physiology

Specialisation: Biomedical Science

Current Research

• Effects of altering metabolism on cancer therapy, BH3 mimetics

Past Research

• (SP2172) BH3 mimetics, ABT-737 and GX015-070, work synergistically to induce cell death in leukaemic cell lines
• (SP2171) Biomarker Discovery for the Enhancement of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Diagnosis

Academic Interests

• Cancer therapy (focus on childhood leukemia)

Specialisation: Environmental Biology

Current Research

• Local invasive species study on Singapore cherry tree (Muntingia calabura), for better management of future invasive species

Past Research

• Effect of Salinity on Rate of Nitrate Absorption in Money plants (Epipremnum aureum)
• Dye-sensitized solar cells at IBN, Biopolis

Academic Interests

• Ecology (especially bioremediation and conservation) & biogeography
• Particularly interested in broad topics that integrate life sciences with physical geography

Specialisation: Environmental Biology 

Current Research

• Invasive species as potential disruptors of sexual selection

Past Research

• Effect of Salinity on Rate of Nitrate Absorption in Money plants (Epipremnum aureum)

Academic Interests

• Biodiversity and ecology, currently focusing on freshwater ecology
• Behavioral adaptations to environment

Specialisation: Biomedical Science 

Current Research

• The role of glucosamine in breast cancer

Past Research

• Bacteria Signal Transduction – the molecular function of SoxR regulator of thiosulphate oxidation
• Expression of Tenascin-C by fibroblasts in different geometrical and temporal conditions
• The Linkage Between Mechanotransduction And Gene Expression

Academic Interests

• Cell signaling and gene regulation in diseases
• Mechanobiology: how cells interpret mechanical signals to react with the environment by migrating, expressing/suppressing genes; how mechanical and chemical signal affects cell fate; the role of mechanotransduction in cancer and wound healing
• Immunology

Specialisation: Molecular and Cell Biology 

Current Research

• Study on the Steady States of Cell Morphology

Past Research

• SP2171: Towards Applications of Auxin-mediated Phototropism and Gravitropism
• SP2172: Regulatory Effects of SNPs in the FAT10 3’UTR
• Functional effects of SNPs in FAT10 Coding Region

Academic Interests

• Systems Biology
• The representation of biomolecular processes as interaction maps, for exploring relationship between connectivity patterns of the networks and dynamics of the processes
• To understand stability of steady states of a cellular system, and effects of perturbations through applying some mathematical methods

Specialisation: Molecular and Cell Biology 

Current Research

• Investigating the cytolytic activity of expanded and activated allogenic human natural killer (NK) cells on advanced leukemia/solid tumor

Past Research

• (SP2172) BH3 mimetics, ABT-737 and GX015-070, work synergistically to induce cell death in leukaemic cell lines
• (SP2171) Biomarker Discovery for the Enhancement of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Diagnosis
• Developing a human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESC)-based cellular assay for high-throughput developmental toxicity screening

Academic Interests

• Immunology (Tumour Immunology, NK cells), Stem Cells Biology and Applications, Apoptosis

Specialisation: Molecular and Cell Biology 

Current Research

• N/A

Past Research

• N/A

Academic Interests

• RNA, Post-transcriptional gene regulatory pathways.

Specialisation: Biomedical Science 

Current Research

• Optogenetic studies on differentiation of neural stem cells.

Past Research

• N/A

Academic Interests

• Therapeutic solutions for malignant brain tumors.
• Pharmacological treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Specialisation: Biomedical Science

Current Research

• Investigate the gene interactions among Tudor domain proteins involved in piRNA pathway in drosophila germline cell development.
• A two-step control model for mRNA and miRNA interaction.

Past Research

• SP2171: RNA interference as a therapeutic approach for immune disease.
• SP2172: A two-step control model for mRNA and miRNA interaction.

Academic Interests

• RNA technology and RNA interference.
• Immunology (autoimmune disease).

Current Research

• Research on how climate change affects amphibians.

Current Research

• N/A.

Past Research

• Literature Review: EPR Paradox, Bell’s Inequality, Entanglement, Non-locality, Non-local boxes.
• Project: Finding measurements that maximize a generalised uncertainty relation for dimensions 2, 3, and 4.
• UROPS: Quantum Tomography (State Estimation) -Explored improvements over the maximum likelihood method on the state estimation of a partial qubit under the trine measurement scheme using minimax and mean estimator methods.

Academic Interests

• There are no boring problems in science, but to list a few…
• Fundamental topics in physics.
• Wave-particle duality.
• Bounding quantum theory from no-signalling theories.
• Distinguishing between entangled and separable (or classically reproducible) states.
• Neuroscience, aging, and immunology.

Current Research

• The neuronal activity underlying conscious perception.

Past Research

• The foundations of Quantum Mechanics, which has the main topics of: Entanglement, EPR paradox, Bell’s inequality and Non-locality.
• The Uncertainty Principle.
• Quantum Optics and Cold Atoms.
• Neuronal activities underlying conscious phenomena.

Academic Interests

• Fundamental topics in physics in general and in quantum mechanics in particular ( for example: Schrödinger’s cat paradox, EPR paradox, non-locality).
• Philosophy of mind , philosophy of religions, asian philosophy, metaphysics.
• Any physics project at all!

Current Research

• Polymer light-emitting diodes: preparation and investigation of device performance and efficiency during operation.

Past Research

• Use of a scanning mirror on vibrating membrane to create a dynamic optical trap.
• Synthesis and characterization of gold nanotubes.
• Investigation of work function of organic polymers to facilitate hole-injection in polymer light-emitting diodes.

Academic Interests

• Organic Electronics.
• Material Science/Nanoscience.
• Surface Physics.

Current Research

• Single-molecule studies of mononucleosomes.

Past Research

• In vitro reconstitution of nucleosome arrays and in situ assembly using magnetic tweezers.
• The Linkage Between Mechanotransduction and Gene Expression.
• Expression of Tenascin-C in Fibroblasts in Different Geometrical and Temporal Conditions.

Academic Interests

• Molecular Biophysics.

Current Research

• Recently done some computational work on electron relaxation mediated by electron-phonon coupling.
• For FYP, I desire to work on spintronics and multi-ferroics in the domain of experimental physics.

Past Research

• Time Travel.
• Magneto-caloric effect.
• Bose-Einstein Condensates.

Research Interest

• Have prior research experience in theoretical, computational and experimental physics.
• Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity.
• Many body physics (Density Functional Theory) and Solid State Physics.