Our Team

Contact information:
xinyi_su@nuhs.edu.sg
xysu@a-star.edu.sg

A/Prof. Su Xinyi (PhD, MMed, FAMS, MBChir) is Executive Director, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). She also serves as the Research Director overseeing the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory at IMCB. She is passionate about building bridges between science and medicine. Her research interests are in translational research for retinal surgery and therapeutics.

Concurrently, Xinyi is also Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist at the National University Hospital, where she also serve as the Co-Director of the Centre for Innovation and Precision Eye Health. She is also an Associate Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. She also holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor appointment at the Mechanobiology Institute, NUS, and a joint appointment of Clinician Scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute.

A recipient of the prestigious National Science Scholarship from A*STAR, Dr. Su Xinyi graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2009 with a MBChir degree in medicine as well as a PhD degree in molecular biology, supervised by Ashok Venkitaraman (presently Director of the Cancer Science Institute, Singapore, and Distinguished Professor, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine) at the Hutchinson MRC Cancer Cell Unit, where she developed a novel method to conditionally inactivate RAD51, an essential protein in homologous DNA recombination (HDR).

Xinyi has published several book chapters and numerous journal articles in, inter alia, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Structural Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Lancet Global Health. She has been awarded more than SGD30 million of competitive research funding. She is the recipient of multiple global and national awards, including, the Young Ophthalmologist Award from the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (2019), Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Singapore Award (for Medical Innovation, 2021), the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Young Researcher of the Year Award (2022), and the Asia Pacific Eye 100 (top 100 most influential ophthalmologists/visual scientists from the Asia-Pacific region, 2024). She was also accepted into the prestigious membership of The Macular Society.

The holder of several patents and technical disclosures, she is also a non-executive director of Vitreogel Innovations Pte Ltd, which she co-founded to commercialise the research from Translational Retinal Research Laboratory. She is also a scientific advisor to Eyestem (a cell therapy company), and an Executive Committee Member of the Stem Cell Society, Singapore.

Contact information:
gopal_lingam@nuhs.edu.sg
ophlg@nus.edu.sg

Dr. Lingam Gopal completed his Ophthalmology clinical training in 1982 and subsequently underwent a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery in 1983. He then did a MSc in Epidemiology in 2016 from the University of London.

Between the years of 1983 till 2011, he was practicing as a clinician and research at medical and vision research foundations in Chennai, India. He is  currently a senior consultant at the National University Hospital (NUH) and honorary senior investigator at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI).

Contact information:
e0157515@u.nus.edu
mayuribhargava@gmail.com
mayuri_bhargava@nuhs.edu.sg

Dr Mayuri Bhargava is a clinician‑scientist specializing in medical retina and translational ophthalmic research. She is Principal Resident Physician in Ophthalmology at the National University Hospital, Principal Scientist I at IMCB, and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

Her research interests include metabolic mechanisms that underlie retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) dysfunction in degenerative retinal diseases, with a central emphasis on developing mitochondrial‑based therapeutic strategies for age‑related macular degeneration (AMD). Her research integrates human stem‑cell–derived RPE systems, high‑resolution metabolic profiling, and preclinical mitochondrial‑rescue platforms to define how mitochondrial stress, glycolytic reprogramming, and disrupted bioenergetics contribute to RPE degeneration.

Her work is supported by a cohesive suite of competitive research grants spanning foundational discovery to translational innovation. These include the NMRC Research Training Fellowship for early RPE cell‑therapy development; the NMRC CS‑IRG New Investigator Grant supporting mitochondrial transplantation as a regenerative intervention; a Clinician Scientist Academy research grant exploring glycolytic shifts as biomarkers of mitochondrial dysfunction; and an NUHS SEED Grant extending mitochondrial transplantation strategies to polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. She also contributes to collaborative initiatives such as an NMRC‑funded Optical Coherence Tomography angiography project, an Industry Alliance Fund program applying generative AI for retinal drug discovery, and a major NMRC‑LCG initiative advancing understanding of Asian AMD biology. Additional collaborative grants extend to diabetic‑retinopathy biomarker discovery and AI‑driven retinal‑imaging technologies.

Dr Bhargava’s long‑term vision is to establish mitochondrial transplantation as a clinically translatable platform for rescuing degenerating RPE and building scalable assays for evaluating mitochondrial rescue in human RPE systems.

