Category: Science

Her love for bugs saves the earth

Assistant Professor Nalini Puniamoorthy

They may sting, scare and make us squirm. But insects, so often dismissed as tiny pests, are of colossal importance to the world.

Just ask Assistant Professor Nalini Puniamoorthy, who has combed the dense jungles of Costa Rica in search of a dung fly no larger than a fingertip, and bred black soldier flies in the lab to help recycle Singapore’s food waste.

“They play such big roles in our livelihoods. When we lose insects, we lose a keystone component of our biodiversity,” said Prof Puniamoorthy, a researcher at the NUS Department of Biological Sciences who has spent the last two decades studying these critters.

She cited how some bugs help pollinate food crops and are sources of treasured commodities like silk and honey. In nature, they also break down dead organic matter to release nutrients back into the environment, and are a staple diet of many larger animals.

Her research is all geared towards building a better world. “At the end of the day, we want to leave something behind that is useful for other people,” she said.

For instance, her studies on how mosquitoes reproduce is helping to combat the periodic dengue outbreaks in Singapore.

In recent years, she has also observed that insects are slowly shedding their bad reputation and gaining recognition for their importance. For example, protein-rich crickets are increasingly being viewed as a sustainable food source of the future.

“The knowledge about insects is also getting more popular in science,” she said. “There is an increasing number of people who realise that they might be useful.”

Setting the stage for this rookie actress to bloom

Ulfah Irdina Bte Affandi

Ulfah Irdina’s first foray into acting in August last year left her trembling in fear. The audition by Temasek Hall’s drama CCA, Theatrette, required her to sing in front of a room full of people – a prospect that terrified her.

“I couldn’t even open my eyes to sing and had to get people to look away,” recalled the first-year Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences student. “I was so shy. I thought it was impossible to even act.”

But six months later, she made her acting debut. For two nights, in front of over 200 people at the Gateway Theatre, she played the lead character of a musical – Labyrinth Coldridge – with aplomb.

“For me, it was about taking that leap. It’s okay to embarrass yourself – just do it,” said Ulfah, who has always had a keen interest in films and Broadway musicals.

“I felt like I had this desire to do something artistic but I just never had the chance to,” she said. University life opened a window of opportunity.

But her journey from nervous rookie to fearless thespian was not an easy one. Preparations for Labyrinth Coldridge consisted of six-hour daily practices for over two months. To hone her craft, she would also pore over the script for hours, meticulously annotating every page.

“It was fun, but also scary and tiring,” she said. To build composure, she tried everything – whether it was practising in front of friends or strangers, or simply standing on stage. Having a compilation of Broadway videos and clips of her favourite actress, Lea Salonga, at hand also offered some much-needed inspiration.

Her theatre community helped immensely too. “When you have people around you who are equally into something and are supportive, things are so much easier,” she said.

With her first musical all wrapped up, there are bigger plans in store. Works on a second production are currently underway, with Ulfah looking to broaden her skill sets in theatre by venturing into scriptwriting.

“When I envision a future for myself, it’s either writing for or standing on a stage,” she said. Her dream is only just beginning.

How holistic development led to healthcare success

Maybelline Ooi

Like the versatile Swiss Army knife, Maybelline Ooi possesses a vast armoury of skills.

She credits this to her insatiable curiosity, which led her to hone various talents during her time in NUS – from throwing kicks at karate tournaments, to shooting air pistols, to breaking out complex dance moves onstage.

“You can’t say you’re truly interested in something until you’ve tried it for yourself,” said Ms Ooi, who joined a slew of CCAs such as NUS Dance Synergy, NUS Nihon Buyo – a traditional Japanese dance club – and the university’s Air Weapons and Karate clubs.

One passion, however, stands out: healthcare. The interest was seeded when she was part of her junior college’s Red Cross Disaster Management Committee.

