Nucleate Singapore Pulse

Jie Sun, Co-founder and CEO of ChemT Biotechnology, joins the show to discuss how artificial intelligence, virtual cell models, and small-molecule interventions could reshape biologics manufacturing. Drawing on a career spanning healthcare consulting, pharmaceutical project management, regulated healthcare AI, and entrepreneurship, Jie shares how her experience across Southeast Asia and the United States shaped her approach to identifying valuable problems and building globally relevant companies.

In this episode, Jie explains why ChemT Biotechnology chose biomanufacturing as the focus for its virtual cell platform. Rather than applying AI primarily to develop drugs for patients, the company designs what Jie calls “cellular drugs,” small molecules intended to modulate the behaviour of manufacturing cells. The approach combines gene-target identification, prediction of cell-state and phenotypic changes, and AI-assisted generation and filtering of small-molecule structures.

Jie also discusses why wet-lab validation remains the ultimate test for AI-driven biotechnology. She argues that AI models alone are becoming increasingly commoditised, while defensibility comes from proprietary data, deep manufacturing context, and the ability to translate technology into a product that solves a customer’s problem faster, more cheaply, or more effectively.

Host: Tan Mei Jia

Editors: Dillon Chew, Chi Dam

01:25 About Jie Sun and her background

08:05 First startup experience

15:25 The ChemT Biotech Story

18:10 Role of AI in ChemT

23:25 More on their product

25:36 Funding and expansion

32:33 On Female founders

37:44 Advice to aspiring founders

Dr. Damien Keogh, Founder and CEO of BluMaiden Biosciences, joins the show to discuss how artificial intelligence, computational biology, and entrepreneurship are transforming drug discovery. Drawing on a career that spans molecular microbiology, academia, venture capital, and biotech company building, Damien shares his journey from studying microbial biology in Ireland to founding a Singapore-based biotech company developing novel therapeutics from the human microbiome.

In this episode, Damien explores how his experiences across research, investing, and startup leadership shaped the development of BluMaiden’s AI-driven drug discovery platform. He explains why successful biotech ventures require more than great science, highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary teams, founder adaptability, strategic execution, and a clear path to commercial value.

He also provides an inside look at BluMaiden’s approach to discovering small-molecule therapeutics, including how the company integrates microbiome, clinical, and multi-omics datasets to identify new drug targets and candidates. Damien discusses where AI is already creating value in drug discovery, where human expertise remains indispensable, and why validation continues to be the defining challenge for computational approaches.

Along the way, the conversation covers venture creation versus academic spinouts, fundraising and company building in Singapore, the evolving biotech investment landscape, and emerging technologies such as agentic AI, laboratory automation, and quantum computing. Damien also shares practical insights for founders, researchers, and investors on evaluating opportunities, building resilient companies, and turning scientific innovation into meaningful patient impact.

Host: Shamieraah Jamal

Editors: Shamieraah Jamal, Chi Dam, Dillon Chew

02:00 Meet Damien Keogh

07:05 VC and what makes startups win

09:38 Founding BluMaiden

19:20 Building an AI Moat

25:30 Validation Roadmap to Licensing

30:55 Biotech Collaboration Verticals

33:10 Hype Versus Reality

44:58 The direction ahead

51:57 Ecosystem Support and Talent

Dr. Katherine Wang, Deputy Director of the Biomedical Research Council and lead of the Singapore Therapeutics Development Review (STDR), joins the show to unpack what it really takes to move a scientific discovery from the lab bench to a viable biotech company. Drawing on a career that spans a PhD at NYU, tech transfer, program building at Duke-NUS, and now national drug-discovery strategy at A*STAR, Katherine explains why Singapore's researchers excel at science but stumble at commercialization. She also delves into what STDR is doing about it through mentorship, bootcamps, and new schemes that pair scientists with serial entrepreneurs. Along the way she compares the US, China, and Singapore ecosystems, shares what she looks for when funding early-stage projects, and offers candid advice for any scientist curious about a career beyond the PI track. It's a practical, clear-eyed conversation about turning good science into products that reach patients. 

In this episode, Katherine discusses how researchers can translate scientific discoveries into commercially viable therapeutics and why strong science alone is not enough to build a successful biotech company. She explains the importance of defining unmet medical needs, developing a clear target product profile, understanding the competitive landscape, prioritizing value-driving experiments, and building multidisciplinary teams with complementary scientific and business expertise. Katherine also shares perspectives on the differences between the biotechnology ecosystems in Singapore, the United States, China, and Europe; the role of public funding and private-sector partnerships; and how initiatives under RIE2030 may shape Singapore’s biomedical research and innovation landscape.

