Abstract

Singapore is a small country with no natural resources, so human capital is the most important investment to fuel its growth. Investing in research, innovation and enterprise will have multiplying effects, including: 1) enhancing the global reputation and competitiveness in science and technology; 2) attracting and training top talent; 3) creating useful IPs and technologies for industry collaborations and creation of start-up companies in addition to fostering a global network in science. Biomedical science research over the past two decades has placed Singapore on the global map as a competitive and reputable biomedical science hub. I will share my personal experience of working in the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR and give some examples of our discoveries, collaborations and innovations to highlight the importance of investing in science and technology for a sustainable economy in addition to highlighting my personal research journey.

Speaker Bio

Professor Wanjin Hong

Chief Business Development Officer, Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), A*STAR
Research Director, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR

Professor Wanjin Hong graduated from Xiamen University in 1982 and was one of a few hundred Chinese students chosen for further graduate training in the United States via the CUSBEA (China–United States Biochemistry Examination and Application) program. He received his PhD from the State University of New York (SUNY Buffalo), and was a postdoctoral fellow there before he joined the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) in Singapore as a PrincipaI Investigator in 1989. He was appointed as the Executive Director of IMCB at A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) during the period of November 2011-July 2023. He was recently appointed as Chief Business Development Officer Biomedical Research Council (BMRC), A*STAR, while continuing running his research lab in IMCB. He is also a tenured Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Visiting and Honorable Professor at Xiamen University and The University of Queensland in Australia.

Prof Hong made significant contributions to our understanding of molecular players (particularly SNAREs, Rab GTPases and sorting nexins) in membrane trafficking as well as the regulatory machinery of the Hippo pathway in cancer. His publications have over 29,000 citations with h-index of 93 according to Google Scholar. He was as listed among the top 2% of the world’s most highly cited scientists, according to metrics compiled by Stanford University in 2020 and 2022 (https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw). He was the recipient of Singapore’s The President’s Science and Technology Medal in 2022, Singapore’s National Science Award (now President’s Science Award) in 1999 and Singapore’s government Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2014. He is a Fellow of Singapore National Academy of Science since 2022. He is on the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science Signaling as well as the Editorial Board of Cell & Bioscience and TRAFFIC.