Bio
A native of Manila, Philippines, I studied at the National Institute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines Diliman and completed my BSc. Molecular Biology and Biotechnology degree in 2007. I moved to Singapore in 2009 to pursue post-graduate studies under full scholarship from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLL-SoM, NUS), Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases (formerly Singapore NITD), and Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (TPH, formerly Swiss Tropical Institute). I joined the 2009-2011 cohort of the M.Sc. Infectious Diseases, Vaccinology and Drug Discovery Program jointly administered by Swiss TPH, NITD, and NUS-YLLSoM. Under the guidance of Prof. Jimmy Kwang at Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory, I developed a cell-based assay for evaluating antivirals against porcine circovirus-2 (PCV-2), the primary agent causing severe wasting disease in pigs. In 2012, I subsequently transitioned to human virology under the guidance of Dr. Kaw Bing Chua at Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory and Prof. Vincent T.K. Chow at National University of Singapore (Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology) as a Junior Research Fellow at Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory. To obtain my Ph.D. Microbiology and Immunology degree, I evaluated the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of a mouse cell-adapted enterovirus 71 (EV-A71) virus and identified key residues in the capsid proteins that enabled viral infection of mouse cells. I also developed an immunocompetent juvenile mouse model of EV-A71 infection that exhibited signs of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), as well as neurogenic pulmonary edema using the mouse cell-adapted strain. My Ph.D. studies resulted in 3 first-author and 3 second-author publications, as well as several oral presentations in international Virology meetings.
After completing Ph.D. studies in 2017, I trained as a Molecular Imaging Scientist at Duke-NUS Medical School. I joined Asst. Prof. Ann-Marie Chacko, Head of the Laboratory for Translational and Molecular Imaging (LTMI), as a Research Fellow. I specialize in nuclear (PET/SPECT/CT) imaging in preclinical models of viral infections—such as flaviviruses (dengue and Zika) and respiratory viruses (rhinovirus and influenza), which resulted in 4 publications on nuclear imaging biomarkers in dengue and Zika. I got promoted to Senior Research Fellow in 2022 for my work on nuclear imaging in flavivirus infection models. Recently, I was also awarded the Catalyst Grant from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) to investigate the role of myeloperoxidase (MPO) from neutrophils on severe dengue disease in both clinical patients and mouse models. In addition to infectious diseases, I also specialize in developing tools for oncology research. Specifically, I am developing and characterizing immunocompetent mouse cancer models bearing orthotopically implanted syngeneic tumours that we genetically modified to express nanoluciferase (nLuc). We have established and characterized models for glioblastoma, lung cancer, and oral squamous cell carcinoma, which we are using to evaluate oncolytic viruses targeted to glioblastoma and lung cancers.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Master of Science
National University of Singapore, Singapore
B of Sc (Molecular Biology & Biotechnology) Magna Cum Laude
University of the Philippines at Diliman, Philippines
NUS Appointment(s)
Research Fellow
Duke-NUS Medical School,
07/2017 - 12/2021
Senior Research Fellow
Duke-NUS Medical School,
Currently Active