IMCB 40th Anniversary
11 April, 2025
We just commemorated IMCB's 40th Anniversary with a 2-day celebration involving talks and panel discussions, a gala dinner, and a staff retreat. Caroline spoke at the Day 1 scientific symposium in the session "Brain and Body Intertwined: A New Frontier for Metabolic and Brain Health", on the topic of "Unlocking the Diet-Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis for Brain Health", using a multi-model approach. The talk featured a zebrafish project led by Dinah and Kai Xin, which also included human cohort analyses from Xiaoyan. She also participated in a panel discussion where she highlighted the importance of science at the boundaries between fields, where breakthrough discoveries happen. The symposium was followed by a grand gala dinner, graced by Minister Tan See Leng, comprising IMCB staff, alumni, industry and academic collaborators and friends.
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The following day was the staff retreat, in which Wen presented on his PhD project as was one of the selected short talk speakers. Hiromi Koh also won a poster award on her collaborative work with Caroline under A*STAR's Brain-Body Initiative, on brain-body interactions in children metabolic health trajectories. Congratulations to all and a Happy Birthday to IMCB!
Happy 2025!
8 Jan, 2025
Happy New Year from CW Lab! This year, we welcome a new postdoc, Eugene, a new PhD student, Khei Min, plus a number of new interns. The pics only show a subset of our expanding lab, so do check out our Team page to find out more about our new (and existing) members. Looking forward to a fruitful and fulfilling 2025!
CW Team Activities
20 Nov, 2024
September to November was a busy period for CW lab, due to an international neuroscience conference and many other deadlines. However, we still found time to go indoor rock climbing / bouldering, not just once, but twice! (a subset of the lab did choose to go ice skating the 2nd time round...) These activities also served as a warm welcome for our new lab members such as Lynette (PhD student), Jing Xuan (postdoc), and Marit (intern).
IZFC 2024
28 Aug, 2024
A "delegation" from our lab just went to Kyoto to attend the 18th International Zebrafish Conference. Both our lab's abstracts were selected for talks - Vindhya presented her work on hypothalamic and hormonal regulation of appetite at a Plenary Session on Neurobiology, and Wen his PhD work on diet-microbiome interactions in appetite in a Concurrent Session on Physiology and Metabolism. Both talks were well-received and we managed to connect with both old and new collaborators, plus find time to hang out in the evenings!​​
CW AQUACULTURE PAPERS PUBLISHED!
22 Jul, 2024
Proud to announce two back-to-back papers on our aquaculture efforts, which address the problem of stress in aquaculture often leading to poor growth, disease, and mortality. In a collaboration with A*STAR's Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) and Republic Polytechnic (RP), we quantified the dynamics of cortisol (stress hormone) release from Asian Sea bass, both into tissue and in the surrounding water, and then developed an ultra-sensitive cortisol sensor which would allow for non-invasive stress monitoring. This project was supported by an A*STAR Agritech and Aquaculture Horizontal Technology Programme Office seed grant awarded to Caroline, Laura Sutarlie and Xiaodi Su from IMRE. Jolin Tan was the main laboratory officer working on the project together with Marie Tan, an aquaculture expert and lecturer at RP. As you can see from the pics, the rest of the lab also pitched in to run the large-scale aquaculture experiments!
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You may access the papers here:​
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IMCB Staff Retreat 2024
10 April, 2024
IMCB's staff retreat was held on 15 March 2024. It was an excellent time of learning about each other's science, while meeting and socialising with others in our 500-strong institute. Continuing our prize-winning streak, Wen won one of 5 outstanding poster awards out of more than 50 posters presented at the retreat. CW lab also participated in and won the best-dressed lab competition, where we tried our best to look like our favourite model organism! Kudos to Valarie who helped print the hat and fish tails and to the rest of the lab for being so sporting!