Host: Shamieraah Jamal
Editors: Shamieraah Jamal, Chi Dam, Dillon Chew

Timestamp

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Katherine Wang

01:17 From Research to Research Leadership

03:13 Comparing the US, Singapore and China Biotech Ecosystems

06:20 Building a Career Across Strategy and Operations

10:10 What Is the Singapore Therapeutics Development Review?

17:59 Global Models for Translational Funding

23:22 Introducing the Venture Lead Scheme

27:15 Bridging the Commercialisation Skills Gap

29:00 New STDR Initiatives under RIE2030

33:26 The Future of Singapore’s Biotech Ecosystem

35:01 Training the Next Generation for Commercialization

37:40 Current Gaps in Singapore’s Biotech Ecosystem

Dr. Peter Fedichev is the co-founder and CEO of GERO, a Singapore-based biotech startup that uses physics-informed AI and massive human health datasets to discover drugs aimed at slowing down aging and treating age-related diseases.

In the 2nd part of this episode, Peter explains how Gero builds generative models of human health to predict disease trajectories and identify shared biological drivers across multiple chronic conditions. He discusses why metabolic dysfunction and inflammation represent promising intervention points, how partnerships with pharma companies like Chugai accelerate translation, and why companion dogs could become the proving ground for longevity therapeutics.

Peter also shares his perspective on AI-driven drug discovery, arguing that target identification, not molecule generation, will create the greatest value. He outlines Gero’s open-source approach, fundraising journey, and vision for a future where therapies can meaningfully slow the aging process itself.

Host: John Joson Ng

Editors: Dillon Chew, Chi Dam, Vasilina Gedzun

00:00 Gero Roadmap Overview

00:35 Predicting Disease Trajectories

03:03 Super Targets Strategy

05:07 Ozempic Market Wakeup

07:28 Binary Strategy With Pharma

10:11 Gerosense Wearable Aging API

11:58 Crossdisciplinary Lab Workflow

14:09 ProtoBind Diff Explained

17:16 Open Source Business Logic

21:10 Chugai Partnership Begins

23:57 AI Push In Big Pharma

27:09 Funding Gero Early

31:38 Differentiating From Calico and Altos

35:56 Longevity Roadmap Dogs To Humans

42:36 Next Milestones For Gero

43:45 Personal Motivation To Fight Aging

Dr. Peter Fedichev is the co-founder and CEO of GERO, a Singapore-based biotech startup that uses physics-informed AI and massive human health datasets to discover drugs aimed at slowing down aging and treating age-related diseases.

In this episode, explains his transition from a decade in theoretical physics to longevity biotech, motivated by applying physics tools to complex living systems and discoveries like the naked mole rat’s lack of mortality acceleration. He contrasts biology’s case-control, fact-collecting culture with physics’ search for universal variables, arguing aging is a universal, chronic-process problem well suited to physics-style modeling. Peter describes Gero’s approach as building predictive, generative AI models from large-scale medical records and omics data to capture the “equations of motion” of health over time. He critiques hallmark-of-aging narratives and emphasizes “functional decline” (functional span) over healthspan, noting very old people can be disease-free yet severely impaired. Using thermodynamics as an analogy, he argues aging involves entropy-like, stochastic damage that is hard to reverse but potentially possible to slow or stop by targeting fundamental control variables.

Host: John Joson Ng

Editors: Dillon Chew, Chi Dam, Vasilina Gedzun

00:00 Meet Peter Fedichev

00:23 From Physics to Biology

02:30 Non Aging Animals Spark

04:27 Physics Lens on Aging

06:21 Why Gero Exists

09:46 Modeling Health Dynamics

10:49 Beyond Lifespan Healthspan

12:43 Functional Decline Focus

16:07 Thermodynamics Meets AI

18:56 Entropy Limits Reversal

22:02 Temperature and Lifespan

25:12 Modeling to Speed Drugs

27:20 Closing Why Aging First

Dr. Boon Chong Goh is the co-founder and CTO of ArrowBiome, a Singapore-based biotech startup developing precision microbiome solutions through its lysin engineering platform.