By bridging clinical retina expertise with mechanistic cell biology and therapeutic engineering, Dr Bhargava is advancing a next‑generation mitochondrial‑targeted intervention pipeline for retinal degeneration.

Contact information:
hunziker@a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Walter Hunziker obtained his PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich) in 1986 where he worked on the cloning of the cDNA of small intestinal brush border enzyme sucrase-isomaltase. He did his post-doctoral work at Yale University before moving to the Biochemistry Institute of the University of Lausanne as a group leader to continue studying membrane traffic in epithelial cells. He joined IMCB in January 2000 as an Associate Professor and is currently serving as the Deputy Director of IMCB.

Dr. Walter Hunziker’s experience has provided the lab with valuable insights on retinal cellular biology, which have been crucial to the development of novel hydrogel materials and retinal therapeutics.

Contact information:
ophlz@nus.edu.sg

Dr. Liu Zengping spent the past decade working on retinal pigment epithelial cell transplantation for retinal degenerative diseases. As a trained ophthalmologist, he utilises a multi-disciplinary approach including cellular biology, tissue engineer, in-vivo disease model creation and clinical research to solve the hurdles of treating retinal degenerative diseases.

He is currently focused on establishing a surgical non-human primate model for cellular delivery and developing novel hydrogels as vitreous tamponade materials.

Contact information:
reghak@a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Regha Kakkad’s prior research experience include working on projects involving epigenetics and transcriptional regulation of haematopoiesis.

Her current research interest is in developing transplantable retinal pigment epithelial cells for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

Contact information:
banerjeea@a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Animesh Banerjee finished his PhD at Banaras Hindu University, India, where he studied the role of miRNA and its regulators in the maintenance of neural stem cells in fruit fly (Drosophila). Following this, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the RNA in Disease and Translational Tchnologies Lab, IMCB, A-star. His projects were focused on exploring the neural circuitry and mechanisms of movement disorders related to age-related neurodegenerative diseases as well as in miRNA mutants using fruit fly.

Due to his passion for the translational and clinical application of stem cells, he is working forward to optimize the differentiation of retinal progenitor cells derived from pluripotent stem cells. With collaborations across various disciplines within A-Star, he is establishing a retinal coculture disease model to understand better the role of specific gene mutations in disease dynamics.

Contact information:
bhavhp@a-star.edu.sg

Dr. Bhav Harshad Parikh obtained his BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He then pursued a PhD at National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine where he explored biomaterial-based therapeutic strategies for retinal scarring at the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory lead by Dr Su Xinyi. After obtaining his PhD in 2022, he continued at Dr Su’s lab as a Research Fellow.

His research interest includes a broad range of translational science encompassing next generation cell- and biomaterial-based retinal therapeutics, with expertise in stem cells, retinal cell biology, tissue engineering and transcriptomics technologies.

Contact information:
munirahs@a-star.edu.sg

Munirah Santosa obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where she first explored working with patient-derived stem cells in the context of neonatal diabetes with Dr. Adrian Teo. She then pursued a PhD at National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in Dr. Ng Shi Yan’s lab with a focus on using pluripotent stem cells to develop a neuronal aging model and identifying its contributing mechanisms to neuronal aging.

Continuing her pursuits in stem cell translational research, she is now in Dr. Su Xinyi’s lab as a Research Fellow working on stem cell differentiation of retinal cells. Her current research interests include developing retinal co-culture systems with incorporation of biomaterials for retinal disease modelling and therapeutic applications.

Contact information:
asfaas@a-star.edu.sg

Asfa Alli Shaik, PhD, is a Senior Scientist and Computational Biologist at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR, Singapore. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology from Anna University, India, and completed her PhD in Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore in 2013. She subsequently pursued her postdoctoral training at IMCB, where she developed strong expertise in proteomics and bioinformatics towards diagnostic biomarkers and target discovery.

Currently, in the translational retina research lab, her work leverages on bioinformatics, AI and multi-omics approaches to advance retinal therapeutics. She is particularly interested in understanding graft survival and immune modulation to enhance next generation retinal cell therapy solutions for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Driven by her deep expertise in biology and data science, she oversees a large, cross-disciplinary drug discovery programme that integrates patient-derived models, high content screening, and AI to accelerate therapeutic discovery in AMD.

