A*STAR Research

When marine fuel leaks, some of it can “rain out” as liquid instead of becoming gas. Researchers from A*STAR IHPC, working with the A*STAR NMC and Seatrium, developed a simplified model to estimates this rainout using a few datapoints such as storage pressure and ambient temperature. The model could support faster safety assessments as ports prepare for alternative fuels. Read the full story here 👇 https://bit.ly/4f46idC

Issue 53 of A*STAR Research is here! 🎊 More than a century after the first insulin trials, the hormone remains one of medicine's biggest success stories, largely thanks to engineering microbes to mass-produce it. This issue traces similar breakthroughs happening today in bioprocessing and biomanufacturing. Our cover story, Nurturing Factories of the Future, spans the pipeline from drug discovery to manufacturing. We also sit down with Zach Pang of A*STAR BTI and AuctuCel, who's bringing computational modelling to culture media development, and A*STAR International Fellow Bo Xing, who explores predicting the behaviour of quantum many-body systems and where quantum computing is headed. Plus: new insights on tuberculosis's hidden risks and fresh ways to upcycle single-use plastics. Grab your copy of Issue 53 now 👇 https://bit.ly/4ga4u3h

Healing may work better as a team. After procedures such as pancreatic surgery, skin wounds can be exposed to  conditions that increase the risk of infection and slow healing. Researchers from A*STAR ISCE² and A*STAR IMRE developed a nanogel called Zn@nGSC that keeps three enzymes working together to support healing in a coordinated way. Xiaotong Fan, Chaobin He, Zibiao Li and collaborators found that in mice the nanogel accelerated wound closure, reduced bacterial infections and better blood vessel, outperforming systems carrying only one or two enzymes. Read the full story here 👇 https://bit.ly/4hlGfkC

Mosquitoes are more than just virus carriers. Their saliva matters, too. 🦟 Sialokinin, a molecule in 𝘈𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘨𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘪 saliva, interferes with the protective activity of human immune cells during chikungunya infection. In mice, it gave the virus a better chance to establish infection and led to more severe disease outcomes. Researchers are now investigating whether similar mechanisms are involved in other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and Zika. The research was driven by Senior Scientist Siew-Wai Fong and A*STAR IDL Executive Director Lisa Ng, who led a multi-institutional team including NUS and NCID. Read the full story here 👇 https://bit.ly/3REI4yU

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Building light-powered catalysts in a single step A*STAR IMRE researchers, working with the National University of Singapore, devised a one-step method to build stable covalent organic frameworks (COFs) while incorporating highly reactive nickel ions. These COFs are porous, crystalline structures that can be specially modified with metal reaction centres, turning into powerful catalysts for industrially relevant chemical reactions. The team’s approach created a more robust, integrated structure than conventional approaches. It also showed better light absorption and catalytic performance, achieving high conversion rates for a coupling reaction used in producing pharmaceuticals and organic electronics. As the frameworks retained their crystallinity and remained reusable across multiple cycles, the researchers hope these catalysts can be used to power more sustainable chemical manufacturing processes in the future. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4xRqaJE

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Could a single strand of RNA help detect disease and trigger a response? A new molecular platform called UNBAR (UNlocked by Activating RNA), developed by A*STAR IMCB with A*STAR BII and the National University of Singapore, could give researchers a versatile technology for sensing molecular signals and designing tailored responses inside cells. Upon detecting a specific RNA sequence, UNBAR cuts at its two sites to release a corresponding RNA product. Since its parts are independently programmable, UNBAR can be adapted to detect various sequences and produce different outputs in response. In cell-free tests, UNBAR also amplified RNA signals without needing additional protein machinery. The team is now working to speed up this signal amplification, eyeing potential applications in RNA-based diagnostics and precision therapeutics. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4gpZVnb

A centuries-old materials technique, applied to battery design Plunging red-hot metal into cold water has long been used to mould the material’s properties. Applying this same idea to the atomic scale, A*STAR IMRE researchers flash-froze heated battery materials to create atomic changes that improve performance. The team focused on titanium sulphide (TiS₃) nanobelts for magnesium-ion batteries (MIBs), a promising next-generation alternative to lithium-ion batteries. By rapidly cooling the nanobelts from high temperatures, they preserved sulphur vacancies that trap intermediate molecules that would otherwise drain the battery's capacity. The resulting cathode achieved a discharge capacity of 717.3 mAh g⁻¹ and, scaled up to pouch cells, an energy density of 220 Wh kg⁻¹, putting it within range of commercial lithium-ion batteries. The material also performed well in lithium-ion, sodium-ion and aluminium-ion battery systems. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4vgKiCo

A drug candidate designed to work against multiple coronaviruses, not just one As SARS-CoV-2 evolved, mutations in its spike protein allowed new variants to evade vaccine-induced immunity. A*STAR EDDC researchers turned to a different target: the coronavirus main protease (Mᵖʳᵒ), an enzyme the virus needs to replicate and that remains highly conserved across coronavirus strains. The team designed and refined a candidate, currently called compound 18, to block the activity of Mᵖʳᵒ. The drug inhibited several SARS-CoV-2 variants as well as other coronaviruses like MERS-CoV in cultured cells, and reduced viral load in the lungs of infected mice. It also performed well in pharmacokinetic studies across several animal species, suggesting it is metabolically stable with a encouraging preclinical safety profile. With a patent filed, the researchers say clinical trials are the next step to confirm the candidate's activity and safety. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4fYomrF

