Senior Management
Professor Tina Wong, MBBS, Ph.D
Executive Director
Professor Tina Wong is Head and Senior Consultant in the Glaucoma Service at the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), Director of Clinical Translational Research and Head of the Ocular Therapeutics and Drug Delivery Research Group at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI). She is Professor at DukeNUS Graduate Medical School and adjunct Professor at Department of Ophthalmology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS.
Prior to taking up her positions in Singapore, Professor Wong was a Wellcome Trust Vision Research Fellow and completed a PhD in Professor Sir Peng Khaw’s laboratory at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London. Her research culminated to the award of the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress Fould’s Trophy and the prestigious Moorfields Research Gold Medal.
Her research interests are in glaucoma surgery, ocular inflammation and fibrosis and the application of sustained drug delivery platforms for ophthalmology. Professor Wong is a leading expert and thought leader in glaucoma surgery wound healing. She has authored extensively in peer-reviewed publications in her research fields, authored books and book chapters.
Professor Wong has an entrepreneurial streak in her research. She holds several patents to her name and licensed one of the patents on sustained drug delivery for glaucoma, to a spin-off company, Peregrine Ophthalmic, of which she is co-founder. In 2014, Prof Wong together with her collaborators at NTU, were awarded the prestigious President’s Science and Technology Award for this work. She is currently preparing 2 further start-up companies from her research.
Professor Wong is involved in both local and international education programmes, courses and regularly presents at international meetings. She is an active member of the Associate Advisory Board of the World Glaucoma Association and founding President for the Glaucoma Association Singapore. Professor Wong is a recipient of the National Clinician Scientist Award for her work on novel drug delivery platforms for glaucoma, and the Distinguished Service Award at the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology for her extensive contributions to ophthalmology and research in glaucoma.
Pauline Tay, Ph.D
Director
Prior to joining NHIC, Pauline was Executive Director and Head of Innovation Partnerships at UBS Tech Connect, responsible for establishing strategic partnerships across tech ecosystems in South-East Asia, facilitating access to capital and connections. Simultaneously, she served as Chairperson of the Singapore Business Federation SME Council’s Subcommittee for Technology, Innovation and Productivity, and acted as strategic advisor to a local biotech startup, Celligenics, for which she served as Chief Operating Officer prior.
Before this, Pauline spent 25 years of her career in public sector, in various leadership roles in science and technology. She was Senior Deputy Director, serving dual roles at the Strategy and Innovation and Enterprise (I&E) Directorates at the National Research Foundation (NRF) of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). She was responsible for formulating and implementing strategies and programmes to catalyse innovation and enterprise development through technology. During her term of office, she led the establishment and implementation of key I&E signatures, including the Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH), Decentralised and Central Gap, Pollinate, The Elevator, National Lean Launchpad, Innovation Clusters, Industry-Alignment Funds, Technology Incubator Scheme, Early-Stage Venture Funds, SGInnovate and Xora.
Pauline was also a founding team member of Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI), where she established and headed the Healthcare and Personal Care cluster. The role involved providing technology and intellectual property intelligence, scouting and matching services to industry, assisting companies to adopt technologies in their business models.
Prior to that, Pauline spent 12 years of her early career in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), seeing the transformation of the then National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) into A*STAR. She was involved in the development of the biomedical science sector in her role at the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) in tandem with the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) and Economic Development Board (EDB), establishing and managing research institutes and talent development programmes within A*STAR. She was on the initial team that worked to establish the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee, Bioethics Advisory Committee and A*STAR Graduate Scholarship. She later went on to do her Ph.D. and postdoc in stem cell biology, in a collaborative project involving the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium at A*STAR’s Institute for Medical Biology (IMB), the Institute of Bioengineering at Miguel Hernández University, Spain, and the first stem cell startup in Singapore, Embryonic Stem Cell International (ESI).
Pauline started her public sector career in productivity training and consultancy at the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB), which is now Enterprise Singapore.
Pauline holds a Ph.D. in Stem Cell Biology and a B.Sc. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the National University of Singapore, with a postgraduate certificate in Advanced Biotechnology from the Osaka University School of Medicine, Japan.
Prior to joining NHIC, Michael was a Scientist with A*STAR’s IME for five years. As a scientist in the Biomedical Integrated Circuit group, his primary focus was on Medtech innovation, working closely with clinical partners in areas of miniaturised medical device innovation and development. Michael has led and developed close to ten implantable and wearable medical devices, in areas of diagnostic and interventional solutions. He was involved extensively throughout the Medtech development cycle, from identifying the clinical needs through to clinical trials. He was awarded two research grants, and has authored/co-authored more than 30 peer reviewed papers, one book chapter, and filed two patents.
Before joining NHIC, Siang Lin was a Project Manager with Singapore General Hospital where he was responsible for forming partnerships with start-ups, SME and healthcare institution for the development of robotic-assisted ultrasound system. Prior to this, Siang Lin spent close to 5 years at National University of Singapore with the Medical Engineering Research & Commercialisation Initiative (M.E.R.C.I) team, overseeing multi-institutional collaborations on medical device development in the area of colonoscopy, endovascular, nephrology, organ transplant, underactive bladder, and musculoskeletal maintenance. He is also co-inventor of two medical devices that eventually led to 2 spin-off companies.
Before joining NHIC, Hanzhong was a Biodesign Fellow with Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Program established between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Economic Development Board (EDB), and Stanford University, where he received intensive trainings on the entire value chain of medtech innovation. During his fellowship, Hanzhong immersed himself into the clinical practices in hospitals in Asia and United States, worked closely with healthcare professionals to identify clinical needs, develop novel solutions and analyse business strategies beyond technologies. Prior to his SSB fellowship, Hanzhong has worked in Singapore healthcare and medtech industries, taking charge to evaluate and apply novel technologies in clinical settings, as well as to develop technical solutions and lead projects for medical device enhancement and maintenance.
Before joining NHIC, Anna was with the Clinical Trials Resource Centre at Singapore General Hospital. She was responsible for Clinical Trials Feasibility Management, Investigator-Initiated Trials grants management, Centre Operation and Audit Management. Anna managed the Centre expansion project and implemented new work processes for the overall efficiency of the Centre.
Prior to joining NHIC, Jacelyn was with the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), Ministry of Health. She was responsible for providing administrative support to several grant managers, mainly in the processing of grant applications for the Open Fund – Individual Research Grant (OF-IRG) and Clinician Scientist – Individual Research Grant (CS-IRG). She has made valuable contribution to ease teething issues with the new Integrated Grant Management System (IGMS) launched in late 2018.
