Tay Hwee Goon's quest to restore sight | MEDICUS 2025 Issue 1

From tiny zebrafish to a big vision: Tay Hwee Goon’s quest to restore sight
By Tan Ruilin, Writer

Tay Hwee Goon in the Duke-NUS confocal microscopy room, where she often captures precise images of the retina // Credit: Norfaezah Abdullah, Duke-NUS

It is fitting that Tay Hwee Goon’s career first started with fish. Like her chosen model organism, its dramatic twists and turns mimic a shoal darting amongst a reef.

But her real turning point came not in a research tank, but in the pressure cooker of a grant competition. It takes a special kind of tenacity to throw your hat in the ring when you are a newcomer up against peers who have amassed years of data from experiments to back their grant applications.

“I only had a protocol, and I hadn’t even patented anything,” she recalls.

Today, Tay is known for her translational work in stem cell research, developing therapies that may prevent blindness and tackle vision challenges. She leads a research laboratory at Duke-NUS, and co-founded Alder Therapeutics, a biotech startup focused on cell-based therapies. Her journey has led her through many continents and ways of looking at a problem.

But all of this rested on years of experience working with zebrafish. Transparent, genetically similar to humans and easy to maintain, these small fish became her model for studying cilia, microscopic hairlike structures in cells that enable the movement of fluids. Like the tiniest Mexican wave delivering the world’s most important substances, they allow for a range of functions, from sensory perception to cell signalling.

Possessed by the spirit of inquiry

Tay’s fascination with science can be traced to her secondary school days. Back then, she did not think of it as an ambition, only interested in satisfying her curiosity, a famous quality of hers, even today.

Professor Patrick Casey, Senior Advisor at the Dean’s Office, corroborates:

“Hwee Goon has an infectious enthusiasm for her research, and is always thinking of new ways to approach problems—as well as being a genuinely cheerful person who was always fun to engage.”

“Hwee Goon has an infectious enthusiasm for her research, and is always thinking of new ways to approach problems—as well as being a genuinely cheerful person who was always fun to engage.”
Prof Patrick Casey

With the curiosity comes an irrepressible zest for fun. In her personal time, Tay is an avid sportsperson, despite her maintaining that her petite size physically disadvantages her for many sports.

Small but vital—just like cilia—she joined a multitude of sports teams during her school years, from track and field to dragon boating. To this day, Tay plays tennis weekly, which she maintains is just a hobby. But true to her go-getter attitude, she has even competed in the tennis category in Pesta Sukan, the largest multi-sports competition in Singapore.

Tay at Pesta Sukan, where she competed in the tennis category, looking buoyant and energetic as always // Credit: Courtesy of Tay Hwee Goon

With such an inquiring mind, it was only logical for Tay to pursue a Diploma in Biotechnology. However, when she enrolled in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the only institution in the field was Institute of Molecular Biology. A*STAR had not even been founded. It was a move her relatives, worried about her job prospects, termed “career suicide”.

Regardless, Tay followed her instincts. As luck would have it, in her second year at Ngee Ann, she went on research attachment to the very person who would end up being her PhD mentor years later, Dr Edward Manser. This first attachment was the peak of her interest in biochemistry, spurring her to complete her Bachelor of Science in the University of New South Wales in the same field.

While working her first job as a research assistant in the barely completed Genome Institute of Singapore, Tay wrote again to Manser, wanting to expand her research interests. It had been years since they last worked together, but he told her she would not even have to interview for the role, with one condition: help Manser set up a lab in A*STAR’s Institute of Medical Biology.

There, she began her love affair with the zebrafish.

“I went in, I helped him, and thereafter, I started my PhD. I was ignorant at the time, however, so I said I didn’t want to study cells cultured on a dish—it was like studying an artefact. I wanted to study cells that were still living.

“So I chose zebrafish as a model system, which was getting popular at the time.”

A photograph of a zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo about 24 hours after fertilisation. The zebrafish embryo is completely transparent, which is very useful to scientists studying biological development // Credit: istock.com / MichalRenee

Seeing right through: A clear-eyed vision

Insisting upon working with zebrafish was tricky—Manser’s laboratory did not use them—but that did not deter Tay either. She ultimately earned her PhD at the National University of Singapore with the work at Manser’s lab, while simultaneously learning to work with zebrafish from another laboratory.

The zebrafish fascination did not stop there. Post-PhD, she found Dr Jeffrey Amack, based in Syracuse, New York, in the depths of the ‘Zfin’, or global zebrafish network system. Before bidding farewell to Manser, though, a new dilemma appeared.

Having just obtained their PhDs in Singapore and Melbourne respectively, Tay and her husband were determined to settle in the same place.

“I had a two-body problem. It was a husband problem. He was having a challenging time finding a postdoctoral position in the same city, and we had just gotten married.”

Fortunately, Amack was anxious to have Tay join his laboratory, and connected Tay’s husband to SUNY’s Centre for Vision Research. Being in close contact as spouses and professional counterparts, Tay’s husband recounts, had its ups and downs.

