What the department has done to help you?
The department provided a very supportive environment to allow exploration and establishment of research directions. The traditional strong departmental ties with hospital departments of infectious disease, pathology and various clinical disciplines also helped to link up with collaborators which are so important for our type of research.

Any fond memories you'd like to highlight?
For me the time spent in the W.H.O. Immunology Lab located at McAlister Road when Microbiology Department was still at the College of Medicine Building was the best. It was an idyllic setting to do science but we do get the occasional snake visitors.

What you are currently doing now; your designation for your current position?
I am currently on secondment from NUS to A*STAR. Having been Deputy Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore as well as Director of the Biopolis Shared Facilities for the past several years, I have just relinquished these positions to be Director of Graduate Affairs Office and also concurrently as a Principal Investigator at the Singapore Immunology Network.

My role at the GAO is to oversee deployment of the 1000 local PhD scholars funded by A*STAR into the various research institutes On the non-scientific front, I have a founded a charity called the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation, which provides financial assistance to patients undergoing chemotherapy or marrow/cord blood transplantation. The Foundation raises donations from the public and has so far given away some $6 million in financial aid to low income patients. About 50% of the patients supported have household income of less than $1000 while 25% have less than $2000. The Foundation steps in to help such patients who are faced with high cost treatments and procedures that frequently range from $50,000 to $100,000.

This is a very challenging yet rewarding type of work which I can trace to the Department of Microbiology as it grew out of my research exposure while as a postgraduate student in the area of tissue typing for matching of marrow transplants.