The Nucleate Artery: SG’s very own antimalarial therapies and microbial factories. Also, is there a “right” job?
The Nucleate Artery: SG’s very own antimalarial therapies and microbial factories. Also, is there a “right” job?
We are The Nucleate Artery, a monthly newsletter focused on the latest biotech research and events in Singapore. Chat with us via our Slack community: @Liyana Ayub Ow Yong @Leong Kim Whye @Yeow Jiang @Ignacius Tay.
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We’ve got lots to cover in this issue. Grab a cuppa and happy reading!
🍽️ Digestibles
(Research that has been published within the past 2 months)
DRUG DISCOVERY: Trailblazing Malaria Drug Development
Malaria remains a deadly and expensive threat, killing 600,000 people in 2022 (WHO) and costing more than US$12B to manage every year. While anti-malarial drugs exist, their efficacy is being increasingly undermined by the rise of drug resistance. To make matters worse, we currently have a limited understanding of how anti-malarial drugs work within the cellular environment. In response to these multifaceted challenges, Wirjanata and Lin et al. leveraged their established MS-CETSA technique to study how anti-malarials interact with malarial proteins within a cellular environment. They successfully identified a potential protein target, falcilysin (FLN), which can be targeted using both established and experimental malaria drugs. Additionally, they revealed a promising drug-targeting site on FLN which could allow for the development of innovative anti-malarial therapies. This research signifies a substantial stride in malaria treatment strategies, providing optimism for more effective interventions against this persistent global health threat.
We observed World Malaria Day 3 weeks back (25th April):
Find out from WHO about the current efforts and areas requiring further attention
Labiotech’s tribute to the current treatments available
Find the leaders contributing to malaria research in Singapore here
DRUG DISCOVERY: Streptomyces sungeiensis SD3: unveiling Nature's tiny factories
(Left) Isolated secondary metabolites from the fermentation culture of S. sungeiensis SD3 or (right) metabolites predicted but not detected likely due to repressed gene expression.
Reprinted with permission from Lee, S. Q. E., Ma, G. L., Candra, H., Khandelwal, S., Pang, L. M., Low, Z. J., ... & Liang, Z. X. (2024). Streptomyces sungeiensis SD3 as a Microbial Chassis for the Heterologous Production of Secondary Metabolites. ACS Synthetic Biology, 13(4), 1259-1272. Copyright 2024, American Chemical Society.
Secondary metabolites are compounds that are not essential for an organism's growth, but often possess industrial and pharmaceutical significance. While it has been established that Streptomyces bacteria produce antibiotics and anti-cancer agents, harnessing them in commercially viable quantities remains economically impractical. In this study, Lee and coworkers were able to isolate fast-growing Streptomyces strains and leverage molecular tools such as metabolite profiling and genome mining to reveal the biosynthetic potential of S. sungeiensis SD3. By utilising efficient genetic manipulation techniques to overcome tight regulatory mechanisms in cells, they could efficiently extract secondary metabolites from S. sungeiensis SD3 that would not have been detected in laboratory conditions. These findings pave the way for large-scale production of valuable compounds, potentially revolutionising drug development and addressing global challenges in healthcare.
🥡 Event Takeaways
(Exclusive insights from biotech events in SG)
Is there a right place to belong?
This month, we expand on a particular question posed during a ClavystBio Conversations with Jaap Goudsmit, PhD: “Ask yourself: Where do I belong?” An important question that is typically avoided because good answers are hard to come by. As academic trainees, we discussed what this question means to us - a timely thought-exercise for some of us on the team who are close to crossing the completely terrifying threshold between graduate school and the working world. This question of belonging is not unique to some of us academic trainees as it has definitely come up in conversation between the rest of us who are already in the workforce.
Jaap is recognised for his research in academia and as a leading figure in Netherlands' development into a biotech hotspot. As Chief Scientific Officer of Crucell from 2000 to 2011, Jaap was pivotal in its evolution from university spin-off into the largest biopharma company in the Netherlands, acquired later by Johnson & Johnson in 2011.
Professional exploration can guide a better job fit
The average life science graduate student in Singapore will generally have made similar decisions; many of us get into a graduate program directly after our bachelor's degree or after working 1-2 years as a research assistant in an academic lab. When in graduate school, we may choose to allow the years to pass without looking at the spaces outside academia. Indeed, it has been uncommon for students here to take on industrial internships while still within their candidature since there is neither the culture nor the incentive to take some months off our research to explore our career interests and possibilities. This is simply not something we see often among our peers or seniors, so we never really understand how it could be beneficial.
