Our Team

Contact information:
xinyi_su@nuhs.edu.sg
xysu@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr Su Xinyi (PhD, MMed, FAMS, MBChir) is Executive Director, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). She also serves as the Research Director overseeing the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory at IMCB. She is passionate about building bridges between science and medicine. Her research interests are in translational research for retinal surgery and therapeutics.

Concurrently, Xinyi is also (i) Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist, (ii) Research Director of the Department of Ophthalmology, and (iii) Co-Director of the Centre for Innovation and Precision Eye Health, at the National University Hospital. She is also an Associate Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and Deputy Head of the Clinician Scientist Academy, National University Healthcare System. She also holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor appointment at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, and a joint appointment of Clinician Scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute.

A recipient of the prestigious National Science Scholarship from A*STAR, Dr. Su Xinyi graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2009 with a MBChir degree in medicine as well as a PhD degree in molecular biology, supervised by Ashok Venkitaraman (presently Director of the Cancer Science Institute, Singapore, and Distinguished Professor, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine) at the Hutchinson MRC Cancer Cell Unit, where she developed a novel method to conditionally inactivate RAD51, an essential protein in homologous DNA recombination (HDR).

Xinyi has published several book chapters and numerous journal articles in, inter alia, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Structural Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Lancet Global Health. She is an editorial board member of Communication Medicine, a Nature Portfolio journal. She has been awarded more than SGD25 million of competitive research funding. She is the recipient of multiple global and national awards, including, the Young Ophthalmologist Award from the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (2019), the Asia Pacific Vitreo-Retinal Retinal Society Leadership Development Program (2020), Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Singapore Award (for Medical Innovation, 2021), the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Young Researcher of the Year Award (2022). In 2022, she was also accepted into the prestigious membership of The Macular Society.

The holder of several patents and technical disclosures, she is also a non-executive director of Vitreogel Innovations Pte Ltd, which she co-founded to commercialise the research from Translational Retinal Research Laboratory. She is also a scientific advisor to Cargene (a biopharmaceutical company), and an Executive Committee Member of the Stem Cell Society, Singapore.

Contact information:
gopal_lingam@nuhs.edu.sg
ophlg@nus.edu.sg

Dr. Lingam Gopal completed his Ophthalmology clinical training in 1982 and subsequently underwent a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery in 1983. He then did a MSc in Epidemiology in 2016 from the University of London.

Between the years of 1983 till 2011, he was practicing as a clinician and research at medical and vision research foundations in Chennai, India. He is  currently a senior consultant at the National University Hospital (NUH) and honorary senior investigator at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI).

Contact information:
e0157515@u.nus.edu
mayuribhargava@gmail.com
mayuri_bhargava@nuhs.edu.sg

Dr. Mayuri Bhargava is a medical retina specialist practicing at the Department of Ophthalmology, National University Hospital.

She has a keen interest in translational research and is currently pursuing a PhD at the National University of Singapore. She is currently working on developing retinal pigment epithelium from stem cells for transplantation.

Contact information:
hunziker@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Walter Hunziker obtained his PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich) in 1986 where he worked on the cloning of the cDNA of small intestinal brush border enzyme sucrase-isomaltase. He did his post-doctoral work at Yale University before moving to the Biochemistry Institute of the University of Lausanne as a group leader to continue studying membrane traffic in epithelial cells. He joined IMCB in January 2000 as an Associate Professor and is currently serving as the Deputy Director of IMCB.

Dr. Walter Hunziker’s experience has provided the lab with valuable insights on retinal cellular biology, which have been crucial to the development of novel hydrogel materials and retinal therapeutics.

Contact information:
ophlz@nus.edu.sg

Dr. Liu Zengping spent the past decade working on retinal pigment epithelial cell transplantation for retinal degenerative diseases. As a trained ophthalmologist, he utilises a multi-disciplinary approach including cellular biology, tissue engineer, in-vivo disease model creation and clinical research to solve the hurdles of treating retinal degenerative diseases.

He is currently focused on establishing a surgical non-human primate model for cellular delivery and developing novel hydrogels as vitreous tamponade materials.

Contact information:
zhaoxx@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Zhao Xinxin finished her PhD from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). She then worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at NTU before joining Arkray Pte. Ltd as a Senior Research Scientist.

Her research interests are in developing new materials, surface modification and the biological applications of these new materials.

Contact information:
reghak@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Regha Kakkad’s prior research experience include working on projects involving epigenetics and transcriptional regulation of haematopoiesis.

Her current research interest is in developing transplantable retinal pigment epithelial cells for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

Contact information:
banerjeea@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Animesh Banerjee finished his PhD at Banaras Hindu University, India, where he studied the role of miRNA and its regulators in the maintenance of neural stem cells in fruit fly (Drosophila). Following this, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the RNA in Disease and Translational Tchnologies Lab, IMCB, A-star. His projects were focused on exploring the neural circuitry and mechanisms of movement disorders related to age-related neurodegenerative diseases as well as in miRNA mutants using fruit fly.

Due to his passion for the translational and clinical application of stem cells, he is working forward to optimize the differentiation of retinal progenitor cells derived from pluripotent stem cells. With collaborations across various disciplines within A-Star, he is establishing a retinal coculture disease model to understand better the role of specific gene mutations in disease dynamics.

