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Duke-NUS’ Professor Wang Linfa receives top NUS honours

“Success favours the prepared mind.”

With a career built on this motto, it is little surprise that Duke-NUS Professor Wang Linfa’s reluctant prediction, given to The Straits Times in 2013, about the next pandemic turned out to be eerily accurate. So, when a novel coronavirus started to infect humans in late 2019, he and his team were prepared. They were among the first three teams in the world to culture the virus, an essential asset for creating the myriad tools necessary to fight back.

In recognition of his instrumental role in shaping local and global public health policies and leading efforts to develop novel diagnostics and a broad-spectrum vaccine, Prof Wang received the National University of Singapore’s University Research Recognition Award on 30 August, the top honour bestowed by the university for scientific achievements.

“To receive this recognition from the big NUS family means a lot to me because, like all families, it can sometimes be harder to be recognised by those closest to us,” said Prof Wang, who is a professor with the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme, who was one of two recipients of the Research Recognition Award. “But that makes the honour all the sweeter.” 

The award is recognition of more than his work on bat-borne viruses and contributions to pandemic response efforts. It also recognises Prof Wang’s pioneering work in bat biology, as NUS Deputy President for Research and Technology Professor Liu Bin elaborated. Reading his citation, she said: “His studies have increased our understanding of basic mechanisms of inflammation and ageing that can be exploited therapeutically.”

These discoveries, which turned Prof Wang from “bat virus man” into “bat man” as he puts it, stem from an inflection point in his career that he dates to 2008 when he received a major grant to study bat biology.

With that funding, Prof Wang began to build a toolbox that would enable him to delve deeper into the secrets of the planet’s only flying mammal that not only boasts an unusually long lifespan but also has an uncanny ability to tolerate some of the deadliest viruses without falling sick.

Today, this toolbox includes a bat breeding colony, one of only a handful around the world dedicated to research, as well as organoids and bat-mouse models that enable researchers to study the impact of a bat-like immune response in a land-bound laboratory animal. All this to find new bat-inspired therapeutics for applications in humans.

“Whether we are talking about Ebola or a coronavirus, it is not the virus that kills us. We kill ourselves. It is the inflammation triggered by the virus that can be lethal,” said Prof Wang.

Unlike the human immune system, bats’ immune systems do not aim to purge viruses completely. Instead, their dampened immune response finds a balance that keeps viruses in check while protecting the animals from the more serious and long-term consequences of a more aggressive immune reaction.

He and his team have already made progress on this front, including their discovery in 2023 that a human protein can be bat-ised to prevent the human immune system from launching a wide-ranging inflammatory attack.

While this continues to be a major focus of his research, Prof Wang also has his eye on another challenge:

“We want to develop a library of vaccines so that when the next disease X strikes, we already have a vaccine formula in place, and we are doing this in collaboration with the WHO, CEPI and other international agencies,” said Prof Wang.

In receiving the award from NUS President Professor Tan Eng Chye, Prof Wang becomes the second scientist at Duke-NUS honoured with the Research Recognition Award, attesting to the School’s high calibre and ability to attract globally outstanding talent. He is among eight individuals recognised with the prestigious University Awards during a ceremony held at the Conrad Hotel.

Duke-NUS Dean Professor Thomas Coffman said:

“Linfa is a true pioneer in two distinct yet related fields—emerging infectious disease and bat biology—and I am very proud and excited that he is being recognised with this prestigious award. His foresight and creativity helped Singapore and the world chart a safe path out of the recent global pandemic, and his contributions will continue to guide us toward a better-prepared future. At the same time, his discoveries advancing our understanding of the immune system of bats can hopefully be harnessed to benefit human health.”

In addition to leading his research at Duke-NUS, Prof Wang is also the inaugural Executive Director of the Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response, Singapore, and has served on multiple WHO Covid-19 committees. His work includes 15 patented innovations and more than 500 publications, and his name has been among Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers since 2022. Earlier this month, he was elected as a Singapore National Academy of Science Fellow for his pioneering work on bat-borne viruses, bat immunology and his scientific leadership in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Having had to shelve plans for a partial retirement when the pandemic struck, Prof Wang has this advice for aspiring scientists: “Always keep an eye on the ‘unexpected’, even as you pursue your main project. Leave room for side projects that, sometimes, lead to even greater things than your main project. And split your time and effort fifty-fifty between achievable projects with a high chance of success and challenging but important projects which may or may not work out. The achievable projects help you graduate and keep your job, but it is the challenging projects that will make you a great scientist.”

Now as in 2013, Prof Wang is loath to make a prediction about when and what virus will strike next, lest it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But he does offer a guess: “The virus will most likely come from one of three viral groups—influenza, corona or paramyxoviruses. An outbreak, which may or may not turn into a pandemic, will happen again within ten years.”

Having mentored many among the next generation of scientists in his field, Prof Wang’s contributions and his ongoing projects will further fortify the foundations of a robust response to new threats, while his quest to harness bats’ superpowers may bring benefits that will transform human health and perhaps even how we age.