Prof White will be regaling us with his experiences and the latest discoveries at the very forefront of Precision Medicine.

Human genetics represents an experimental model that allows us to test the therapeutic hypothesis by supporting the identification and validation of novel targets for disease treatment.  However, many gaps need to be closed in order to maximally take advantage to the large volumes of data out there.  In this lecture, I will share some of these knowledge gaps and the efforts being made to close them.

NUS alumni Dr Wang Yu will share with us the challenges and insights gleaned from his remarkable transformative journey from prestigious researcher to successful entrepreneur.

Zoom ID: 863 1000 0139, Passcode: 106662

Vaccination has significantly controlled infectious diseases, yet the challenge remains in developing more effective vaccines. Host response studies following vaccination have identified several correlates of immunogenicity, providing insights for future vaccine development. However, whether these findings represent
mere statistical correlations or are also functional associations remain unclear, emphasizing the need for mechanistic insights into vaccine-induced adaptive immunity. In a human experimental medicine study investigating metformin’s immunomodulatory effects, we unexpectedly revealed a functional determinant of neutralizing antibody responses. Among healthy adults with low or undetectable levels of viremia following vaccination with the live-attenuated yellow fever 17D
(YF17D) virus, metformin-treated individuals exhibited significantly higher YF17D neutralizing antibody titers than those given placebo. Transcriptomic profiling revealed that a brief metformin course initiated three days before YF17D vaccination and ceased at Day 3 post-vaccination upregulated oxidative phosphorylation
(OXPHOS) and protein translation capacities. Moreover, the levels of these transcripts correlated with YF17D neutralizing antibody titers. Notably, metabolomics analyses suggested that short-course metformin enabled increased OXPHOS capacity with reduced concomitant reactive oxygen species response. Our findings highlight a functional link between cellular respiration and live-attenuated flaviviral vaccine-induced humoral immunity, offering insights into strategies for enhancing vaccine immunogenicity.

Arzi Adbi (Assistant Professor, Strategy & Policy, NUS Business School) and Xiaoteng Wu (former PhD student, Strategy & Policy, NUS Business School) have been selected by the Strategic Management Society (SMS) as the Winner of the Responsible Research Best Paper Prize. This prize was announced at the SMS Annual Conference (October 19-22, 2024) in Istanbul, Turkiye.

With rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ever-increasing competition for attention in a digital world, it is more important than ever for new and developing researchers to hone the art of clearly communicating their research.

Research students in the U21 network recently competed in the Global Three Minute Thesis (3MT ®) Competition. They were tasked with explaining their PhD thesis, through an online presentation of no more than three minutes.

Researchers from 19 world leading universities took part. The contest’s main aim is to cultivate academic, presentation and research communication skills, requiring participants to succinctly convey the significance of their research to a non-specialist audience.

Universitas 21 is delighted to announce that Seow Wei Lun from the National University of Singapore is the 2023 winner of the U21 3MT ® global competition. Seow’s winning presentation Chunking: Learning from Memory Games for the Game of Life explains his research on how we can, though games, group information into chunks to improve memory and potentially solve the world’s problems.

The Fox International Fellowship is a graduate student exchange program between Yale and 20 world-renowned partner universities and Fox International Fellows are selected for their potential to become leaders in areas of social impact.

Pangyue carried out her research on Demystifying Ways to Achieve ESG Goals in China: Stewardship of Market Participants at Yale University from August 2022 to May 2023.

Arising from a donation in 2005 by Professor Wang Gungwu, this award recognizes the research achievements of graduate students at NUS. Irina’s thesis on Understanding the Legal Power to Contract has potential major contribution and significant impact in the area of Private Law.