Welcome to the official page of the 4th NGS Symposium.
Quick Links |
ScheduleVIEW PROGRAMME BOOKLET HERE
08:30-09:00 Registration 09:00-09:10 Welcome address by NGS Executive Director, Prof. Philip Moore 09:10-09:15 Welcome address by Symposium Chair, Jonathan Lee 09:15-09:50 Keynote talk by Prof. David G Fernig: Interdisciplinary research: so what’s new? 09:50-10:10 Jeffrey Koh: The Keio-NUS CUTE Center and the Liquid Interface Project 10:10-10:30 Gracie Eng: Phosphorylation of Period2 by Casein Kinase 1 in the circadian rhythms 10:30-10:50 TEA BREAK 10:50-11:10 Deepak Babu: Identification and characterization of the vertebrate motile ciliome 11:10-11:30 Abouzar Kaboudian: Ghost Solid Method-based algorithms for elastic solid- solid interaction 11:30-11:50 Shawn Tan: The science of mind control: Implications for a new generation of psychologists and molecular neuroscientists. 11:50-13:15 LUNCH BREAK 13:15-14:45 Opportunities panel discussion with industry speakers 14:45-15:15 TEA BREAK 15:15-15:35 Jonathan Lee: PhD – Not Perishing hopes and Dreams, but Personal hebetude Development 15:35-15:55 Li Xuanqi: Biomimetic materials research: what can we really learn from nature? 16:00-16:20 Daniel Dahlmeier: Towards building a computer that can understand you like your mother 16:20-16:40 Ang Zhiwei: Immune regulatory signaling through GPR43, a receptor for short- chain fatty acids produced by gut flora 16:40-17:00 Deepak Choudhury: Fish and Chips: A microfluidic perfusion platform for zebrafish development 17:00-17:15 Prize giving and lucky draw Keynote SpeakerProf. David G Fernig
Interdisciplinary research: so what’s new?
The origins of science in classical Athens and the Renaissance were not only interdisciplinary, but also did not distinguish between art and science. In Athens there were no boundaries between, for example, philosophy,, maths, science and considerations of beauty. We still use the term “Renaissance man” to describe an individual who is an all rounder or polymath. The 20th Century saw a massive growth in science and the formalisation of disciplines, processes that started in the 19th Century. The key driver to this growth was the realisation that science, maths and engineering provided the innovation necessary for economic growth and for the successful prosecution of war. The result is that the cultural endeavour that is science, maths, engineering and art is divided up into disciplines. In tandem there was, and still is, a strong pull in the opposite direction: people driven to question and to innovate do so without respect for disciplinary boundaries. Interdisciplinary research has never gone away. Indeed, the most innovative research institute of modern times is the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, established in Cambridge after the Second World War. A very modest outfit in terms of size and cost, it has been the most effective research enterprise ever. In terms of cash invested per Nobel Prize and economic impact it is orders of magnitude more effective than any other unit or even institution. The LMB model was simple and instructive: mix physicists, chemists and biologists in equal measure and make sure they talk to each other. So what of the present and the future? There is an institutional recognition of the need for encouraging interdisciplinary research. Now that we have something of a bandwagon, there are pitfalls. One is that we have a good deal of poor research that is justified on the basis of interdisciplinary. Another is the creation of “neodiscplines” as vehicles of interdisciplinary research, an oxymoron used as a means to justify a research enterprise in the place of innovation and excellence. Genuine interdisciplinary research is easily recognisable, because it is based on communication. Communication requires learning other people’s language, something that takes time and investment. It also requires a suitable venue. Happily Singapore has the perfect solution: the hawker centre! The focus of my talk will be the proposition that you should and must engage in interdisciplinary research if you are to take hold of the reins of your research and innovate. Where to start? Simple: talk. How to start? Equally simple, do it yourselves, don’t wait for those in “charge’ to set something up. I will use my personal experiences in dealing with these two questions to illustrate that is really is quite simple. North West Cancer Research Fund Professor of Biological Chemistry, Department of Structural and Chemical Biology, Institute of Integrative Biology, Biosciences Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK dgfernig (at) liv.ac.uk (CV) Panellists for Opportunities Talk (Industry Session)
Mr. Lu Yoh Chie
Title of talk: Leading edge technology in Asia
Mr Lu, the founder of Biosensors International Group Ltd, was the Chairman and CEO of the Company from 2001 to 2008. He retained his leadership position as Chairman of the Group since January 2008. Mr Lu has more than 30 years’ experience in the medical industry. As Chairman, Mr Lu’s experience, leadership and track record has proven to be critical. While serving as Chief Executive Officer, he was responsible for Biosensors’ business strategies and directions, the implementation of corporate plans and policies, and the general management of business. Prior to founding the Company, Mr Lu established Asia-based operations for the Medical Division of Gould Inc., which specialized in surgical and critical care catheters and instruments. He held various senior positions with Gould before advancing to the position of President of the Asia-Pacific division. In 1986, Mr Lu participated in a management-led leveraged buyout of the division from Gould. He continued as President of the Asia-Pacific division through 1988 until it was sold to British Oxygen Corporation. He then served as President of Asia-Pacific with British Oxygen until 1990. In 1990, Mr Lu also founded Sun Instruments-Japan, Sunscope International in California and Biosensors International in Singapore, all of which are now subsidiaries of Biosensors International Group Ltd. Mr Lu holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management in Arizona. Founder and Chairman, Biosensors International Group, Ltd Loh Yuin-Han Jonathan, Ph.D.