It is also uncommon for students to engage with science communities within and outside of academia. People tend to shy away from networking because it can be uncomfortable and seemingly unnecessary, especially when they can easily return to their already established social networks (also partly cultural). For context, you only need ~1.5 h to get from one end of the island to the other. Therefore, friends and family are easy to reach.
As such, for many of us, our first contact with the biotech industry, or any industry, comes much later in our career. While harmless, this non-participation delays the exploration of our professional identities. The pool of career narratives in a university is simply not diverse enough, and many of us come out of graduate school not knowing who we want to be or who we could be.
For most of us, the answer to “Where do I belong?” only begins to take some sort of shape after 6 months. And, the process of self-exploration in parallel with thesis writing becomes a cumulative stressor that brings more pain than it should. Hence, to seek comfort and safety, many turn to postdoctoral positions. While these postdoctoral positions are attractive - as they should rightly be - some simply settle for a postdoctoral position because it is the available option.
Such a sentiment still haunts us despite having worked for some years. The feeling of misfit and dissonance might develop over time as a job we once enjoyed simply becomes a job and perhaps, that is when we start thinking about change.
Sense of belonging as a lens to evaluate rightness in a career
Jaap posed this question of belonging as he was asked how he went from being a clinician to an entrepreneur. As with many key figures in biotech, introspection and self-awareness are both the steering wheel (direction) and the gas pedal (motivation) that have allowed them to make the decisions they have made to take them to where they are. For him, a critical aspect of the right job is a sense of belonging; hence, a critical point of introspection is to recognise the ways in which we feel belonging. The meaning of belonging has been hard to capture. Some describe it as “having a connection” and “feeling like a valued team member” [1], while others found that it is the experience of “finding whole acceptance in one’s self-expression” [2]. Since belonging is rooted in a sense of self - you can only be a piece of the puzzle if you know what piece you are - Jaap posed further questions, “What is your ability?” and “Are you a thinker or a doer?” Thinking beyond technical skills is key. How you think [3], interpersonal skills, stress tolerance all give clues to where you belong. So expose yourself!
What self-exploration in innovation spaces could look like
To illustrate how exploration can lead to an understanding of the kinds of careers and roles, we feel we belong in we thought it would be fun to use one of our own team member’s experience in the broad innovation space to demonstrate how self-discovery can take form over time; lessons learned can be as general as finding out you enjoy doing something, to as complex as evolving your working identity and painfully evaluating if you would be good at certain roles (some doubt can be healthy).
Table 1: Some of Liyana’s past and present projects, and what she’s learned throughout.
For Liyana, while team leadership positions felt like a natural fit, clarifying specific elements about this role that she enjoys, is good at, or can be better at, has taken time. For example, being public-facing is sometimes part of being a team leader; but it was only through experience that she found that extended periods of high-pressure social situations tired her out. This experience led her to ask herself whether being in front-facing was really most suitable for her, and if so, how could she better manage being in this role? Such discoveries will be helpful for her as she continues to refine her understanding of the kinds of roles that she would like to grow into - an exercise we think will be helpful for anyone!
In choosing our jobs, we often seek what is right for us. However, almost all the time, we leave graduate school thinking if there even is a right path. Therefore, we encourage trainees to begin their professional exploration earlier so that they can enter the realm of the working world with a greater degree of confidence about themselves, what they can bring, and where they feel they belong.
Perhaps, we can all take some advice from Robert Frost:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
🎧 Nucleate Singapore Pulse
Finding a cure for hematologic malignancies with Vor Biopharma's Dr. Robert Ang
This month, we interviewed Dr. Robert Ang, President and CEO of Vor Bio, a clinical-stage cell and genome engineering therapy company, about how they are innovating treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Listen to learn about how he navigated clinical trials during the pandemic and securing funding for research and development.
📆 Events happening this month
Seminar
VC Investment Agreements for BioMedTech Entrepreneurs | SGInnovate
(16 May, 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM, in person at Singapore 308232)
(16 May, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM, online)
(20 May, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM, in person at Singapore 059911)
Endosomal Network Function In Cell Physiology And Disease | A*STAR
(29 May, 11.00 AM - 12.00 PM, in person at Singapore 138673)
Innovation Unleashed: A Dialogue on Technological Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital | SGInnovate
(30 May, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM, in person at Singapore 059911)
Conference
Society For Cell Biology Singapore (SCBS) Annual Conference 2024
(16 May 16, 9:00 AM - 17 May, 5:00 PM, in person at Singapore 138602)
3rd Annual Symposium: Innovations in anti-mycobacterial Drug Discovery | NTU
(27 May - 28 May, in person at Singapore 637551)
CHI INNOVATE 2024: Sustainability in Healthcare
(By 27 Apr, 23:59)