SINGAPORE FISH MEETING 2024
17 March, 2024
This year's Singapore Fish Meeting was held on 1 March 2024. Besides the long talk given by Vindhya, we presented a grand total of 6 posters, 3 of which won awards. The winners were: 1) FYP student Sean and RO Dinah (Sean also gave a flash talk) 2) ROs Valarie and Kai Xin, presenting on behalf of graduated Master's student Sasmitha 3) Wee Leng presenting her FYP co-supervised by Prof Christoph Winkler at NUS. The topics of our posters covered nutrient-microbiome interactions regulating metabolic health, neurodegeneration, and behaviour.
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2nd photo is taken with IMCB's long-term fish facility manager, Agus, who just retired. He has given us such valuable help and support over the years, so we wish him all the best and will miss him dearly!
IMCB CHRISTMAS PARTY 2023
18 Dec, 2023
Caroline's PhD supervisor Florian dropped by IMCB for a day to give a seminar on his recent work on the brain-heart axis, discuss science, and most importantly, join our Christmas party! We even managed to reenact the jumping scene which is an Engert lab holiday party tradition. Lab members who weren't around were photoshopped into the final pic by Val ;)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from CW lab!
NEUROSCIENCE SINGAPORE 2023
11 Dec, 2023
CW lab had a strong showing at Neuroscience Singapore 2023 on 5-6 Dec. Not only was Valarie instrumental in helping organise the event and coordinate sponsorship, we also presented 2 posters at the poster session, truly a collective effort. Notably, Wen's poster on his PhD project was selected for an outstanding poster award, a well-deserved accomplishment. We also had a surprise visit from lab alumna Jovian who is now studying at NTU. As the year comes to a close, we look forward to more interactions with the Singapore neuroscience community in the year ahead!
COLD SPRING HARBOR ZEBRAFISH NEUROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE 2023
Nov 19, 2023
Caroline and Vindhya recently attended the Zebrafish Neurobiology Conference at Cold Spring Harbor (CSH) Laboratories from 15-18 November, a key conference for this burgeoning field. There, Vindhya had the opportunity to present her own work on the hormonal regulation of appetite in the "Neuromodulators and State" session, to an audience of zebrafish neuroscientists. Her talk was well-received and was a great introduction to our lab's research.
The preceding talk from the Douglass lab also showcased the follow-up on Caroline's PhD work on oxytocin, and it was similarly exciting to see the progress that has been made since then.
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Caroline will be organising the next CSHL zebrafish neurobiology conference in November 2025, looking forward to even more CW lab representation by then!
NEUROBIOLOGY OF SLEEP AND MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS MINI-SYMPOSIUM 2023
Nov 11, 2023
On Nov 1st, 2023, SfN.SG, IMCB, and NUS along with other partners, jointly organised a mini-symposium on the neurobiology of sleep and mental health disorders. Caroline presented on recent work of Dinah and the team on diet-microbiome-immune interactions regulating sleep in zebrafish. We were also fortunate to have two eminent keynote speakers, Patricia Silveira (McGill University) and Pankaj Sah (Director of Queensland Brain Institute) book-ending our event, along with many key local neuroscientists in the field. It was a stimulating and interactive event, leading up to our upcoming annual symposium, Neuroscience Singapore 2023, in December. Valarie from our lab helped in sponsor recruitment and conference organisation. Also, very proud of our lab alumna Jovian Lin for the intricate poster design!
ZDMS16
Oct 16, 2023
Caroline recently presented postdoc Vindhya Chaganty's work as an invited speaker at the Glial biology and Neurobiology plenary session of the Zebrafish Disease Models Society's 16th Conference in Durham, North Carolina, on a conserved hormonal circuit for appetite control. She also gave a short technology talk on 3D spatial transcriptomics, a collaboration with Maurice Lee and Kok Hao Chen (GIS, A*STAR). Overall a great achievement for our lab just 2.5 years after we started!
LAB BOWLING / FAREWELL
May 30, 2023
In May we bade farewell to some lab members (moving on to greater opportunities), and also welcomed some new interns! We had a mini lab outing of bowling followed by dinner to celebrate these events.