“I loved being with people and helping people,” said the NUS Nursing alumna. “So I knew I definitely wanted to do something related to healthcare.”

Today, she is helping to enhance the sector as the CEO and co-founder of VIRTUAI, an integrated platform that trains healthcare professionals using virtual simulations.

“Our aim is to revolutionise health training with a platform that uses AI and data analytics to enhance learning,” said Ms Ooi, who set up VIRTUAI in 2021. To better understand the technologies behind her startup, she has also picked up basic programming skills through online modules.

For her contributions, she was one of 36 NUS staff and alumni members to make the Singapore Computer Society’s SG 100 Women in Tech List, just four months after setting up VIRTUAI.

Rather than being a drain on her energy, Ms Ooi believes every venture and interest she pursued over the years has contributed to her success.

Her four-year stint as a nurse at the National University Hospital allowed her to pinpoint the gaps in healthcare, while her eclectic mix of CCAs in school helped sharpen her communication skills with people from diverse backgrounds.

“If you are passionate about something, you will find time for it,” she said.

Source: National University of Singapore(HighLights)

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. To combat its potentially catastrophic effects, scientists are searching for new technologies that could help the world reach carbon neutrality.

One potential solution that is drawing growing attention is to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the form of hydrates under ocean floor sediments, kept in place by the natural pressure created by the weight of the seawater above. A major question, however, has been how stable this stored CO2 would be for the extended periods of storage required to keep the carbon in place and out of the atmosphere.

Now researchers from NUS Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have demonstrated the first-ever experimental evidence of the stability of CO2 hydrates in oceanic sediments – an essential step in making this carbon storage technology a viable reality.

“It’s the first of its kind experimental evidence that we hope is going to spur further activity on this technology development,” said Professor Praveen Linga, the lead researcher of the study. The team’s findings – part of a project funded through the Singapore Energy Centre – were first published in scientific journal Chemical Engineering Journal.

Using a specially designed laboratory reactor the NUS team showed that CO2 hydrates can remain stable in oceanic sediments for a period of up to 30 days. Going forward, the team says, the same process can be used to validate the stability of CO2 hydrates for much longer periods.

Trapped in ice-like substances

At low-temperature and under high-pressure conditions created by the ocean, CO2 can be trapped within water molecules, forming an ice-like substance. These CO2 hydrates form at a temperature just above the freezing point of water and can store as much as 184 cubic metres of CO2 in one cubic meter of hydrates.

The presence of huge volumes of methane hydrates in similar locations around the world and their safe existence presents a natural analogy to support the belief that CO2 hydrates will remain stable and safe if stored in deep-oceanic sediments.

The research team says that this technology could eventually be developed into a commercial-scale process, allowing countries like Singapore to efficiently sequester more than two million tons of CO2 annually as hydrates to meet emission reduction targets.

Ocean floor conditions

Working with specially designed equipment, Prof Linga and his team recreated the conditions of the deep ocean floor, where temperatures range between 2°C to 6°C and pressures are 100 times higher than what we experience at sea level. Creating a macro-scale reactor that could maintain such conditions was challenging and is one of the reasons why experiments to test the stability of CO2 hydrates were previously not possible. The NUS team overcame this challenge using an in-house designed pressurised vessel, lined with a silica sand bed, which imitated ocean sediments.

The team was able to form solid hydrates on top and within the silica sand bed and transitioned the pressurised vessel to mimic oceanic conditions to observe the stability of the formed solid CO2 hydrates in sediments. Under pressurised conditions, the hydrates were observed for 14 to 30 days and were found to show a high degree of stability.

This hydrate technology would allow nations to sequester large volumes of carbon emissions in deep-ocean geological formations in addition to how it is currently stored in depleted oil and gas reserves and saline aquifer formations. For countries like Singapore, which has set a target to become carbon neutral by 2050, the technology could be a significant tool for reducing CO2 emissions.

