Hwang In Young
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Principal Investigator, NUS SynCTI
Tel: +65 6601 2449
Email: bchhiy@nus.edu.sg

What are your present research interests?

My current research interest lies in engineering microbes with programmable functions that can be used as live biotherapeutics.

Do you have a distinctive viewpoint to your research?

The field of synthetic biology and its applied research holds great potential to provide novel solutions to tackle challenges in areas of healthcare, food and environment.

What do you see as your future research directions?

I believe that there is a huge potential in engineered microbes that can be functionalized into live biotherapeutics to provide an alternative or complementary therapy and address some of unmet medical needs.

Does your laboratory have a particularly strong research expertise?

Our domain expertise lies in reprogramming microbes to confer novel functionalities through genetic and metabolic engineering. In particular, we focus on repurposing probiotics and commensal microbes to modulate the function of human microbiome to augment therapeutic activity.

Recent Publications

1. Sun T, Kwok WC, Chua KJ, Lo T-M, Potter J, Yew WS, Chesnut JD, Hwang IY*, Chang MW*. (2020) Development of a proline-based selection system for reliable genetic engineering in Chinese hamster ovary cells. ACS Synth Biol *Co-corresponding author
2. Hwang, I.Y. & Chang, M.W. Engineering commensal bacteria to rewire host–microbiome interactions. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 62, 116-122 (2020).
3. Lubkowicz, D., Ho, C. L., Hwang, I. Y., Yew, W. S., Lee, Y. S., and Chang, M. W. (2018) Reprogramming Probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri as a Biosensor for Staphylococcus aureus Derived AIP-I Detection, ACS Synth Biol 7, 1229-1237.
4. Hwang, I. Y., Koh, E., Wong, A., March, J. C., Bentley, W. E., Lee, Y. S., and Chang, M. W. (2017) Engineered probiotic Escherichia coli can eliminate and prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa gut infection in animal models, Nat Commun 8, 15028.
5. Hwang, I. Y., Tan, M. H., Koh, E., Ho, C. L., Poh, C. L., and Chang, M. W. (2014) Reprogramming microbes to be pathogen-seeking killers, ACS Synth Biol 3, 228-237