Contact information:
blakeleyp@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Paul Blakeley obtained his PhD from the University of Manchester. Paul specializes in bioinformatics and genomic data science and aims to leverage computational approaches to study retinal disease models and treatments. His main research interests are single cell RNA sequencing and applying machine learning algorithms to the analysis of biological data.

Contact information:
bhavhp@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Bhav Harshad Parikh obtained his BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He then pursued a PhD at National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine where he explored biomaterial-based therapeutic strategies for retinal scarring at the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory lead by Dr Su Xinyi. After obtaining his PhD in 2022, he continued at Dr Su’s lab as a Research Fellow.

His research interest includes a broad range of translational science encompassing next generation cell- and biomaterial-based retinal therapeutics, with expertise in stem cells, retinal cell biology, tissue engineering and transcriptomics technologies.

Contact information:
munirahs@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Munirah Santosa obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where she first explored working with patient-derived stem cells in the context of neonatal diabetes with Dr. Adrian Teo. She then pursued a PhD at National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in Dr. Ng Shi Yan’s lab with a focus on using pluripotent stem cells to develop a neuronal aging model and identifying its contributing mechanisms to neuronal aging.

Continuing her pursuits in stem cell translational research, she is now in Dr. Su Xinyi’s lab as a Research Fellow working on stem cell differentiation of retinal cells. Her current research interests include developing retinal co-culture systems with incorporation of biomaterials for retinal disease modelling and therapeutic applications.

Contact information:
liuhang@nus.edu.sg

Contact information:
swtan@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

As a research officer, Queenie supports the in-vivo mice retinal imaging and molecular biology techniques for the projects in the lab. She has a research interest in the mechanisms of retinal degenerative diseases.

Contact information:
ophwsl@nus.edu.sg

As a research officer, Daniel supports the in-vivo work on rabbits and non-human primates for the projects in the lab. His research interests surround stem cell transplantation, drug release models and retinal disease models.

Contact information:
ophtkc@nus.edu.sg

As a research officer, Kim Chi mainly supports the study of hydrogel bioactivity on retinal pigment epithelium, along with in-vivo work on mice. Her current research interests include the biological basis of RPE and retinal cells, as well as regenerative therapies.

Contact information:
rajvinder_khare@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Raj graduated from King’s College London with a Masters in Neuroscience, specializing in neural stem cells and nervous system repair. He has previous research experience in neurodegenerative diseases, including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. As a research officer, Raj supports the lab’s effort in optimization and generation of retinal organoids as a disease model. He also hopes to further elucidate polymer and retinal pigmentation epithelial cell interaction to prevent disease scarring.

Contact information:
ivanseah22031991@gmail.com

Dr. Ivan Seah graduated with his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 2018 from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (Singapore).  He worked as a medical doctor in Ophthalmology before transiting to a full-time career in science. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Apart from his clinical duties, Dr. Ivan Seah has participated in various biomedical entrepreneurship programs such as the Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Innovation Class. He is also actively involved in the development of an angel investment network, Future Health, which focuses on building capital networks for the development of health technologies in Asia.
Dr. Ivan Seah started his first laboratory experience at the Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR. He then worked at the Molecular Neurotherapy and Imaging Laboratory, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, where he focused on oncolytic virotherapy.
His current research interests lie in the genetic aspect of retinal diseases. Through his research, he hopes to eventually develop new platforms for gene therapeutic discovery.

Contact information:
claudine_wong@imcb.a-star.edu.sg

Claudine graduated from La Trobe University with a bachelor’s in biomedical science.
She joined as a SGUT traineeship in 2021 at Dr Su Xinyi’s lab, IMCB as research associate. In 2022 she joined as a full-time research officer. She specializes in RPE differentiation, and her current research interest is RPE aging

Contact information:
k-mehta@nus.edu.sg

Karishma graduated from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) with a Bachelor with Honors in Pharmaceutical Engineering. She worked as an intern with Retina Lab prior to joining full-time as a research officer.

Karishma mainly supports Dr. Zhao Xin Xin in the study of drug delivery through the use of synthetic polymers as well as its bioactivity on retinal diseases such as age-macular degeneration (AMD). Her current research interests include the study of various drug delivery platforms of retinal diseases. Thus, her career aspiration in this field of specialization would be to develop a novel drug delivery method in targeting these diseases.

Contact information:
vinodselvan@nus.edu.sg

Vinod obtained his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology from the University of Sheffield. He was previously working for a drug discovery start-up, focusing on transcriptomics before joining Dr Su Xinyi’s lab as a research officer.

Vinod supports the lab by investigating host retinal tissue response to sub-retinal transplantation of iPSC derived RPE and RPPs in-vivo, within the human immune system. His current research interest lies in developing translational therapeutics to treat retinal degenerative diseases.

Contact information:
e1101908@u.nus.edu

Yanzhuang graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Bachelor with Honors in Biological Sciences in January 2022. Her keen interest in translational research led her to pursue a PhD.

She joined the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory as a PhD student in January 2023. Her current research interest is to investigate the role of dysfunctional mitochondria in RPE cells, with regards to Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Her goal is to develop potential therapies targeting this defect in AMD.