“In order to achieve carbon-neutrality targets, we have to look at new options that provide scale and speed to sequester CO2. Deep-ocean sequestration in sediments as CO2 hydrates is a promising solution,” said Prof Linga.

The next step for the team will be to scale up the experiment’s volume and timescale.

“From an experimental standpoint, we are planning to scale up by 10 times along with further innovations to develop quantifiable tools and methods for the technology,” said Prof Linga. Moving forward, he said, the team aimed soon to demonstrate six months stability for the CO2 hydrates.

The team’s recently announced funding under the Low-Carbon Energy Research Funding Initiative from the Singapore government to develop cutting-edge low-carbon energy technology solutions will greatly support the development of this storage technology. With the planned future experiments, the team hopes to develop and validate models that can predict the stability of CO2 hydrates thousands of years into the future.

Source: National University of Singapore(HighLights)

Eyespots, the circular markings of contrasting colours found on the wings of many butterfly species, are used by these fluttering creatures to intimidate or distract predators. A team of scientists led by Professor Antónia Monteiro from the National University of Singapore (NUS) conducted a research study to better understand the evolutionary origins of these eyespots, and they discovered that eyespots appear to have derived from the recruitment of a complex network of genes that was already operating in the body of the butterflies to build antennae, legs, and even wings.

“This new study addresses how novel complex traits might originate. These complex traits require the input of many interacting genes for their development, and are often illustrated by the vertebrate eye, or the bacteria flagellum. In our study, we looked at the how butterfly eyespots – an example of a complex trait – came about and concluded that a network recruitment approach is adopted by butterflies for the creation of eyespots. We have also identified the specific network of genes that was likely recruited,” said Prof Monteiro, who is from the NUS Department of Biological Sciences.

The findings were first published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA on 16 February 2022.

The mystery of how organisms are built

Understanding gene network recruitment can be approached by imagining a complex computer program with thousands of lines of code, with each line representing a simple instruction or function. Within the code are blocks of text, positioned a bit further inward from the margin, representing subroutines. These subroutines, or sets of instructions that perform specific tasks, are written once in the code, but are referred to repeatedly by the program as it runs. For this to occur, each subroutine has to be given a unique name, and referred to in the subsequent code. A complex bit of code often contains many subroutines, where each unique subroutine is written only once in full.

The same subroutine logic appears to hold true for how the process of development is encoded in an organism’s DNA. In this case, the subroutine is called a gene regulatory network. A gene regulatory network is a chain of instructions that involve the transcription, or silencing, of several genes in a temporal sequence. Organisms are built through the deployment of many such gene regulatory networks, in a precise sequence, during development. The new study by the NUS team discovered that the development of eyespots on the wings of butterflies relies on the deployment of a pre-existing gene regulatory network that was already being used to build the antennae, legs and wings of those butterflies.

The presence of these subroutines had been hypothesised before, primarily because the same genes kept being discovered as expressed and associated with the development of novel traits. However, it was unclear if the expression of these genes in the novel trait represented new lines of genome code each calling for a pre-existing gene to be expressed, or pre-existing lines of code being read one more time, similar to a subroutine in a computer program.

Discovering the role of gene network recruitment in novel traits

To figure this out, NUS postdoctoral fellow Dr Heidi Connahs and doctoral student Mr Suriya Murugesan deleted unique DNA regulatory sequences in the genome, but not the genes themselves, and showed that multiple traits were affected by these mutations. This argues for a single gene regulatory network, or subroutine, underlying the development of all the traits. The two pieces of DNA that were targeted were regulatory switches next to the genes Distal-less and spalt. The development of eyespots, antennae, legs, and wings were all disrupted when these regions of around 390-700 base pairs were disrupted. “It was amazing to observe how these significant complex traits were affected by the same changes in DNA”, said Dr Connahs.