Spun out from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, ArrowBiome develops proprietary and patented platform technologies that enable highly selective bacterial targeting and killing. With “arrow-like” precision, the company is advancing microbiome solutions across applications including body odour, acne, other bacteria-associated skin conditions, gut health, and antimicrobial resistance.

In this episode, Boon Chong shares how his journey from physics, protein structure, and molecular simulations led him into antimicrobial resistance research and eventually entrepreneurship. He discusses why lysins are powerful tools for precision microbiome control, how ArrowBiome moved from academic research to commercialization, and why the company strategically entered skincare and personal care before tackling more complex antimicrobial challenges. He also reflects on startup fundraising, Singapore’s biotech ecosystem, scaling production, global expansion, and the personal shift from scientist to entrepreneur.

Host: Shamieraah Jamal

Editors: Chi Dam, Shamieraah Jamal, Dillon Chew

Timestamp:

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Boon Chong Goh

00:54 Journey From Physics to Antimicrobial Research

01:36 Why Lysins Became the Focus

04:24 Why Lysin Technology Matters for AMR

05:25 Funding Early Antimicrobial Projects

07:19 From Research Scientist to Entrepreneur

09:19 From CEO to CTO

14:10 Building ArrowBiome in Singapore

15:48 Why Singapore for Deep Tech and Cosmeceuticals

17:28 ArcherZyme and SmartArrow

19:19 Why Start with Cosmeceuticals

21:15 Regulatory Pathways and Clinical Testing

22:01 Measuring Success in Acne and Body Odor

23:23 Microbiome Differences Across Populations

24:51 Scaling Fermentation

25:37 B2B Partnerships and Global Clients

26:33 Formulation Partnerships with CHAKS

27:49 Singapore Startup Ecosystem and Partnerships

29:01 Winning Gold at In-Cosmetics Asia

31:06 Belgium Subsidiary and Global Expansion

32:20 What Next for ArrowBiome

33:20 M&A Strategy and Exit Planning

34:22 Advice for Researcher-Entrepreneurs

36:31 From Scientist to Strategic Founder

Mr. Kit Yong is the co-founder of Forte Biotech, a Singapore-based agritech startup developing rapid, point-of-care molecular diagnostics for aquaculture.

Forte Biotech was founded in 2021. The concept behind RAPID was inspired by the founders’ experiences working with farmers in Vietnam, as well as insights from their own family businesses. Having witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by farmers, their families, and their livelihoods, the team remains committed to developing solutions that can make a meaningful and lasting impact.

In this episode, Kit shares how Forte Biotech was founded to address a critical but overlooked problem in shrimp farming: catastrophic losses due to undetected disease outbreaks. He explains how the company built a portable isothermal amplification platform and proprietary DNA extraction chemistry capable of handling challenging shrimp samples, enabling farmers to conduct reliable, onsite pathogen detection without complex laboratory infrastructure.

Host: Aakash Naresh Kumar

Editors: Dillon Chew, Shamieraah Jamal, Vasilina Gedzun, Hana Maldivita Tambrin

Timestamp

00:00 Meet Kit Yong

02:33 No Manual for Startups

04:09 Why Forte Bio Started

06:53 Net Zero and Farm Impact

09:35 Rapid DNA Extraction Breakthrough

11:57 Sample Degradation and False Negatives

14:44 Major Shrimp Diseases Explained

18:26 Bridging Farmers and Scientists

20:18 Portable Hardware and Isothermal Tech

21:19 Balancing Cost Accuracy

21:55 Rapid Hardware Overview

22:52 On Farm Reliability Lessons

24:53 Scaling Across Southeast Asia Markets

25:46 Regulation And Local Partners

31:09 Building An Agile Team

33:40 Diagnostics And Food Security

35:57 Milestones Profitability Goals

36:47 Science Communication For Impact

Dr. Edison Liu is a medical doctor turned cancer geneticist, whose work focuses on cancer genomics, breast cancer biology, and translational medicine. He has held senior leadership roles in biomedical research institutions in the United States and Asia, as the founding executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), and later the president and CEO of the Jackson Laboratory, one of the world's leading genetics research institutions. Along the way, he helped shape Singapore's biomedical landscape, led genomics research through crises like SARS, and expanded global position medicine efforts across Asia and North America.