Tay imitates a human popsicle in the thigh-deep Syracuse winter snow. // Credit: Tay Hwee Goon

Tay imitates a human popsicle in the thigh-deep Syracuse winter snow // Credit: Courtesy of Tay Hwee Goon

“We would brainstorm our grant applications together. The process was tedious for both of us, but her sharpness and eloquence helped me to shape up my grant application tremendously. In the end, I was awarded the grant, as opposed to my wife. It was bittersweet for both of us.”

Their time in Syracuse came to a natural end after the birth of their child. Tay, a new mother, started flirting with the thought of going home—with the pull of living with family working in tandem with the thought of the Syracuse winter. Clearly, even Tay’s enthusiasm has limits.

“We spent five years in Syracuse, a long time for a Singaporean to be in a snowy city. I thought, I think I’m done with winter, and I miss home.”

Transition to translation

The young family moved halfway around the world, with Tay joining Duke-NUS’ Professor Karl Tryggvason’s laboratory in Singapore—and presenting her underdog proposal to the YIRG panel.

“That was the point where I first started to work on eye cells and vision. Then I wrote the proposal for the YIRG… and everything just fell into place.”

The YIRG award serves often as a launchpad for early-career researchers, a first step towards being awarded national grants.

To the rest of Tryggvason’s team, it may just have been part of the annual grant cycle, but for Tay, it was now or never. Researchers are only eligible for the YIRG up until their seventh year post-PhD.

Now, at the eleventh hour, it was Tay’s final chance to secure the grant—and tenacious as she is, she decided to gun for it.

Tay with the confocal microscopes she often uses in her work for HG Vision Lab. // Credit: Norfaezah Abdullah, Duke-NUS

Tay with the confocal microscopes she often uses in her work at the HG Vision Lab // Credit: Norfaezah Abdullah, Duke-NUS

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Tryggvason’s taste of translation

Despite the long odds and Tay’s misgivings, an established biotech company was impressed.

“Surprisingly, they were really interested in my protocol. And they offered me an option to license (retaining intellectual rights on a new product), even before patenting. That was my first taste of translational research.”

Convincing a funding agency that a project was worth pouring resources into was a dream. Tay would pinpoint this as a standout accomplishment of hers, being also awarded the YIRG and the Competitive Research Programme Grant from the National Research Foundation for the same research.

Even now, she credits Tryggvason’s initial mentorship with giving her research a translational boost.

“He was really supportive and provided the space for me to perform all these experiments and improve protocols. Karl really took me on a translational research journey.”

After some time at Duke-NUS, Tay started her own laboratory, the HG Vision Lab, at the Duke-NUS Centre for Vision Research, as well as the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI).

Tay speaks at a conference as part of her present-day translational work // Credit: Courtesy of Tay Hwee Goon

Leading her own translational lab and being one of SERI’s principal investigators turned out the unexpected fruits of discovering a new world—that of the patients she helps, and of collaborations with clinicians. Once, Tay spearheaded a new method of studying genetic retinal diseases—by reprogramming blood cells from samples into an embryonic-like state, they could then be further differentiated into retinal cells. This Benjamin-Button-like process created a model of genetic diseases she and the clinicians could work with.

That novel method of research was but a throwaway sentence in Tay’s list of projects at HG Vision.

“You can teach people how to do experiments, and surgery, but you can’t teach enthusiasm, drive and energy.”
Prof Jodhbir Singh Mehta

Tay said, “All projects that address real gaps and unmet clinical needs are important and interesting. Everything is my favourite.”

Tay’s impressive sense of wonder makes her a dream collaborator. Professor Anders Kvanta of the Karolinska Instituet relishes these qualities in an anecdote where their collaboration involved transplanting cells that Tay had produced into living eyes. Tay had flown to Stockholm solely to observe the surgeries.

Tay had marvelled, “Oh my God, this is so cool, just like science fiction!”

Professor Jodhbir Singh Mehta, Director of the Duke-NUS Centre for Vision Research, explained, “You can teach people how to do experiments, and surgery, but you can’t teach enthusiasm, drive and energy. She is a very focused individual, but really enjoys what she does, which makes her very nice to work with.”

A picture of Tay’s team at the HG Vision Lab gathering at a Chinese restaurant // Credit: Courtesy of Tay Hwee Goon

Focusing her sights on vision

Tay’s eyes invariably sparkle when speaking of that first inkling of success in her investigations. That, coupled with the excitement of eventual results, keeps a project moving.

“Of course, many times you want to throw the towel in. But, because you have a team, the motivation becomes two-way—as each data set is diligently generated, it steers our next steps. And I am always grateful for the fruits of my great team members’ labour.”

How does one pick a dream team? Being open to new ideas—especially the idea of being wrong—may be the most valuable attribute for Tay, along with resourcefulness and the ability to not be disappointed easily.

“When I interview them, I ask them what the biggest challenges in their life are and how they overcame them. From there, you’ll know whether they can persevere.”

Between setting her sights on higher ambitions, Tay is clear-eyed about her goals.

“In terms of research, this is the intent I’ll stick with. I don’t think I’ll be able to do other organs of interest: in vision, there’s already so much to do. To restore vision is one of the biggest endeavours my lab wants to take on.”

Wherever she is, whoever she is becoming, it’s clear that Tay’s confidence comes from seeking the truth of her own answers.

It works for her. In research, as in life, it’s clear that Tay’s approach—with keen curiosity, underlined by a desire to help—often achieves great things.