Mr Murugesan also sequenced the pieces of tissue that develop eyespots on the wings and compared the complete set of expressed genes with those expressed in other traits. “Eyespots shared the closest gene expression profile with antennae, but not with legs or other wing tissue, such as the wing margin,” said Mr Murugesan. NUS postdoctoral fellow, Dr Yuji Matusoka, then examined three genes expressed in both eyespots and antennae and showed that the regulatory connections between them were identical, with one gene being important in regulating two others. “When I found a patch of cells in the eyespot region without the expression of the first gene, I realised that the expression of the other two genes was also missing,” said Dr Matusoka.

“These experiments relied on discovering mutations that hit exactly the eyespot central cells after embryonic injections which required a lot of patience,” said Prof Monteiro.

Overall, the study highlighted that the evolution of novel complex traits, such as butterfly eyespots, proceeds via mutations in the genetic code that recall a pre-existent subroutine in the genome that was already used for other complex traits such as antennae and other limbs. The types of mutations that produce these redeployments of pre-existing gene networks are still left to be discovered, but they are predicted to be ordinary mutations that, by chance, lead to the recall of large pre-existent genomic sub-routines involving hundreds of genes.

The next step in this research is to further test whether the corresponding regulatory sequences from these two genes from butterfly species without eyespots are able to activate gene expression in the eyespot region in species with eyespots. “This would be the icing on the cake,” said Prof Monteiro, “because it further confirms that a genetic sequence from an old subroutine will get recalled to that novel place in the body in species with the recall mutation.”

Source: National University of Singapore(Press Releases)

NUS has launched a new Master of Science in Sustainable and Green Finance (MSc SGF) programme to nurture new talents to combat environmental and sustainability challenges through financial solutions and services. Launched by NUS Business School in collaboration with the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute at NUS, the MSc SGF programme is the first MSc programme offered among leading Asian universities that focuses on sustainable and green finance.

Source: National University of Singapore(Press Releases)

Associate Professor Sam Yam Kai Chi from NUS Business School has been recognised as a rising star in the fields of organisational behaviour and psychological science, winning two of the most prestigious international awards for his early-career contributions. These are the 2022 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions by the Association for Psychological Science, and the 2022 Distinguished Early Career Contributions – Science Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Source: National University of Singapore(HighLights)

As part of its mission to offer meaningful rewards on a global scale, Blackhawk Network has purchased a minority stake in Singapore-based rewards and incentives company, Wogi. The collaboration will accelerate the growth of rewards and incentives throughout Southeast Asia and provide solutions to the APAC businesses that are revisiting their rewards strategies as a result of the pandemic.

With Blackhawk’s investment, Wogi will now be able to offer a wider selection of gift card rewards, which have shown to be effective incentives for driving loyalty and motivation among shoppers and employees alike1.

Source: NAM News Network

“If the first half of my career was about building myself up, then the second half should be about giving of myself back to others.” This is the mental model with which Associate Professor Ho Han Kiat, the Dean of Students at the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), views his role.

He succeeded Associate Professor Leong Ching, and now, four and a half months into his appointment, continues to bring his energy and vision to NUS student life.

In his capacity as the Dean of Students, Prof Ho oversees OSA, whose raison d’être is to provide institutional support for the holistic development of students into leaders of change for tomorrow. This covers a wide scope of functions in enhancing the quality and effectiveness of student life on campus.

The engines that power this growth include the training, support and management of student activities and initiatives, residential life, clubs and societies, sports, community engagement, student wellness and mental wellbeing, pastoral care, and student services.

OSA also holds leadership summits with the student leaders of Halls of Residence and Residential Colleges, as well as dialogue sessions with the NUS Students’ Union (NUSSU). These address students’ concerns and facilitates proper communication with student stakeholders.

“There is no short cut to effective student engagement, except to spend quality time with them. Students do reciprocate because they are empathetic about the world and feel strongly enough to speak up to make a difference,” Prof Ho shares on student-championed causes. “By creating suitable platforms for engagement, we hope to build the trust for students to come to us as their first resource rather than the last resort.”

