Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory

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Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory
Established August 2002
Location
1, Research Link, National University of Singapore
,
Singapore 117604
Affiliations NUS, NTU
Website http://www.tll.org.sg

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Introduction

Established in August 2002,Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) is a Singapore Non Profit Philanthropic Research Organisation focusing primarily on understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie the development and physiology of plants, fungi and animals which provides foundation for biotechnology innovation.

It is affiliated with the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University and is located within the campus of the National University of Singapore.

TLL has 230 researchers from about 20 different nationalities to engage in biomolecular science research and applications so as to benefit people in Asia and beyond. The mission of TLL is to harness the power of the life sciences and to improve lives through research excellence, economic relevance as well as providing public service.[1]

History

Established in 2002, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) is a beneficiary of Temasek Trust which oversees the initial endowment of S$500 million by Temasek[2] to support corporate social responsibility philanthropic efforts in developing and delivering community programmes.

Board of Directors

  • Mr Teo Ming Kian, Chairman
    • Chairman, MediaCorp Pte Ltd
  • Prof Chua Nam Hai, Deputy Chairman
    • Andrew W Mellon Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology, Rockefeller University
    • Chairman, Research Strategy Committee, TLL
  • Prof Chan Soh Ha, Executive Director
    • Emeritus Professor, Department of Microbiology, National University of Singapore
    • Member, Research Strategy Committee, TLL
  • Prof Chong Chi Tat
    • University Professor, Department of Mathematics, National University of Singapore
  • Mr Chua Phuay Hee
    • Retired Executive Director, Wilmar International Limited
  • Mr Richard Chu Dee
    • Chief Executive Officer, Unilab Biosciences Corporation Hong Kong Limited
  • Prof Soo Khee Chee
    • Director, National Cancer Centre
  • Prof James Tam
    • Professor, Drug Discovery and Herbalomics Laboratory, School of Biological Science, Nanyang Technological University
  • Mr Tan Suan Swee
    • Managing Director – Investment, Temasek International Pte. Ltd

Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory and Temasek

Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) was founded in 2002 and funded by Temasek Trust, the philanthropic arm of Temasek. 

Academic Programmes

TLL offers various academic programmes at the tertiary level and is affiliated with the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University.

  1. PhD/Graduate Programme[3]

Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) offers an intensive PhD programme in Singapore that fosters productive scientific interactions between students, postdoctoral fellows, and PIs. Past candidates have had their work published in prestigious research journals and travelled widely to present their findings at international conferences. 

2. Internship Programmes[4]

Research Attachment Programme (REAP)

The Research Attachment Programme (REAP) is jointly organised by the Ministry of Education (MOE), National University of Singapore (NUS) and TLL to groom local life sciences research talents.

The eight-week programme is designed for first-year Biology and Chemistry students in local junior colleges (JCs) to encourage these budding young science students to pursue a career in life sciences in future by stimulating their interest with hands-on training in research environment and interactions with professional scientists.

Undergraduate Programme (UTP)[5]

The Undergraduate Programme (UTP) promotes scientific exchange and research collaboration between TLL and the top-tier China and India universities, where final year undergraduates are given the opportunity to execute research projects at TLL for 3 to 4 months.

Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP)[6]

The Graduate Attachment Programme (GAP), which lasts for 3 to 6 months, exposes Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Resident (PR) fresh graduates to the R&D environment to encourage them to pursue a career in research.

Other Training

TLL also participates in the attachment programmes offered by Nanyang Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic,Singapore Polytechnic, and Temasek Polytechnic.

Research Overview

At Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL), 230 scientists from about 20 countries undertake basic and applied research in cellular,molecular, and genetic biology.

The research efforts aim to address both the immediate and long-term needs of the life sciences industry with a particular focus on cell biology, developmental biology, genomes structural biology and molecular pathogenesis.

Notable research methodology includes the adaptation of a range of molecular and cell biology approaches and the use of computational data mining to understand the cellular mechanisms that underlie the development and physiology of plants, fungi and animals.[7]

One third of TLL’s research programmes is directed at practical research such as improving non-food biofuel sources and developing rapid diagnostic test kits, therapeutics and vaccines for emerging infectious diseases such as the H5N1 bird flu virus.[8]

Under the PhD/Graduate Programme, TLL supervised 90 PhD candidates with their thesis research being carried out in various laboratories within TLL.

Research and Publications

Overview

Since its inception, TLL has made over 60 inventions and published over 730 papers in peer-reviewed journals, of which more than 25 percent are in high impact research journals like Nature. Headed by Emeritus Professor Chan Soh Ha, the research institute focuses on creating an environment which can attract the brightest young minds worldwide, support their research and challenge them.[9]

In 2011, TLL published 59 papers in peer-reviewed journals and made five discoveries including the specific Enterovirus 711 monoclonal antibodies which can be further developed as potential therapeutics.[10]

In 2012, TLL published 85 papers in peer-reviewed journals and made 11 discoveries, out of which five have been licensed.[11]

Notable Research Contributions

Medical

Rapid diagnostic kits for the H5N1 Bird Flu

Since 2010, a TLL team has been conducting research into Avian Influenza virus (H5N1) after a worldwide epidemic bird flu outbreak in 2008. The research findings were patented and initial findings were published in the international journal, PLoS One, in June 2011. [12]         

Hand, Food and Mouth Disease (HFMD) Vaccine Development

Since 2009, Professor Jimmy Kwang and his team have been conducting research into the Enterovirus 71 (EV71) virus—commonly known as Hand, Food and Mouth Disease—after Singapore experienced 30,000 cases in 2008, the largest epidemic at the time. The research findings were patented and initial findings were published in the international journal including PLoS One in July 2011 [13] and in Virology Journal on 1 March 2012.[14]
 Hand, Food and Mouth Disease (HFMD) Potential Vaccine Research

A team led by Dr K B Chua, senior Public Health Pediatrician and Virologist, has identified the sensitive strains of the EV71 virus as a possible vaccine candidate after the discovery of its cold-adapted temperature sensitive strains which cause Hand, Food and Mouth Disease.

