GROUP MEMBERS

CAROLINE LEI WEE

Principal Investigator

Ph.D. in Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (2016)

B.A. Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences, Ithaca, NY (2009)

    Double Major in Biological Sciences (Neurobiology and Behavior) & Psychology 

    Distinction in all subjects

    Summa cum laude

A*STAR NSS (BS-PhD) Scholarship (2006, 2010)

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Caroline's research interest is in understanding the fundamental mechanisms governing motivated behaviors such as feeding and stress, with the goal of improving human health and well-being. Towards this goal, she has won several significant fellowships and grants, including the A*STAR National Science Scholarship (NSS BS-PhD, 2006, 2010), National Medical Research Council Young Individual Research Grant (2020) and National Research Foundation Fellowship (Class of 2021). She is also a lead Principal Investigator in A*STAR's Brain-Body Initiative. 

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Personal Website 

LinkedIn

RUEY-KUANG CHENG

Senior Research Fellow

Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (2010)

M.S. National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan (2002)

B.S. National Cheng-Chi University, Taipei, Taiwan (1999)

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Ruey has more than 10 years of experience in both zebrafish and rodent behavioral neuroscience research, and trained in the lab of Dr. Suresh Jesuthasan (NTU-LKC, Singapore). His expertise includes behavioral and in vivo calcium imaging, electrophysiology, and hardware/software development for animal behavior analysis. His research interests include timing and time perception, learning and memory, decision making, and emotional control of behavior.

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Research Gate

Google Scholar

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VINDHYA CHAGANTY

Research Fellow

Ph.D. in Developmental biology, National University of Singapore (2021)

M.Sc. Biotechnology V.I.T University, India (2016)

B.Sc. Biotechnology V.I.T University, India (2014)

During her Ph.D., Vindhya used zebrafish as a model organism to study neurodegenerative diseases. Her current research interest is in understanding the neural circuitry and genetics of appetite control. Her expertise includes microscopy, behavioral analysis, and transcriptomics.

WEN LIE

PhD Candidate

A*STAR Graduate Scholarship (Singapore) (2021)

Pharmacist, Singapore Pharmacy Council (2021)

B.Sc. (Pharmacy) with Honours (Highest Distinction), National University of Singapore (2020)

Research Experience:

• Developed a mammalian expression system expressing SARS-CoV-2 proteins for production of virus-like particles

• Investigated the metabolizing enzymes and disposition kinetics of two synthetic cannabinoids and their metabolites 

Research Interests:

• Gut microbiome

• Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics

LinkedIn

YEO HUI LI

Senior Research Officer

B.S. (Hons) in Biotechnology, First Class Honours, Northumbria University (2016)

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Hui Li trained in the lab of Dr. Sudipto Roy (IMCB). She has more than 5 years of zebrafish research experience and extensive expertise in molecular biology, genetics, and microscopy. She also manages daily lab operations and procurement. 

GUAN ZHEN

Senior Research Officer (IMCB & Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR)

B.Sc. in Mathematical Sciences (Statistics), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

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Research Experience:

• Collaborated with Dr Huang Weimin’s team from I2R (A*STAR) and GE Japan on segmenting coronary artery from 3D heart CT images. Developed a reconstruction algorithm which improves recall, precision and f1 score by 9.5%, 1.6% and 5% respectively.

Research Interests:

• Machine/deep learning application on biomedical data

• Action recognition & action detection

GAYNAH DOBLADO

Laboratory Officer

Diploma in Marine Science and Aquaculture, Republic Polytechnic (2021)

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Research Experience:

• Intern at the Environmental Engineering cluster in Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), under the integrated theme of Marine Biofilms & Microbiomes. 

• Research study under Dr Grace Loo to investigate presence of genetic markers in shrimps.

Research Interests:

• Genetics and Marine Biology

CHUA KAI XIN

Research Officer

B.S. in Business and Environmental Sciences, Majoring in Aquaculture, James Cook University Singapore (2020)

Research Experience:

• Research on ciliopathies using zebrafish and mice as animal models

• Population Dynamics and Phylogenetic Analysis of Canine Parvovirus

Research interests:

• Physiology of eating disorders and mental health

DINAH YUSOFF

Research Officer 
Previously Research Assistant (SGUnited Traineeship)

B.Sc. in Pharmacology, Monash University, Australia (2020)

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Research Experience:

• Tableting trials to determine appropriate quality parameters for Diana Food (nutraceutical)

• Handling of mice in effects of centrally acting drugs on mice behaviour, and neurological and autonomic functions under the Department of Pharmacology, Monash University

Research interests:

• Drug interactions and Neuropharmacology

VALARIE THAM

Research Officer

B.Sc. in Molecular Biology, La Trobe University (2018) 

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Research Experience:

• Final Year Project in collaboration with National University of Singapore on the Optimization of a Diagnostic Platform for Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika 

• Research in Genome Institute of Singapore that targets Metabolic Vulnerabilities in Liver Cancer 

Research Interests:

• Genetics and Neuromuscular Diseases

JOLIN TAN

Laboratory Officer (Aquaculture)

Diploma in Marine Science and Aquaculture, Republic Polytechnic (2022)

Research Experience:

• Intern at the St. John's Island National Marine Laboratory under the South East Asian Microplastic Project under Dr Neo Mei Lin.

• Research study conducting probiotics feeding trial In Whiteleg Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei).

Research Interests:

• Marine Biology & Aquaculture

SANDRA TAN

Research Officer

B. Sc. in Medical Biosciences, First Class Honours, Imperial College London (2022)

A*STAR NSS (BS) Scholarship (2019)

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Sandra is interested in how neural circuits and brain signals mediate lived human experiences – such as dementia and appetite. Most recently, she led a research project under Dr Yu Ye (UK Dementia Research Institute) establishing a novel cell-based tauopathy model using TIRF microscopy. She previously assisted Dr Hasan Mohammad in Dr Fu Yu’s lab (IMCB) studying appetite regulation in mice, and is now looking into novel effects of neuropeptides on appetite and food preference in zebrafish.

JOVIAN LIN

Laboratory Officer

Diploma in Biomedical Science (Biomedical Research), Singapore Polytechnic (2022)

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Research Experience:

• Intern at the Bioinformatics Institute (BII, A*STAR), under the Aging Biology Intervention Research (ABIR) group. Studied the mechanisms of FDA-approved drugs and natural compounds on aging, obtained from high-throughput screening in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae model under Dr Mohammad Alfatah. Published in Lin, Cheng et al. (2022).

Research Interests:

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

PHOEBE TAN

Research Officer (Joint with Leslie Beh Lab)

B.S. in Biomedical Sciences, Upper-Second Class Honours, University of Sheffield (2022)

Phoebe completed her undergraduate thesis under the guidance of Dr. Elena Rainero on the link between Extracellular Matrix degradation and cancer metastasis. Prior to her undergraduate studies, she received her Diploma in Biomedical Sciences from Republic Polytechnic, where she completed a 20-week internship and Final Year Project, with Dr. Juwita Rahmat in the Department of Surgery at the National University of Singapore, on the use of nanoparticles in photodynamic therapy in bladder cancer. She hopes to branch out into the field of oncogenomics further into her research career. Additionally, she is keen on using bioinformatics and software programming to support her research work.