In fact. one of the most memorable issues he has handled since becoming the Dean of Students epitomises precisely this spirit of engagement between students and university management.

There were reservations over two student groups’ proposal to hold blood donation drives on campus amid COVID-19. However, the students’ passionate debate for their cause, strong justifications, risk mitigation plans as well as support from the health authorities allowed the blood donation drives to proceed, which turned out to be rousing successes.

“The takeaway from this is that we should not be too quick to dismiss possibilities on the basis of past experiences,” Prof Ho reflects. “Consistent with the age of disruptive change, we should be mindful that the risk management approach may be more meritorious than simply risk aversion.”

A culmination of past experiences

No stranger to engaging with students at the ground level, Prof Ho also brings a wealth of pedagogical and professional experience to the table, tapping on a trove of past experiences to contribute in his new role.

Besides his position as Deputy Head (Education) at the Department of Pharmacy from 2016 to 2020, he held a joint appointment with the University Scholars Programme, and is an elected fellow of the NUS Teaching Academy. He also spent 6.5 years as a Resident Fellow at NUS Raffles Hall from July 2011 to December 2017, where he oversaw student impact and leadership development.

“Indeed, every experience counts for something, and hence I do not see my role as Dean of Students as a diversion of my career, but rather as a culmination of my purpose,” he muses, citing his years at Raffles Hall for opening his mind to a significant part of student life that eludes the classroom, yet shapes the character and soft skills of individuals for the future.

“This exposure has helped me appreciate, rationalise and even defend educational policies where necessary,” he adds.

Assoc Prof Ho fondly recalls the original musical productions students put up at Raffles Hall, which saw them take charge of all elements of the projects, from script-writing, to music composition, to dance choreography, all from scratch.

“It is always a great delight to see students put their creativity into action, combining their varied skill sets to assemble something that surprise you. It is eclecticism at its best,” he marvels.

Now, as the Dean of Students, he strives to make more of such opportunities available and accessible to all students.

A vision of holistic development

Armed with the philosophy that student life is integral to holistic development, Prof Ho’s vision is simple: since the majority of values found in the NUS educational philosophy— a well-rounded mind and character, a resourceful and enterprising spirit, responsible and constructive membership in the community—cannot be achieved purely within the classroom, student life must be mobilised as the platform to materialise this vision.

Asked what words of advice he has for students on making the most of their university life, he says, “Try to see the many facets of university life beyond the classroom, because this is what holistic development is all about. However, one should pick and choose according to one’s interests and ability to cope.”

“It is just like going to a buffet table, you will need to pick and choose what you like. If you take a piece of everything, you will end up with indigestion and may end up enjoying the meal even less,” he quips.

Of hormesis and resilience

As a strong advocate for the concept of anti-fragility, which is to perceive disruption not only as a stress point but as a vehicle for growth, Prof Ho also identifies resilience as a critical life skill in an age of change.

What does the toxicological principle of hormesis have to do with cultivating a mindset of resilience in students? Everything, according to Prof Ho. The scientific analogy states that a controlled amount of stress substance actually produces beneficial effects rather than harm.

“This is because stress itself can trigger stress responses in a biological system that are protective in nature, as long as the stress point is not overwhelming. Therefore, this concept validates Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’,” he explains.

“As we embrace this knowledge, I hope students will develop courage through trials.”

Ultimately, Prof Ho’s personal philosophy boils down to this: “The extraordinary is not limited to a few, but to everyone who pursues the ordinary with unequivocal authenticity and passion. To get there, individuals will have to find their cause, stay the course and count the cost.”

“With the training in hard and soft skills that students have received from a university education and student life experience, they have to engage the world with passion and purpose,” he says. “When their skills meet their hearts, and their works meet the world, I believe they will truly become the leaders of change that we hope them to be.”

Source: National University of Singapore(HighLights)