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Associate Professor

Hua Ling

Associate Professor
PhD (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Cluster:
Food, Chemical and Biotechnology
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SIT Appointments

  • Associate Professor
    – Present

Education

  • PhD (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
    Shanghai Jiao Tong University , China
  • Bachelor & Master (Agronomy)
    Hainan University , China

Achievements

  • The Excellent Paper Award, the Society for Biotechnology, Japan
  • Long Service Award, National University of Singapore

Professional Certification

  • Professional Development Programme (Teaching)
    Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL), National University of Singapore

Professional Memberships

  • Member of the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC), Singapore
    –
  • Vice President, Society for Synthetic Biology (SynBioSG), Singapore
    –

Corporate Experience

  • Adjunct Associate Professor, National University of Singapore
    Present
  • Wilmar Fellow & Team Lead (Synthetic Biology), Wilmar International
    –
  • Research Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
    –
  • Senior Research Fellow, National University of Singapore
    –
  • Research Fellow, Nanyang Technological University
    –
  • Faculty & Principal Investigator, Zhengzhou University
    –
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Research Interests

  • Engineering Biology and Applied Biotechnology
  • Microbial Cell Factories
  • Biocatalysts and Bioprocess

Past Projects

  • Strain optimization for improving amino acid production
    –
  • Bioprocess development and optimization for biosurfactant production
    –
  • Production of industrial monomers in microbes
    –
  • HH@NUS SINGERGY Laboratory
    –
  • Advancing combinatorial DNA library assembly technologies for metabolic engineering applications
    –
  • NUSMed Medical Science Cluster Synthetic biology translational research programme
    –
  • High-throughput engineering of carbon transport in the carbon concentrating mechanism
    –
  • Development of proprietary national strains
    –
  • Establishment of synthetic biology type culture collection platform
    –
  • Engineering biology for a circular bioeconomy-towards urban sustainability
    –
  • Development of microbial platform for production of rare fatty acids
    –
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Journal Papers

  • Shen H, Wun KS, Aggarwal N, Seah MZX, Ling H, Hwang IY, Lee YS, and Chang MW: Engineered commensals for targeted nose-to-brain drug delivery. Cell, 2025: 1545-1562.e16.

  • Gelain L, Yeoh JW, Hossain GS, Alfenore S, Guillouet S, Ling H, Poh CL, Gorret N, and Foo JL: Identification and monitoring of cell heterogeneity from plasmid recombination during limonene production. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2025, 109:4.

  • Aggarwal N, Pham HL, Ranjan B, Saini M, Liang Y, Hossain G, Ling H, Foo JL, and Chang MW: Microbial engineering strategies to utilize waste feedstocks for sustainable bioproduction. Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 2024, 2:155-174.

  • Shen H, Zhang C, Wun KS, Liu J, Nadarajan SP, Weng C, Ling H, Tay JK, Wang D-Y, Yao SQ, Hwang IY, Lee YS, and Chang MW: Prodrug-conjugated tumor-seeking commensals for targeted cancer therapy. Nature Communications, 2024, 15:4343.

  • Aggarwal N, Liang Y,  Foo JL, Ling H, Hwang IY, Chang MW: FELICX: A robust nucleic acid detection method using flap endonuclease and CRISPR-Cas12. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2023, 222: 115002

  • Ling H, Liu R, Sam QH, Sheng H, Chai LYA, Chang MW: Engineering of a probiotic yeast for the production and secretion of medium-chain fatty acids antagonistic to an opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2023, 11: 1090501

  • Shi S, Wang J, Ling H*: Synthetic biology for the sustainable production of biochemicals in engineered microbes. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2022, 10: 984875

  • Miyake R, Ling H, Foo JL, Chang MW: Transporter-driven engineering of a genetic biosensor for the detection and production of short-branched chain fatty acids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Frontiers in Bioengineering & Biotechnology, 2022, 10: 838732

  • Hossain GS, Saini M, Miyake R, Ling H, Chang MW: Genetic biosensor design for natural product biosynthesis in microorganisms. Trends in Biotechnology. 2020, 38(7): 797-810.

  • Ng TK, Yu AQ, Ling H, Pratomo Juwono NK, Choi WJ, Leong SSJ, Chang MW: Engineering Yarrowia lipolytica towards food waste bioremediation: Production of fatty acid ethyl esters from vegetable cooking oil. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering. 2020, 129 (1): 31-40.

  • Chen B, Foo JL, Ling H, Chang MW: Mechanism-driven metabolic engineering for mitochondrial production of free lipoic acid in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Frontiers in Bioengineering & Biotechnology. 2020, 8:965.

  • Xia PF, Ling H, Foo JL, Chang MW. Synthetic genetic circuits for programmable biological functionalities. Biotechnology Advances. 2019, 37(6):107393.

  • Yu A-Q, Pratomo Juwono NK, Ng TK, Ling H, Cho H-S, Leong S, Chang, MW: Genetic engineering of an unconventional yeast for renewable biofuel and biochemical production. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 2016, 115: e54371.

  • Ling H, Pratomo Juwono NK, Teo WS, Liu R, Leong SSL, Chang MW: Engineering transcription factors to improve tolerance against alkane biofuels in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2015, 8:231.

  • Teo WS, Ling H, Yu AQ, Chang MW: Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for production of fatty acid short- and branched-chain alkyl esters biodiesel. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2015, 8:177.

  • Ling H, Teo W, Chen B, Leong SS, Chang MW: Microbial tolerance engineering toward biochemical production: from lignocellulose to products. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 2014, 29C:99-106. (Cover)

  • Ling H, Chen BB, Kang A, Lee JM, Chang MW: Transcriptome response to alkane biofuels in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: identification of efflux pumps involved in alkane tolerance. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2013, 6:95

  • Chen B, Ling H, Chang MW: Transporter engineering for improved tolerance against alkane biofuels in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Biotechnology for Biofuels. 2013, 6:21.

Books

  • Ling H, Foo JL, Saxena G, Swarup S, Chang MW: Drug targeting of the human microbiome. Systems Biology. 2017. Wiley

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Past

  • Synthetic Biology, Practical Synthetic Biology, Genetics, Biostatistics
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