Chee Wah Tan

Research Assistant Professor@NUS, Virologist 🦠, bats🦇, father of two 🇲🇾🇸🇬

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

Cross-clade vaccination to overcome sarbecovirus or merbecovirus neutralization gaps: Cell Reports https://t.co/WemOs6Hl2i

[Spyros Lytras @SpyrosLytras]

Our paper on inferring context dependent entropy using protein language models is officially out in NAR Genomics & Bioinformatics! 🧬🤖

with Adam Strange, @jampei2 and @SystemsVirology

https://t.co/w5ZmD4GKoL

details below...

#NARGAB

[Erik Karlsson @E_A_Karlsson]

A virus won’t go from “nothing” to “crisis” overnight—but ignoring it is like smelling smoke and thinking, “Eh, probably just toast.” Spoiler: it’s not toast. Early Warning is everything. Fund and improve systems that keep the kitchen from burning down.

https://t.co/S5nbrdXL15

[VignuzziLab @VignuzziLab]

Join me at @NUSMedicine for my seminar next week. A chance to discuss and set up more collaborations within the NUS infectious diseases ecosystem

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

@Susannajd @CGHRinfo Congrats

[David Lye @davidlye70]

Please join us by registering with Zoom link and share to your network to learn more about Nipah from @linfa_wang, severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome from Professor Dongmin Kim and one health AMR in China from Professor Yonghong Xiao

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

@MeisamYsf Congrats!

[Ashley St. John Lab @StJohnLab]

Now published @eBioMedicine—“#Mucosal #SARSCoV2 vaccination of rodents elicits superior systemic T central memory function and cross-neutralising antibodies against variants of concern” https://t.co/OMHNVIi1Zy w/ co-au O'Neill @Shashank_IISc @cheewahtan2 @ChinmayMantri @Abhay_R_

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

mRNA vaccines encoding membrane-anchored receptor-binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 mutants induce strong humoral responses and can overcome immune imprinting https://t.co/lmtqWt0anS

[Australian Academy of Science @Science_Academy]

Meet the Batman – Prof Linfa Wang FAA FTSE. Like the eponymous hero, his superpowers are his vast subject knowledge and willingness to answer the call to action. The bat expert had been considering retirement but was quick to step up when COVID struck.

[Meisam Yousefi @MeisamYsf]

Need a human cell line to isolate and propagate SARS-CoV-2 in high titers? Here we have characterized “IGROV-1”:
https://t.co/BLyG9IA7la

+ CRISPR screens identifying AHR as a host proviral factor of human betacoronaviruses

@yaw_shin @CheeWahTan2 @GavinJDSmith @linfa_wang

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

@world_epidemic Congrats!

[Nia Toshkova @NiaToshkova]

🦇news: Body temperature in #bats dramatically impacts their #antibody repertoires. High 🌡️leads to preferential recognition of damaged cells, indicating an anti-inflammatory function. #preprint https://t.co/8UcOU5QTcz

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

Your academic CV is NOT linked to your ability to make big discoveries.

▫️

1. Andre Geim, a co-discoverer of graphene, wrote in his Nobel Lecture article:

- “So, at the age of 33 and with an h index of 1 (latest papers not yet published), I entered the Western job market for postdocs.”

2. Albert Einstein searched for a teaching position for two years. He had to accept a position at a Patent Office, where in a single year he wrote the four papers that completely revolutionized #science (the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and E=mc2).

- Only few years later, he finally secured his first academic position as lecturer at the University of Bern.

▫️

Other examples include Peter Ratcliffe and Frances Arnold, who won Nobel Prizes for the discoveries they made as young PIs in newly established labs. And many others.

▫️

So, let us all keep in mind that:

1. Big discoveries are often unforeseen. They emerge from random and risky research (e.g. graphene was a tiny side project!). Make sure you have such projects in your lab.

2. Most truly impactful discoveries did not require high h-indices, excessive funding or a high-IF journal.

3. Rejection of your proposal does NOT mean it proposes bad science. Such rejections represent the opinion of one person who has a rather subjective idea of what ‘good science’ means.

4. For younger people, it’s easier to do risky research. Locking them to unnecessarily complex tenure requirements makes such discoveries unlikely.

▫️

A strong scientist is not defined by high “academic metrics”.

It is the ONE who proposes risky endeavors outside the conventional boundaries.

Who sees risk as an opportunity to make discoveries.

And who is constantly seeking out these risks in the lab.

#AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter

[Duke-NUS Medical School @dukenus]

@DukeNUS research finds antibodies that neutralise COVID variants and other animal coronaviruses. By targeting conserved spike regions, the antibodies could enable universal coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics. Major advance for pandemic preparedness!
https://t.co/FKrteZRvYZ

[Bloom Lab @jbloom_lab]

This paper from Linfa Wang’s group to which @tylernstarr & I contributed illustrates interesting points about

1⃣ Importance of imprinting for antibody specificity to SARS-like CoV

2⃣ How it may be easier to broadly neutralize animal sarbecoviruses than human #SARSCoV2 variants

[David Lye @davidlye70]

Pan-sarbecovirus monoclonal antibodies can be a good pandemic preparedness strategy for SARS3 buying time for specific mAb and vaccines. IC50 E7 dropped with XBB otherwise active SARS1 and SARS2.
1/2
https://t.co/w5DuLrT8tv

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

Potent pan huACE2-dependent sarbecovirus neutralizing monoclonal antibodies isolated from a BNT162b2-vaccinated SARS survivor | Science Advances https://t.co/vPYmZ1EcjF

[Chee Wah Tan @CheeWahTan2]

Distinctive serotypes of SARS-related coronaviruses defined by convale... https://t.co/xiNewro2q9