Shi Huan Tay
Nationality:
Singapore
Faculty and Department:
Duke-NUS Medical School, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology (CSCB)
Year of Study:
5
Undergraduate University:
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Why did you choose to do graduate education at NUS? If you received offers from other universities, why did you pick NUS?
Given that I aim to practise medicine in Singapore, it is most logical to immerse myself in the local ecosystem right from the get-go and Duke-NUS is the only local graduate-entry medical school. I was also taken by its one-of-a-kind intercalated MD-Ph.D. programme, which is tailor-made for concomitantly building clinical competence and equipping graduates with essential skills to navigate the complex landscape of translational medicine.
How does graduate school compare to your undergraduate experience?
Graduate school offers advanced learning in a specialised field, while my undergraduate degree exposed me to a broad education across various branches of science. Both have been crucial to my development and graduate school has always felt like a natural progression as I sought to immerse myself in the biomedical world.
Briefly share about your research or thesis (i.e. dissertation topic for Masters by Coursework students).
My thesis focuses on the immunopathogenesis of enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA), which is a type of autoimmune arthritis that afflicts the paediatric population. My work aims to identify immune cell subsets that are important in driving and perpetuating ERA, with an emphasis on uncovering predictors of clinical fate and targets amenable for therapeutic manipulation.
What impact do you hope to have with your research?
One can only imagine how debilitating painful joints with limited range of motion can be for growing children who still have decades ahead of them. Yet, insufficient knowledge of its disease mechanism has impeded how we diagnose and treat patients, as the current disease classification is imprecise and therapy often does not work for a portion of patients. As such, I hope that my work will bridge these unmet needs by increasing the confidence with which we diagnose ERA and identifying targets that we can design therapies for. A deeper understanding of ERA immunopathogenesis will be a vital cog in addressing the relatedness across the spectrum of autoimmune joint diseases, which will streamline disease classification and management.
Share something fun from your graduate journey at NUS.
Being a small-time exercise nut, I firmly believe that working out is a wonderful way to let off steam and recharge so I was more than happy to helm the Sports Student Interest Group. A noteworthy event was a 1-day hike around Pulau Ubin, which was extremely well-received especially by the international students who were able to experience mangrove swamps (Chek Jawa) firsthand.