Young Researcher Award

Assistant Professor YAO Shao Qin

PhD (Purdue), BSc (Ohio State)
Department of Chemistry/Department of Biological Sciences

“ Using Chemistry to solve significant biological/biomedical problems, intimately related to daily life, has been extremely fulfilling. ”

Research Interests
  • Chemical Biology/Organic & Bioorganic Chemistry;
  • Protein Design and Engineering;
  • Genomics and Proteomics.

Research Achievements
  • contributed to bringing NUS to the forefront of chemical biology and proteomic research;
  • has filed 3 US patents based on his pioneering work:
    (1) Cell-permeable small molecule probes for site-specific labeling of proteins, 2004;
    (2) Novel strategies for site-specific immobilization of peptides and proteins onto glass slides, 2004;
    (3) Novel methods for detecting enzymatic activity on a protein microarray, 2003.

Research Strengths
  • relentless in the pursuit of long-term research goals;
  • aims high and compete with the best in the world.

Publication Credits
  • 36 papers published in high impact journals with a significant number in Tier 1 premier journals over a 3-year period since joining NUS;
  • contributed book chapters to The Proteomics Protocols Handbook, Humana Press, 2005; Enzyme Assays and Enzyme Profiling, Wiley, 2005, and Protein Microarray, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2004.

International Standing
his papers published in premier journals, e. g. Journal of American Chemical Society, were widely cited and have been publicized in top journals such as ChemBioChem, Journal of Current Proteome and Nature Biotechnology.

Awards and Accolades
  • Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) Young Investigator Award, 2002;
  • Cancer Research Institute Post-doctoral fellowship, UC Berkeley & Scripps Research Institute, USA, 1998-2001;
  • William MacNevin Scholarship, Ohio State University, USA, 1992;
  • Phi Kappa Phi National Honour Society, USA, 1992.

Research Aspiration
to put Singapore and NUS on the world map as one of the top places to do research in chemical biology.