Contact information:
angxh@a-star.edu.sg

Contact information:
lowwy@a-star.edu.sg

Contact information:
leeeh@a-star.edu.sg

Clarissa graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Life Sciences from the National University of Singapore (NUS). She subsequently pursued her PhD at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine where she focused on mechanisms of immune modulation in triple negative breast cancer. Her previous research experience also includes investigating anti-cancer properties of natural killer cells. Wanting to explore new areas of biology, she joined Dr Su Xinyi’s lab at IMCB after completing her PhD, where she now uses both in vivo and in vitro models of AMD to identify and validate novel disease targets.

Contact information:
cao.yujia@nus.edu.sg

Dr. Cao Yujia obtained her MSc and PhD in Food Science and Technology from the National University of Singapore (NUS) under the supervision of Prof. Huang Dejian. Her previous research focused on the structure-activity relationship and underlying molecular mechanism of the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects of flavonoids. She also had experience in establishing 3D-printed scaffold-based cell culture system for drug discovery. Out of interest in translational research, she currently works with Dr. Liu Zengping on the development of biomimetic scaffold-based cell culture systems for retinal tissue engineering.

Contact information:
swtan@a-star.edu.sg

As a research officer, Queenie supports the in-vivo mice retinal imaging and molecular biology techniques for the projects in the lab. She has a research interest in the mechanisms of retinal degenerative diseases.

Contact information:
ophwsl@nus.edu.sg

As a research officer, Daniel supports the in-vivo work on rabbits and non-human primates for the projects in the lab. His research interests surround stem cell transplantation, drug release models and retinal disease models.

Contact information:
rajvinder_khare@a-star.edu.sg

Raj graduated from King’s College London with a Masters in Neuroscience, specializing in neural stem cells and nervous system repair. He has previous research experience in neurodegenerative diseases, including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. As a research officer, Raj supports the lab’s effort in optimization and generation of retinal organoids as a disease model. He also hopes to further elucidate polymer and retinal pigmentation epithelial cell interaction to prevent disease scarring.

Contact information:
k-mehta@nus.edu.sg

Karishma graduated from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) with a Bachelor with Honors in Pharmaceutical Engineering. She worked as an intern with Retina Lab prior to joining full-time as a research officer.

Karishma mainly supports Dr. Zhao Xin Xin in the study of drug delivery through the use of synthetic polymers as well as its bioactivity on retinal diseases such as age-macular degeneration (AMD). Her current research interests include the study of various drug delivery platforms of retinal diseases. Thus, her career aspiration in this field of specialization would be to develop a novel drug delivery method in targeting these diseases.

Contact information:
indrawinatak@a-star.edu.sg

Karen completed her Honours B.Sc. in Neuroscience and Physiology at the University of Toronto. She has experience in preclinical neuroscience research, including animal work, tissue processing, and imaging techniques. She joined Dr. Su Xinyi’s lab as a Research Officer, where she supports studies exploring new therapeutic approaches and developing in vivo models of retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and subretinal fibrosis. She is particularly interested in the translational aspects of research, linking experimental work to clinical relevance.

Contact information:
yeeteng.w@nus.edu.sg

Yee Teng graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine with a Master’s of Applied Biomedicine, where she explored the downstream quality and characteristics of induced pluripotent stem cells in efforts to address haemoglobinopathies under the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 

Currently, as a research associate, she works closely with Dr. Liu Zengping, supporting projects on stem cell differentiation, retinal pigment epithelial cells and photoreceptor cells. 

Contact information:
e1101908@u.nus.edu

Yanzhuang graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Bachelor with Honors in Biological Sciences in January 2022. Her keen interest in translational research led her to pursue a PhD.

She joined the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory as a PhD student in January 2023. Her current research interest is to investigate the role of dysfunctional mitochondria in RPE cells, with regards to Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Her goal is to develop potential therapies targeting this defect in AMD.

Contact information:
danesh_thangeswaran_from.tp@a-star.edu.sg
e1503321@u.nus.edu

Danesh graduated with a Bachelor of Health Science in Biomedicine and completed his Master of Science in Molecular Medicine from Universiti Sains Malaysia. His early research focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease. Driven by a strong commitment to translational science, he joined the Translational Retinal Research Laboratory and the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS), as a PhD student in January 2025.

His current research aims to model retinal ciliopathies using 3-dimensional retinal organoid technology. Danesh is particularly focused on deciphering the molecular defects within the primary cilia signalling pathway in inherited retinal diseases. By advancing our understanding of these mechanisms, he seeks to contribute to the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for retinal ciliopathies.