What transforms science from idea to impact?

At the “The arc of Duke-NUS science” symposium held in April, our anniversary month, 18 researchers from across Duke-NUS’ five signature research programmes and beyond came together to trace the miraculous journey of scientific exploration, bringing audience along winding arcs of discovery, with personal milestones intertwined with the School’s evolution over the past 20 years.

In this special feature, MEDICUS science writer Chua Li Min brings you highlights of the symposium, spotlighting researchers who have made it their mission to unravelling the human body’s complexities, exploring everything from individual proteins to whole organisms, disease pathologies, and even the intricate process of ageing.

Their stories show that what follows from an initial spark is a journey that unfolds across months—years and even entire careers—driven by purpose and the sense that every question and experiment offer hope of improving the life of someone, somewhere.

When Associate Professor Angelique Chan returned to Singapore fresh from a postdoctoral degree in 1997, she was ready to dive into a thriving landscape of ageing research. Instead, what the gerontologist discovered was a surprising void.

“Singapore was ageing extremely fast. However, there was very little data on the determinants of health, well-being and transitions over the life course,” recalled Chan. “So the first thing that I did was to establish databases on ageing. My goal was to study how social factors impact older adults’ health.”  

That initial endeavour marked the beginning of Chan’s decade-long campaign to set up an academic centre dedicated to ageing research.

For Chan, there was no doubt that Duke-NUS would be the academic home for the centre, a decision she made after a 2008 sabbatical at the School. Her efforts paid off in 2015 with the launch of the Duke-NUS Centre for Ageing Research & Education (CARE).

“We were the first ageing centre in an academic environment in Singapore, and I wanted it to be at Duke NUS, because this was the place where like-minded colleagues with both the technical and clinical skills were willing to collaborate in interdisciplinary research,” explained Chan, who helmed the Centre as its executive director for the past 10 years before stepping down recently.

While the Centre may have begun with just two researchers Chan and associate professor Rahul Malhotra, it is now a 24-person strong team comprising multidisciplinary researchers. 

Since then, some of CARE’s landmark studies include evaluating how loneliness affects the life and health expectancies of older adults as well as the changing cohort characteristics of older persons—the insights of which have helped shape certain government policies.

“None of this would have been possible without the incredible team at CARE. We now have two national cohorts of older persons: a pioneer cohort and a cohort of younger elderly. We have earned research competitive funding of about $33 million and we’ll continue to use ever-improving research methods on the longitudinal data we have collected,” said Chan, as she reflected on the Centre’s progress.

“I’m excited for what’s ahead.”

Imagine the entire brain as a bustling central mail hub, comprised of networks of delivery routes. The letters that are sent via this elaborate system are how cells in the brain communicate. But what happens when these messages are scrambled or lost?

These defects in the brain’s messaging system are often the earliest signs of disease, making it a valuable window for early diagnosis and treatment, explained Cao Mian, an assistant professor with Duke-NUS’ Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders programme. “That’s what contributes to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease,” he added.

In Parkinson’s disease, a subset of brain cells, otherwise known as dopamine-producing neurons die off, causing symptoms such as tremors and rigidity in patients.

To understand what causes these defects, Cao is diving into the mechanisms of this intricate process which takes place at the synapses, junctions that exist between neurons.

Known as synaptic membrane trafficking, this process has kept him fascinated for years, a path Cao decided to embark on during his postdoctoral training, when his collaborator identified the first Parkinson’s disease-associated mutation in the SYNJ1 gene that regulates this critical step.

“That experience sparked my long-term interest in how impaired synaptic membrane trafficking drives disease mechanisms in neurodegeneration,” explained Cao. “By studying these early cellular disruptions, we can uncover shared disease pathways and potentially develop broader therapeutic strategies.” 

That is what Cao hopes to do and more.

“Over the next 20 years, my goal is to deepen our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying selective neuronal degeneration—one of the most challenging questions in the field, as well as to develop new disease models connecting basic and translational research. Through this, I hope to identify early biomarkers and drug targets to enable earlier diagnosis and more effective interventions.”

For nearly three decades, Professor Wang Linfa has pursued a deceptively simple question: Why bats?

That question–and a painting with the same title in his office—has powered a career exploring the biology of bats, their resistance to disease, and their role in emerging pandemics. It’s also earned him the nickname “Batman”.

In just one slide, Wang delivers a captivating breakdown of the amazing biology of bats, from his years of research at Duke-NUS’ Emerging Infectious Disease programme. The audience is left with a newfound appreciation for these winged mammals and their secrets.

It is of no surprise, then, that Wang’s mastery of bat biology has sealed his identity as Batman, a moniker he’s carried ever since his groundbreaking discovery that bats are reservoirs of emerging zoonotic viruses—pathogens which are capable of jumping from one species to another.

“We started asking why bats could carry such deadly viruses and don’t get sick,” explained Wang, who believes that understanding the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon could be key to unlocking life-changing treatments that better control viral infections, fight cancer and enable people to live longer.

“But here’s where it gets batty,” quipped Wang, recalling the challenge of convincing people of the potential impact of his research.

Ultimately, it was Wang’s conviction in his group’s ability to translate their work from bats to human health that won his group a S$10 million grant from the National Research Foundation Competitive Research Programme in 2013.

Since then, their discoveries—the latest of which include the identification of a powerful protein inhibitor of inflammation in bats ASC2—have led to the establishment of a biotech start-up, Paratus Sciences, in 2021 focused on developing bat immunology-inspired therapies, with a new class of anti-inflammatory drugs set to progress to Phase 1 clinical trials next year.

Reflecting on his journey, Wang said: “It’s incredible how far we’ve come. I started with a single question, and now we have the first world-class, specifically designed bat house at Duke-NUS. My greatest hope is to see this work continue to advance our understanding of bat biology.”

And with five batty MD-PhD students who’ve flown the “bat cave” and two still with his lab, Wang’s true legacy lies not just in his discoveries, but also in the scientific wings he has helped countless grow.

And the arc continues…