The business of science

Life Sciences alumna (2020) Jessie WONG, an aspiring entrepreneur and scientist, found no better way to venture into the business aspects of the biotechnology (biotech) / medical technology (medtech) ecosystem than by participating in the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme when she was an undergraduate.

Under NOC Singapore, she worked at a medtech start-up as a Business Development Intern. She also gained exposure to courses beyond the classroom involving case studies and market validation in a local context.

During a two-week overseas study mission at Shenzhen and Silicon Valley, she had the opportunity to visit and understand the business of various startups, incubators and companies such as Google, BeePlus and Plug and Play.

She says, “The daily problems we face as an individual, company or society can be a source of inspiration for solutions/startups/spinoffs. This is why there was a big emphasis on discovering the problem/pain point rather than the solution in NOC.”

The learnings she gained helped her in more ways than one. For instance, the value of networking, which she now applies to develop scientific collaborations as a PhD student in Duke-NUS Medical School studying lipid metabolism in breast cancer metastasis.

Once an introvert, participating in hackathons and working with people from all walks of life and different countries  compelled Jessie out of her shell.

She says, “Being uncomfortable helped me to accept change and face challenges, which I would not have learned otherwise.”

As a resident of N-House, Jessie got to brainstorm business ideas / solutions with like-minded peers. Together with her batchmates, she co-founded PORO (a peer-to-peer pet service community platform app) with the help of the NUS Venture Initiation Programme (VIP) and the Philip Yeo grant to defray operational costs.

With a keen interest in translational research, Jessie is current trying to understand the vulnerabilities of breast cancer brain metastasis, in the hope of curing it. In addition, she is working with Nucleate Singapore, where she gets to network with, and interview startup founders in biotech/medtech in Singapore.