In Part 2, Dr. Edison Liu covers covers accountability and KPIs for Singapore’s biomedical initiative and how the 2003 SARS crisis validated translational research and GIS’s role, leading to recognition, embedding in MOH pandemic planning, and expanded work on H1N1/H5N1, Chikungunya, and Dengue. He shares that Singapore engineered healthcare as a discovery engine that supports economic welfare through pandemic control, precision medicine, and healthy aging, contrasting Singapore’s efficient population-based system with the US. He describes Singapore’s planned hospital/research cluster model versus evolving academic medical centers in the US, then explains leaving GIS after 11 years after developing successors. He recounts leading Jackson Laboratory’s transformation from 2012, scaling revenues and endowment and expanding campuses internationally, and emphasizes leadership traits (risk-taking, humility, learning), self-sufficiency in training, PhD reform, and Singapore’s bilingual role bridging a “two-systems” world while noting small size can enable global excellence.

Host: John Joson Ng

Editors: Dillon Chew, Hana Maldivita Tambrin, Shamieraah Jamal, Vasilina Gedzun

Chapters: 

02:40 KPI and doubts

05:25 Health as Economic Engine

09:50 Knowing When to Step Down

13:10 Why join JAX

14:01 Scaling JAX Globally

18:15 Leadership Traits for Scientists

21:10 Rethinking the PhD in today’s era

26:10 Singapore and Asia's Biotech Future

Dr. Edison Liu is a medical doctor turned cancer geneticist, whose work focuses on cancer genomics, breast cancer biology, and translational medicine. He has held senior leadership roles in biomedical research institutions in the United States and Asia, as the founding executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), and later the president and CEO of the Jackson Laboratory, one of the world's leading genetics research institutions. Along the way, he helped shape Singapore's biomedical landscape, led genomics research through crises like SARS, and expanded global position medicine efforts across Asia and North America.

In this episode, Dr. Edison Liu shares his journey from being motivated from childhood by medicine, then pivoting into basic science late in training after frustration with empiric cancer care and inspiration from oncogene discoveries, leading to work at UCSF with Nobel laureate J. Michael Bishop. He explains how clinical experience shaped his research questions, how he balanced lab discovery with focused clinical work and molecular trials, and how leading a 1,200-person NCI division taught institutional-scale leadership. Recruited to Singapore by Philip Yeo and others, Liu chose functional and transcriptional genomics over sequencing alone, built GIS’s collaborative culture, recruited fearless, high-performing, non-“jerk” talent, and empowered young leaders during events like SARS, helping establish preeminence within a decade.

Host: John Joson Ng

Editors: Dillon Chew, Hana Maldivita Tambrin, Shamieraah Jamal, Vasilina Gedzun

Chapters: 

02:18 Childhood Doctor Dream

06:00 Deep Dive into Molecular Biology

09:40 The value of being a Clinician Scientist 

15:00 Juggling Clinic Lab And Trials

19:50 Recruited to Singapore

23:00 Leading GIS and Recruiting the right talent

29:40 Culture of GIS

Dr. Lewis Hong is the Vice President of Paratus Sciences, a biotech company uncovering novel therapeutics by studying the extreme biology of bats. With a background spanning genomics research, pigmentation genetics at Stanford, and leadership roles in translational sciences at MSD, Lewis brings deep scientific and industry expertise to this pioneering field.

In this episode, Lewis shares how Paratus was founded to explore bats as a unique model for human health. He explains how the company built a large-scale bat genomics and bioinformatics platform which combines global sample collection, industrial sequencing, and a powerful knowledge graph, to identify high-impact therapeutic targets.

Lewis highlights Paratus’ two lead focus areas:

• Immunology & inflammation, featuring theirASC inflammasome inhibitor program now entering IND-enabling studies;

• Cardiometabolism, inspired by bats’ remarkablemetabolic resilience and cardiac performance.

He also discusses the challenges of scaling bat genomics, the role of academic partnerships, building an R&D team in Singapore, and the broader trajectory of Singapore’s biotech ecosystem. Lewis closes with practical advice for scientists entering biotech, emphasizing resilience, long-term thinking, and the importance of strong mentors and collaborators.

Host: Aakash S/O Naresh Kumar

Editors: Shamieraah Jamal, Vasilina Gedzun, Aakash S/O Naresh Kumar, Dillon Chew

Timestamps

01:07 Introduction

01:28 Early Career Journey

06:20 Transition to Industry

10:35 Bat Biology & Drug Discovery

16:28 Scaling Bat Genomics

20:58 Pursuing ASC2 as a Therapeutic Target

23:43 Future Directions & Partnerships

34:52 Advice for Aspiring Biotech Professionals

39:16 Closing Remarks