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Could better plant-based meat come down to enzyme dosing? Replicating the fibrous texture of cooked chicken using plant proteins remains a challenge for meat alternatives. Enzyme activity is critical in altering protein network formation, impacting the end-product’s texture. A*STAR SIFBI and A*STAR SIMTech researchers compared three commercial proteases (enzymes that break down protein chains) to see how they affect the texture and digestibility of soy-pea meat analogues. The team found that enzyme type and concentration both matter. At low-to-moderate doses, two of the enzymes tested improved fibrous structure, while a third caused the protein network to break down and collapse at higher concentrations, reducing chewiness by nearly 75 percent. Digestion simulations also showed that enzyme-treated samples released more soluble protein in the stomach phase compared to untreated samples. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3Ssce8z

What drives cell death in ALS? A*STAR researchers have found one of the culprits Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) gradually hinders a person's voluntary movement, caused by the progressive loss of motor neurons. These motor neurons carry defective mitochondria that can’t produce enough energy to sustain the cell. Restoring these powerhouses of the cell could point to therapeutic approaches for broader ALS patient groups, according to an international team led by A*STAR IMCB and A*STAR GIS researchers. After discovering elevated levels of BLOC1S1 in degenerating ALS motor neurons, they developed RNA-targeting technology called splice-switching oligonucleotides to reduce BLOC1S1 expression. This restored mitochondrial performance, which was linked to delayed disease progression and improved survival in ALS mouse models. The technology has been patented as a therapeutic candidate, and the approach appears to work across multiple ALS genetic subtypes. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4w3uNyj

A smooth tune-up for tiny lasers Imagine a laser you could tune like a radio, smoothly changing its colour with a dial. Researchers at the A*STAR IMRE, working with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have developed a microlaser that does just that and is small enough to fit on a chip. The design combines a phase-changing perovskite material with a specially engineered optical cavity that keeps emitted light tightly confined. Rather than relying on slow and energy-intensive external tuning methods, the microlaser switched between two emission states within the device itself, its colours shifting 20 nanometres in mere milliseconds. Moreover, the emissions stayed stable across thousands of cycles. While some technical hurdles remain before real-world use, the researchers see several potential applications in advanced imaging, communications, sensing and display technologies. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/4wfyPUf

Over the years, your input has helped drive the development of A*STAR Research—so let’s keep that momentum going 🚀 We invite readers to share their thoughts in our annual survey, which runs until 25 July 2026 (23:59 PM, SGT). Participants also stand a chance to win a US$50 Amazon voucher!

Teaching AI to plan the missing steps Show an AI model only the start and end of a task, and it has to guess the exact sequence of steps in between. This is the challenge of procedure planning, and it only gets harder when seemingly similar goals need different steps, or when there's a huge pool of possible actions to choose from. Researchers at A*STAR I2R built VISTA-D, a framework that uses a generative AI model to come up with visual cues for the missing in-between steps, while a task-selective mask filters out irrelevant action choices. Tested across multiple datasets, the framework achieved up to 11 percent higher accuracy than a baseline model in predicting action sequences. The team now hopes to apply the approach to sectors like manufacturing, where it could help spot defective production steps and plan alternatives to address them. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/44n0yGL

Plastic waste holds more value than we've been able to unlock, until now   Polystyrene is everywhere, from food containers to lab equipment. Once discarded, it becomes one of the most persistent forms of plastic waste. Existing upcycling methods can extract simple molecules from it, but inaccessible sites in polystyrene’s structure have long blocked chemical reactions that otherwise could have generated more valuable products. A*STAR IMRE researchers have now found a way around this barrier.   Their approach rearranges the backbone into a polyindane structure, shifting its geometry so that previously blocked sites in polystyrene's phenyl rings become reachable. An oxidation reaction at these sites then produces phthalic acid and phthalic anhydride, which are high-value chemicals used in pharmaceuticals, energy storage, dyes and advanced materials.   With a patent application filed, the team now aims to scale up the process and extend it to other polystyrene derivatives, potentially unlocking an even broader range of specialty chemicals from plastic waste.   Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3QBofYC

Ultrafast light pulses push electronics towards terahertz speeds Researchers at A*STAR IMRE have found a way to harness the magnetic spin of electrons for realising terahertz (THz) devices, which could one day power next-generation communications technologies. Working with a tiny layered device made from cobalt and strontium iridate, the team fired femtosecond laser pulses to generate ultrafast spin currents, which were then converted into transient electrical signals, effectively producing THz emissions. Notably, the whole process works at room temperature, bypassing the need for ultralow temperature conditions that have historically made many advanced electronic effects unachievable outside lab settings. The fabrication methods used are also compatible with existing manufacturing practices, bringing real-world THz devices closer to reality. Beyond high-speed computing and wireless communication, the researchers see potential for THz imaging and sensing applications in the medical and manufacturing sectors. Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4xgCN0h

Fluorine doesn't stick around, but its impact does. When A*STAR ISCE² researchers and their collaborators tracked copper catalysts during carbon dioxide conversion, they found something unexpected. Adding fluorine reshapes the copper surface within the first few minutes of the reaction, then leaches out almost entirely. That reshaped catalyst surface determines whether the reaction produces simple carbon monoxide or more valuable multi-carbon fuels like ethanol and ethylene. Moderate fluorine doping produced the best results, achieving up to 81 percent selectivity towards multi-carbon products. The findings suggest a new approach to catalyst design, one that exploits the dynamic nature of dopants as temporary sculpting tools rather than treating them as fixed components. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/4obtI4T