Ch'ng Toh Hean

Team • Lim Wei Lee, Research Assistant • Chin Pei Wern, Research Assistant • Lim Fang Yi Agnes, PhD Student • Lee Yan Jun, PhD Student • Soon Hui Rong, PhD Student Ch’ng Toh Hean is an Assistant Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is also jointly appointed in the School of Biological Sciences at NTU. Asst Prof Ch’ng was awarded the Nanyang Assistant Professorship in 2014. Asst Prof Ch’ng obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and Minor in Biochemistry from Davidson College, a liberal arts college in North Carolina, where he studied flagellar proteins in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. He then completed his PhD research at Princeton University, New Jersey, in the laboratory of Dr Lynn Enquist, studying the molecular mechanism of transneuronal spread of alphaherpesvirus in the nervous system. After leaving Princeton University, Asst Prof Ch’ng pursued his postdoctoral research and was later promoted to a research fellow in the laboratory of Dr Kelsey Martin at University of California, Los Angeles, studying the molecular mechanisms of long term memory storage in the brain. In the lab, Asst Prof Ch’ng focused his research on a potent transcriptional coactivator known as CRTC1, and showed that this coactivator undergoes activity-dependent translocation from the synapse to the nucleus and that it plays a crucial role in transcription-dependent neuronal plasticity. Asst Prof Ch’ng’s work was partially funded by the NARSAD Young Investigator Research Fellowship and his research has thus far been recognised by the Parvin Foundation Award as well as the MBI Excellence in Research Award.