INSITU Oct 2006 - Vol 2 - Institute of Chemical & Engineering ...

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highlighted and fruitful ideas exchanged. The technical
teams then presented a summary of the discussions to
the steering committee comprising Dr Carpenter, Prof
Chua, Dr Fujita and Dr Honjyo.
On the last day, the Singapore team was invited to a dinner
Research team from NSTA in discussion with their Mitsui counterpart during the
technical meeting
hosted by Dr AkihiroYamaguchi, Senior Managing Director
of Mitsui Chemicals Inc., at the Mitsui Club House. We were
served sumptuous French-Japanese cuisine, prepared by
their in-house chefs.
Following the technical meetings, several milestones were
identified for the ICES project members to work on. In the
BTX project, effort will be made to improve the activity of
conventional and new catalysts. This includes carrying out
in-situ spectroscopic studies to obtain information about
reactions intermediates and the nature of the catalysts
during the reaction.
The Asymmetric Synthesis project members will be
looking into enhancing the enantioselectivities of selected
C-C bond forming transformations by designing new
catalytic systems.
Up-close & Personal with Alvin Hung, our A*STAR Scholar
Alvin Hung has become a familiar and
friendly face at ICES over the past ten
months. This energetic A*STAR scholar will
shortly leave Singapore to do a Ph.D. in
Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University.
The Editorial team conducted an interview
with him and wish to share some of his
thoughts and experience with you.
Tell us about yourself. I was born and bred in Singapore.
I completed my ‘A’ levels in 1999 at National Junior
College. After being selected as an A*STAR scholar, I spent
some time working at ICES looking at the crystallisation
of paracetamol (commonly known as “panadol”) under
the mentorship of Dr Ann Chow. After this short stint at
ICES, I went to the United States to do a Bachelor of
Chemical Engineering degree at the University of
Wisconsin in Madison. I returned to ICES during a summer
break and again after I graduated, where I spent a year
working with Dr Felicity Moore, Dr Paul Bernardo and Ms
Xu Jin from the NSTA programme.
What projects have you been involved with at ICES
recently? My work at NSTA involved the synthesis of small
molecule inhibitors of the protein Bcl-X L , a regulator for
apoptosis (programmed cell death). This is a collaborative
project with Dr Henry Mok from the National University
of Singapore (NUS) and Dr Victor Yu from the Institute of
Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). Besides doing synthesis,
computational studies were also conducted with the help
of Dr Mok to calculate the binding energies of various
small molecules to a particular protein, and correlating
this affinity with what we learnt from actual biological
studies that were done by Dr Victor Yu.
What was the most important thing you learnt during
your time here at ICES? I have always been a very practical
and result-oriented person. The past ten months at ICES
have led me to discover something about the nature of
research – that it is sometimes better to work slowly and
patiently than to rush for results.
Why the change to Organic Chemistry? Although in
school, I always performed better in maths and physics
related subjects but organic chemistry has always been
my first love and that is what I will pursue for my
postgraduate studies.
How has your background in Chemical Engineering
influenced your perspective on synthetic chemistry during
your attachment? To be frank, during my attachment, I
have been simply concentrating on learning the practical
and theoretical aspects of organic chemistry. Not much
chemical engineering knowledge has been applied to the
synthetic work that I have been doing all this while. But I
am very sure that the fusion of both areas of knowledge
will benefit me tremendously in the future.
Tell us about your postgraduate project. I will be working
with Professor Chris Abell at Cambridge University
investigating small molecules for protein inhibition. In fact,
the project is similar to what I have been involved with at
ICES. I should be well prepared!
Last words before you leave ICES for your studies. I want
to thank my mentor Dr Chai (Programme Manager, NSTA),
who has contributed so much to my learning at ICES. Despite
her busy schedule, she always found time to tutor me. I am
going to miss her “mini lectures” and “whiteboard tests” when
I leave. And also big hugs to both Dr Felicity Moore and Dr
Paul Bernardo. Felicity has always been ever so patient and
detailed in teaching me chemistry. And Paul, thanks for the
witty ideas on the project. I am not going to miss out
thanking Kok Peng! I enjoyed exchanging mechanistic
questions with you in the lab. Finally, thanks to all who have
made my stay in ICES a fruitful and memorable one!