NUTRITION AND METABOLISM SYMPOSIUM 2023
Mar 15, 2023
The inaugural Nutrition and Metabolism Symposium, organised by Caroline and colleagues within IMCB as well as DUKE-NUS, was held this Monday at Matrix, Biopolis. It was a full-day symposium of talks covering topics such as early life nutrition, food for health, neurometabolism, and the microbiome, from both academic and industry scientists. Caroline also gave a talk on Wen's PhD work linking diet-microbiome interactions to energy balance regulation. It was a full house turnout, a testament to the great science and scientific interest in this space.
Lab members who helped out included Val (sponsor recruitment and general logistics), Jovian (who drew the artwork) and Sandra (poster design and photography). Looking forward to future similar events and collaborations in this exciting sphere.
AQUACULTURE
Mar 15, 2023
Today marks the final day of our Aquaculture seed project, funded by A*STAR, where we looked at stress dynamics and detection in Asian sea bass. This was an interdisciplinary colaboration between our lab, the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (A*STAR), and Republic Polytechnic. We had concluded our experiments in early March, the pic shows our entire team right after a full day of sampling. We all got wet to varying degrees but that's just part of the fun!
SINGAPORE FISH MEETING
Feb 17, 2023
Happy New Year from the CW Lab :) Together with the rest of the local zebrafish community, we kickstarted the year with the Singapore Fish Meeting, which was last held in 2019.
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It was a fantastic mix of short talks, an engaging poster session, and catching up on science and life. Our lab also left the meeting with the largest bounty of prizes, including the most popular talk (Wen's), and 2 best poster awards (Valarie and Ruey's, as well as Sandra's poster) out of more than 20 posters presented. Hoping this bodes well for the year ahead!
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CW LAB HOLIDAY PARTY
Dec 7, 2022
We just wrapped up the year with a holiday party for lab members and friends, hosted by senior research fellow Ruey. Looking forward to an even more exciting 2023!
WORLD AQUACULTURE SINGAPORE 2022
Dec 2, 2022
At World Aquaculture Singapore 2022, Caroline presented two back-to-back talks on our aquaculture-related research projects - one on stress in Asian Sea bass and the other, led by Dinah Yusoff, on using zebrafish to identify nutritional interventions for gut health.
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Our Asian Sea bass project, funded by A*STAR's A2HTPO seed fund, is an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort between Republic Polytechnic, the Institute of Materials Research (IMRE) and Engineering, and our lab. We haven't managed to get everyone in the same photo, but there should be many more team pics to come!
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From left to right: Caroline, Shubha Vij (RP), Xiaodi Su (IMRE), Marie Tan (RP), Jolin Tan (IMCB). Missing Laura Sutarlie from IMRE.
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SINGAPORE SYMPOSIUM ON METABOLIC DISEASES 2022
Nov 22, 2022
The Singapore Symposium on Metabolic Diseases and Asia-Pacific Diabetes and Obesity Study Group Annual Conference was held at A*STAR from 21-22 November, and featured many international speakers from around the region.
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Caroline chaired a session and also presented ongoing work in the lab led by postdoc Vindhya Chaganty on characterising appetite-regulating circuits in the zebrafish hypothalamus. It was the only zebrafish talk at the conference, but as always, we were excited to share the importance of the model in neurobehavioral research!
LIVE RADIO INTERVIEW AND NEW LAB MEMBERS
Aug 23, 2022
Last Friday, Caroline was interviewed by Yasmin Jonkers for the XXFiles on CNA837, on our work in zebrafish and the Brain-Body Initiative in understanding the control of appetite and dietary decisions. You can tune in to the podcast here:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/listen/xx-files/solving-hunger-crisis-2888906 (starts 17:15)
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We also bid farewell to our summer interns, and welcome new staff / interns: Sandra, Jovian, and Beckham!
RESEARCH UPDATE: NEW PROJECTS, PAPERS, AND PEOPLE!
