Nicolette KOH, a Year 1 Pharmacy student, was diagnosed with profound hearing loss at the age of three. After finding that hearing aids did not help, she underwent three major surgeries during her childhood to get cochlear implants.

To Nicolette, life is a constant series of challenges. For instance, in school, she has to work harder to learn and process information as well as adapt to learning difficulties due to hearing loss.  

However, speech therapy, technological aids and the support of her professors and peers help her to fully embrace rich learning opportunities and manage social, educational, emotional and environmental challenges at the same time. Recently, she attended an exchange programme at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she gained understanding on drug discovery and manufacturing as well as hospital laboratory testing. 

Pharmacy alumnus (2023) Mr Matthew TAN’s studies were disrupted twice when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Despite adversity, he rose above the storm and now uses his personal journey as a patient to empathise with his patients and help alleviate their grief and suffering.

Matthew credits his success to the support from his peers in the department and the Catholic Students’ Society, his professors who regularly checked in with him during his leaves of absence, and his mentors who provided listening ears and advice to steer his learning journey.

Matthew is currently a pre-registration pharmacist at the National University Hospital (NUH). He aspires to become an oncologist specialist pharmacist.

Year 4 student Eric LEOW, who reads Double Majors in Pharmaceutical Science and Computer Science, received the OURP for his project on the metabolism of cocaine. He found that the formation of benzoylecgonine from the breakdown of cocaine is mainly through nonenzymatic metabolism, challenging the current consensus that it is primarily driven by enzymatic metabolism. This study clarifies the interplay between enzymatic metabolism and nonenzymatic degradation of cocaine, which sets the stage for further studies on its disposition. 

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer associated with high relapse rates. Year 4 Pharmaceutical Science student LIM En Tong received the OURP for studying the expression of Cluster of Differentiation 47 (CD47) in drug-resistant AML cells and correlating its impact on immune evasion. CD47 is a protein on cellular surfaces that acts as a ‘don’t eat me’ signal, preventing cells from being ingested by white blood cells. En Tong’s work sheds light on CD47 as a potential therapeutic target to mitigate relapse in AML patients.

Graduate student Angelica Faith SUAREZ characterises novel posttranslational enzymes that catalyse peptide cyclisation – an important chemical transformation used in creating peptide therapeutics. Her work was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (June 2022), showcasing the unique capabilities of these enzymes to create diverse peptide cyclophanes.

She was named to the Chemical Abstracts Service Future Leader Top 100 (2023) and also received the department’s Best Graduate Researcher (2023) award.

Pharmacy alumnus (2019) Mr Marcus WONG is behind the bespoke diamond jewellery brand which created the Miss Universe Singapore crown from 2021 to 2023. The Better Diamond was born out of Marcus’ interest in applying science and technology to replicate and grow diamonds in a controlled laboratory environment.

Laboratory-grown diamonds are a sustainable alternative to natural diamonds, as they are chemically, physically and optically identical – but without the negative ethical and environmental impacts associated with mined diamonds. The Better Diamond, one of the first of its kind in Singapore, specialises in handcrafting customised diamond jewellery from scratch, including diamonds in homeware and even car emblems! In the future, Marcus plans to expand The Better Diamond’s footprint overseas.

In August 2022, we led an expedition to Timor-Leste in collaboration with Conservation International and the government of Timor-Leste. The Museum’s herpetologist, Dr CHAN Kin Onn, discovered a new species of bent-toed gecko which was named Cyrtodactylus santana, in reference to the Nino Konis Santana National Park, in which the gecko was discovered.