Dexter

I chose a PhD because I knew that I wanted to remain in the scientific field beyond graduation from my undergraduate studies. I have also learnt a lot, and enjoyed my stint during my FYP and research attachments during my undergraduate period. Hence, the next natural step was to pursue a PhD to further develop my scientific training so that I may continue to contribute to the scientific community.

I chose the study in CSI NUS primarily because the institute offers a good balance between a quality research facility whilst still being able to stay with my friends and family, who have been a tremendous pillar of strength for me during the tough times.

Comparatively, I would say that graduate school is a lot more independent, and there is a much less emphasis on coursework than undergraduate studies. It is more important to keep up-to-date with the advances in the field and to keep motivating yourself to drive your research. Most of the work and effort come from yourself, as you will not have TAs to remind you to do/submit your work. It is a lot more self-driven, but also more fulfilling as the returns is much higher, seeing your work being published and having your research contribute significantly to the field.

My research project is to identify novel epigenetic-based combinations therapies that target two gastrointestinal cancer types with the highest incidence and mortality rates in Singapore – liver and colorectal cancer. I am leveraging on a experimental-analytical hybrid platform developed in our lab to determine synergistic interactions between epigenetic drugs and current standard-of-cares to guide and advance treatment regimes available to patients in the clinics. I also develop patient-derived avatars for both cancer types to use as disease models for drug screening and validation experiments so that our identified combinations exhibit translational value in patient-derived cells.

I hope that through my research, I am able to contribute to the field in terms of target identification so that we can better guide the drug developers in the direction towards targets with the greatest therapeutic potential for cancer patients. Additionally, we hope that we can develop novel candidate anti-cancer therapeutics for targets with great therapeutic potential, but do not currently have any drugs which are yet approved for clinical use.

I have been previously nominated and invited to participate in the 13th HOPE Meeting with Nobel Laureates organised by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science where I presented a poster on my current research work, as well as worked with fellow participants from across Asia and Africa to develop ideas on how our work can contribute to sustainable global growth and development.
I have also been invited to give an oral presentation at the NCIS Annual Meeting 2022, where I was awarded the Best Oral Presentation award for the Basic Science category on my work.
Using this work, I am invited to participate in the EMBO workshop titled “Cancer cell signaling: Linking molecular knowledge to cancer therapy” in Cavtat, Croatia, in September 2022. My work has been nominated for a poster presentation and a flashtalk presentation.

I believe that through the participations in these conferences and meetings, I have been fortunate to have to opportunity to interact and work with fellow researchers who often offer a unique perspective on your research. The feedback and constructive criticism they offer are really valuable and hearing them share about their own research is inspiring as it opens up ideas on how you can apply their research to your own work. So it has been a rewarding experience to participate in these conference.

To work towards it, I believe that it is important to focus on your project and chase the data that you need. Work hard and the results will follow naturally. When I was doing my research work, the aim was to develop and discover something that is scientific sound and valuable. And when it was done, the results will speak for itself. However, it was not an easy journey, and it does require a lot of sacrifice especially in terms of time, chasing the deadlines and having to get the data necessary for impactful work. Ultimately, it comes down to time management and being focused to in the research itself.

Campus life is amazing and really fun, if you take the time to explore the options available in NUS. I was from the NUS aquathlon team, even though I had never tried out the sport before coming to NUS. And it was really fun training with the team, albeit challenging having to juggle my research and also training. It is always fun to join a new sport that most are not familiar with, and NUS does offer a plethora of exciting sports teams for students to join in, even uncommon sports such as mine. However, having these avenues to take a break away from your own research is important in ensuring that you do not burn out along the journey. Going for dinners after training, or just suffering in the pool together does help keep yourself in a healthy mental state. So do try out at some of the sports team that NUS offer if you’re interested in picking up a new sport!