Jun 28, 2022
This summer, we welcome new lab officer Jolin and intern Kai Lin, as we embark on an exciting and ambitious aquaculture project with collaborators from Republic Polytechnic and IMRE (A*STAR). This project is funded by A*STAR's Agritech and Aquaculture Horizontal Programme Office (A2HTPO) Seed Fund.
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We also welcome A*STAR Research Internship Awardees Tan Wee Leng and Kellie Wong, as well as Kenneth Suhardjo from ACJC who will explore diet-microbiome-immune interactions in zebrafish.
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Finally, we have published a review article and companion brief report on how zebrafish can be used to model mental health. Check them out on our publications page.
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FIRST LAB PARTY
May 27, 2022
To commemorate the 1st anniversary of our lab, we had a BBQ party for both existing lab members and alumni. The lab has grown rapidly over the last year, but continues to be a tight-knit and collaborative team focused on pursuing exciting new science. We welcome interns particularly under A*STAR programs such as the A*STAR science award and ARIA. For other potential opportunities, please click here.
CHANNEL NEWSASIA FEATURE
Mar 10, 2022
As hinted earlier, our lab's research was featured in a Channel NewsAsia series called "Food to Change the World", hosted by Chef Ming Tan. In the first episode, we demonstrate the utility of the zebrafish model in dissecting dietary effects on physical and mental health, as well as the potential links between them.
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It was a collective effort from the entire lab, culminating in the segment which you can watch here (starting 12:10)
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Many more scenes were cut unfortunately, including some of the mating / egg laying process and in vivo calcium imaging. However, overall I hope this will generate more interest in the zebrafish model and our lab's research!
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Photo credit: Yeo Hui Li
LAB MEMBER UPDATE 2022
Feb 16, 2022
Happy New Year from the CW Lab!
In January, we bade farewell to Jazlynn, who moved across the street to the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) to learn new cutting-edge imaging / analysis methods. For her farewell party we played Pictionary using Skribbl.io, which Jazlynn introduced during her time here.
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Ryan from Singapore Polytechnic also just completed his internship. We had a fun lab quiz mainly centered on Ryan, and based on the questions it looks like he will be dearly missed ;) Not surprisingly, he was also the ultimate winner!
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Our H3 students Xiping and Yucheng have also returned to school, after having spent their December holidays churning out their research reports and SSEF submissions. It was a lot of work (experiments, analyses) within quite a short period of time, but they have hopefully acquired valuable skills for the future. Wishing them all the best for their upcoming presentations!
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Our next batch of interns / students will be arriving from May onwards. Additionally, our lab has received funding for an aquaculture-related project. Stay tuned for more updates...
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Nov 4, 2021
This month, Caroline was featured in the International Zebrafish Society's (IZFC) newsletter.
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Caroline was also quoted in a recent article on zebrafish as a model for neuroscience research.
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Additionally, Channel News Asia just filmed a segment for an upcoming TV series in our lab! It's under wraps for now, but should be out by early next year.
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Photo Credit: Yeo Hui Li
LAB MEMBERS UPDATE
Jul 30, 2021
Danial, who was on an SGUnited Traineeship, is leaving to further his studies in university.
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Jazlynn, an A*STAR scholar, will be doing her one-year research attachment in our lab.
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Wen will be joining as our lab's very first PhD student, under the A*STAR Graduate Scholarship.
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Congrats to all!
JERRICK'S FAREWELL LUNCH
Feb 21, 2021
Jerrick's last day was on Feb 19, wishing him all the best in his future scientific career!
NEWS COVERAGE FORÂ NRF FELLOWSHIP
Dec 22, 2020
The lab will be partially funded by the National Research Foundation Fellowship, recently awarded to Caroline.
Here is a news feature describing our work and that of fellow awardees from A*STAR.
WE'RE OPENING SOON!
Dec 17, 2020
Our official start date is April 2021. However, research is already ongoing. We also have many open positions - please inquire if you are interested in joining our team.