Matthew Chang is Director of the Singapore Consortium for Synthetic Biology (SINERGY), Wilmar-NUS Corporate Laboratory (WIL@NUS), and NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI) and Dean’s Chair in Medicine and Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Synthetic Biology in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore.
His research focuses on studying the engineering of biology to develop autonomous, programmable cells, supported by local and international organizations and industry. In particular, he has significantly contributed to the development of microbial cells programmed to perform targeted therapeutic functionalities, with over 100 publications and patents. His scientific contributions have been recognized with honors and awards, including the Investigatorship Award from the National Research Foundation of Singapore, NUHS-Mochtar Riady Pinnacle Research Excellence Award, and the Scientific and Technological Achievement Award from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and have received over 300 media recognitions worldwide.
He has given over 150 invited talks in key scientific conferences and meetings. He serves as an editor and editorial board member for over 15 leading scientific journals. He serves on the advisory committee of international research programs such as CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, Synthetic Biology Africa and E.U.’s Horizon 2020-MADONNA. He co-led the establishment of the Asian Synthetic Biology Association (ASBA) and the Global Biofoundry Alliance (GBA) and serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology.
He has trained over 50 undergraduate and high school students, 20 Ph.D. students and 40 research scientists, many now in leadership roles in academia, government, and industry. He is a strong advocate of promoting interdisciplinary science that marries engineering, biological, medical, and social sciences through education and public science outreach. More information is available at https://synbiolab.org and http://SynCTI.org/.