Matthew Chang
Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
Director, NUS SynCTI
Tel: +65 6601 3687
Email: bchcmw@nus.edu.sg

What are your present research interests?

At present, my research interests lie in synthetic biology of microbial systems, with particular emphasis on the development of synthetic microbes that perform programmable functions as well as developing pioneering approaches to reprogramme cells for clinical and industrial applications.

Do you have a distinctive viewpoint to your research?

I’m a firm advocate for applied research and aspire that much of the science we do can translate to useful applications in energy, healthcare and the environment.

What do you see as your future research directions?

I see tremendous potential of engineered microbes in the production of value-added biochemicals and perhaps more importantly, novel therapeutic compounds for the prevention and treatment of human diseases. With diminishing natural resources, it is also pertinent that such microbial cell factories be endowed with the ability to exploit biowaste as their feedstock for long term sustainability.

Does your laboratory have a particularly strong research expertise?

Our research expertise in engineering microbial systems extends beyond the common lab strains such as E. coli and yeast, to probiotics and commensal bacteria with the aim of reprogramming them to perform targeted functionalities.

Recent Publications

1. Foo JL, Chang MW (2018) Synthetic yeast genome reveals its versatility. Nature 557:647-648.
MS-based lipidomics of human blood plasma – a community-initiated position paper to develop accepted guidelines. Journal of Lipid Research, 2018, 59(10), 2001-2017.
2. Ho CL, Tan HQ, Chua KJ, Kang A, Lim KH, Ling LK, Yew WS, Lee YS, Thiery JP, Chang MW (2018) Engineered commensal microbes for diet-mediated colorectal-cancer chemoprevention. Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2.27-37.
3. Pham HL, Wong A, Chua N, Teo WS, Yew WS, Chang MW (2017) Engineering a riboswitch-based genetic platform for the self-directed evolution of acid-tolerant phenotypes. Nature Communications. 8:411.
4. Hwang IY, Koh E, Wong A, March JC, Bentley WE, Lee YS, Chang MW (2017) Engineered probiotic Escherichia coli can eliminate and prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa gut infection in animal models. Nature Communications. 8:15028.