Title of talk: The promises of stem cell research
Loh Yuin-Han Jonathan is a Principle Investigator at the Institute of Medical Biology, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore. He received his B.Sc. in Cellular and Molecular biology with First class honours from the National University of Singapore (NUS). He did his Ph.D. study as a pioneering batch of NUS Graduate School of Integrative Sciences and Engineering student in the laboratory of Dr Ng Huck Hui at the Genome Institute of Singapore. There he elucidated the link between the genetic and epigenetic regulation mechanisms controlling ES cells. This resulted in the discovery of two chromatin modifiers that are necessary in determining the ES cell fate.He then started his Postdoctoral fellowship with Professor George Q. Daley at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the Children’s Hospital Boston at Harvard Medical School. There, he focused on developing innovative technologies to engineer defined factor cell fate reprogramming. Jonathan shown for the first time that terminally differentiated human blood cells can be epigenetically reprogrammed to pluripotent stem cells. Jonathan has recently started the Epigenetics and Cell fates Laboratory at the Institute of Medical Biology. The laboratory is interested in dissecting the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms regulating cell fate changes, while developing novel tools and strategies in deriving differentiated cell types via defined factors reprogramming. Jonathan is a recipient of several awards including the Philip Yeo prize (2008) Singapore Young Scientist award for Biological and Biomedical Sciences (2009), Singapore Youth award for Science and Technology (2010) and the A*STAR Investigatorship Award (2011). He is currently on the Editorial board of PlosONE journal, Gene journal, American Journal of Molecular Biology and World Journal of Stem Cells. Principal Investigator, A*STAR IMB; Adjunct Assistant Professor, NUS jonathan.loh (at) imb.a-star.edu.sg Dr. Adrian Yeo
Title of talk: CBLS@SP - Recruiting for Knowledge Transfer and Industry Impact
Adrian Yeo received his PhD at the National University of Singapore (NUS). At present, he holds dual portfolios at Singapore Polytechnic as Deputy Director, School of Chemical and Life Sciences (CLS) where he heads the life/health science diploma programs, and Director, Centre for Biomedical and Life Sciences (CBLS), one of several R&D centres on campus. He is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at the Dept of Pediatrics, YLL School of Medicine, NUS. He is a member of the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) Council Committee for Laboratories Accreditation and the ISO/TC 212 National Mirror for Clinical Laboratory Testing and In Vitro Test System. Deputy Director, School of Chemical and Life Sciences, Singapore Polytechnic Dr. Koh Wee Shing
Title of talk: The REAL BEGINNING after PhD - A computational scientist point of view
Wee Shing, KOH was born in Singapore in 1977. He received the B.Eng. (Hons) and Ph.D. degrees from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2002 and 2007 respectively. He joined the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, as a project officer (supported by Agency of Science, Technology And Research or A*STAR) from June 2005 to May 2006. In June 2006, he joined the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), a research institute under A*STAR. He is currently an IHPC Independent Investigator and a Scientist under the Electronics & Photonics Department and. His current research interests include the analysis of intense electron beam-nanostructures interaction, quantum plasma, charged particle beam transport theory and particle-in-cell simulations, computational micro- and nano-electronics, plasmonics and nano-photonics. He has published more than 35 journal and conference papers. Dr KOH is also a member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers and Institute of Physics Singapore. |