Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme

ISEP

Lim Su Bin

Lim Su Bin

Nationality: Korea
Faculty & Year of Study: NUS Graduate School of Integrative Sciences & Engineering (NGS), Year 5
Undergraduate: National University of Singapore, Singapore

Can You Tell Us Briefly About Your Research Topic?​

My research is devoted to extracting clinically meaningful information from ever-expanding genomic databases, identifying new therapeutic targets for the treatment of cancer.

What Do You Like Most About Graduate School?​

I believe research is of no use unless it gets to the people who can make use of them, particularly in the field of precision medicine. Working closely with the world-renowned scientists has naturally instilled the necessary skills not just to further research but also bring such complex scientific research out of the lab to impact on society.

What Challenges Have You Faced During Your Stint As A PhD Student?​

Pursuing a science research career in the field that is already interdisciplinary by nature has trained me to be exceptionally independent. It’s a discipline that stretches across many different areas – I write my own code and build bioinformatics pipeline to analyze genomic data requiring programming skills; I develop protocols to analyze the picogram range of total DNA/RNA from single cells requiring molecular biology techniques; I fabricate and utilize microfluidics devices requiring engineering principles.

Any Highlights You'd Like To Share With Us About Your PhD Life?​

n the last four years, I have published 13 peer reviewed research papers with 10 articles as a first author in top journals, including Nature Communications and PNAS. I have also won numerous awards and fellowships during my PhD, including Ray Wu Prize 2018, and International Precision Medicine Conference Prize 2017.

Any Other Words Of Wisdom To Share?​

There were many times I feel like a failure. Ironically, these moments have made me believe that something great is going to happen. I also realize that it was such struggles and challenges that made the eventual progress of my projects satisfying and stimulating.