Hear From Our Alumni

"During my 3.5 months in the laboratory, I had the opportunity to refine my wet laboratory techniques. In addition, I was exposed and challenged to a new field - Bioinformatics which is very new and different from what I have learnt in school. Asst Prof Guan gave a lot of attention and supervision to my project, along with the strong support from the rest of the team, guiding me through the failures and obstacles faced. I was also given independence in planning my experiments which has certainly helped in my scientific growth. The lab upholds a high standard in the designing of studies, reporting of results and reproducibility and focuses on the growth and progress of individual members. I feel that my time was well spent over here! " - Tony Yap, 2019. Pre-University Intern

"During my time in XG Lab, I received quality training and gained invaluable research skills. Asst. Prof Guan is very nurturing and the people in XG Lab are very supportive. I did not have any research experience prior to joining XG Lab but I gradually gained confidence in research with the constant encouragement from Asst. Prof Guan. Failures in research are inevitable but they make us stronger. I am glad that I had my team members with me when things were not going well during my FYP. I am grateful for the friendships forged and the research experience gained. " - Ashley Koh, 2019 FYP Student

"The 7.5 months long FYP-internship was an eye-opening experience for me. I had the opportunity to take up a project titled 'Elucidation of the impact of carbon sources on growth and persistance in Mycobacterium bovis, BCG'. I completed the project with tremendous help from supportive lab colleagues and immense guidance from Asst. Prof Guan Xue Li. At the same time, I learnt about how a research laboratory functions and the tight collaborations happening between the team to uncover science. It was definitely a great exposure to the science research industry!" - Chew Yun Hui, 2018 SP Intern

"I had the opportunity to complete a 2 month attachment to Asst Prof Guan’s lab as part of my Scholarly Project in M4. In my short time here, I learnt more about the novel field of Lipidomics and Systems Biology, and was well supported by the lab members, who were very patient in guiding me on the relevant skills required for running the experiments and in scientific writing. I am thankful to be allowed the freedom to plan and carry out my experiments with ample assistance and under adequate supervision. I thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie of the team, which made my exposure to research an enriching yet comfortable experience! " - Candice Ang, 2017 Scholarly Project Student

"I am Reudi Chan, a medical student from the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, and I had the opportunity to take on a research project under the supervision of Prof Guan in the second year of my study (AY 2016/17) as part of the NTU Undergraduate Research Experience on CAmpus (URECA) Programme. The project that I did was titled “Characterisation of the phospholipidome of clinical strains of A. baumannii and its relation to antimicrobial resistance phenotypes”, and it primarily aimed to investigate antimicrobial resistance phenotypes in multi-drug resistant bacteria from a lipidomics and Systems Biology perspective. Over the course of the 8 months that I was working in Prof Guan’s lab, I acquired numerous skills, including wet lab techniques (microbiological culture, lipid / DNA extraction), data analytic skills (liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry interpretation) as well as scientific writing skills. Prof Guan and her team were very welcoming to me, and always looked out for me despite their own separate projects and commitments. They were very understanding of my schedule and study commitments, but at the same time effectively equipped me with the skills to take my project forward and achieve results. Even though I had no wet lab or research experience prior to this project, I came away from my short stint at Prof Guan’s lab having learnt a lot more not just about lipidomics and antimicrobial resistance, but also more importantly the skills and attitude behind the conduct of scientific research. In particular, I learnt from Prof Guan and her team about the importance of being rigorous and precise in our methods, and this underlies the high standard of results that she and her team have achieved in the field of lipidomics. I had several opportunities in the future as well to present my poster at conferences, and Prof Guan was always very supportive of me in these pursuits, even after my project had ended. I very much enjoyed my time working at this lab, and I am grateful for the lessons and skills that I have taken away from it. " - Reudi Chan, 2017 URECA Student