Cancer Treatment

Dr Ian Cheong and his team have been developing a drug delivery approach with fewer side effects using Clostridium novyi-NT, a class of oxygen-sensitive bacteria,to deliver cancer treatment drugs directly to malignant tumours while leaving healthy cells intact.[15]

Animal and Plant Cell Biology

Fish

In 2012, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and TLL received a S$10 million grant from the National Research Foundation to embark on a joint project to increase Singapore’s food fish production through aquaculture genomics R&D. The team aims to produce superior strains for both the Asian sea bass and Mozambique tilapia species that will have a significant impact on the productivity of food fish in Singapore and beyond.

Rice

In 2012, a joint TLL and National University of Singapore (NUS) team was awarded another S$10 million research grant for rice research, and partnered the International Rice Research Institute to develop new and improved varieties which can better adapt to plant diseases and climatic changes.[16] The research team aims to develop new rice varieties with built-in protection against diseases, find efficient means to regulate water and fertiliser needs, and basically, devise smarter ways to sustain rice production and ensure long-term food security.[17]

Recent Publications

In 2013, TLL published a total of 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers, including the following:

Gaëtan Droc, Gynheung An, Changyin Wu, Yue-ie C. Hsing, Hirohiko Hirochika, Andy Pereira, Venkatesan Sundaresan, Chang-Deok Han, Narayana Upadhyaya, Srinivasan Ramachandran, Luca Comai, Hei Leung, and Emmanuel Guiderdoni. (2013) Mutant resources for functional analysis of the rice genome. Genetics and Genomics of Rice 5: 81-115

Yue GH, Lo LC, Sun F, Cao SY, Yi CX, Hong Y and Sun WB.(2013) No Variation at 29 Microsatellites in the Genome of Jatropha curcas.Journal of Genomics 2: 59-63.

Wong JJL, Li S, Lim EKH, Wang Y, Wang C, H Zhang, D Kirilly, C Wu, Y-C Liou, H Wang and F. Yu*. (2013) A Cullin1-Based SCF E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Targets the InR/PI3K/TOR Pathway to Regulate Neuronal Pruning. PLoS Biology 11: e1001657. 

Fuse N, Yu F and Hirose S.. (2013) Gprk2 adjusts Fog signaling to organize cell movements in Drosophila gastrulation.. Development 140: 4246-4255

Li J, Nie X, Tan JL, Berger F.. (2013) Integration of epigenetic and genetic controls of seed size by cytokinin in Arabidopsis.. PNAS 110: 15479-84

Prabakaran M, Kwang J.. (2013) Recombinant baculovirus displayed vaccine: A novel tool for the development of a cross-protective influenza H5N1 vaccine.. Bioengineered 5(1): N.A

He, F., S. R. Kumar, S. M. Syed Khader, Y. Tan, M. Prabakaran, and J. Kwang.. (2013) Effective intranasal therapeutics and prophylactics with monoclonal antibody against lethal infection of H7N7 influenza virus.. Antiviral Research 100: 207-214

Madhaiyan M, Peng N, Ngoh ST, Cheng H, Cai L, Fu L,Chalapathy R, Hong Y and Ji L. (2013) Improvement of plant growth and seed yield in Jatropha curcas by a novel nitrogen-fixing root associated Enterobacter species. Biotechnology for Biofuels 6: 140

Vjestica A, Zhang D, Liu JH, Oliferenko S. (2013) Hsp70-Hsp40 chaperone complex functions in controlling polarized growth by repressing Hsf1-driven heat stress associated transcription. PLoS Genetics 9:e1003886. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003886

Wang C, Ye J, Tang W, Liu Z, Zhu C, Wang M, Wan J. (2013) Loop Nucleotide Polymorphism in a Putative miRNA Precursor Associated with Seed Length in Rice (Oryza sativa L.). International Journal of Biological Sciences 9: 578-586

Xu Y, Gan E-S, and Ito T. (2013) The AT-hook/PPC domain protein TEK negatively regulates floral repressors including MAF4 and MAF5.Plant Signal Behav. 8: e25006

Xu Y, Gan E-S, He Y, Ito T. (2013) Flowering and genome integrity control by a nuclear matrix protein in Arabidopsis. Nucleus 4: 1-3

Pooja Kumari, Patrick C Gilligan, Shimin Lim, Long Tran,Sylke Winkler, Robin Philp, and Karuna Sampath. (2013) An Essential Role for Maternal Control of Nodal Signaling. eLife 2: e00683. Kumari et al. eLife 2013;2:e00683. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.00683 1 of

Weng R Chin JS Yew JY Bushati N Cohen SM. (2013) miR-124 controls male reproductive success in Drosophila. Elife 2: e00640

Chua KB, Gubler DJ. (2013) Perspectives of public health Laboratories in emerging infectious diseases. Emerging Microbes and Infections 2: e37

Ramanujam R, Calvert M, Selvaraj P, Naqvi N. (2013) The Late Endosomal HOPS complex Anchors Active G-protein Signaling essential for pathogenesis in Magnaporthe oryzae. PLoS Pathogens 9(8): e1003527

Madhaiyan M, Peng N and Ji L. (2013) Complete Genome Sequence of Enterobacter sp. Strain R4-368, an Endophytic N-Fixing Gammaproteobacterium Isolated from Surface-Sterilized Roots of Jatropha curcas L. Genome Announcements 1: e00544-13

References

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