From marine biology to Asian genetics

The 3 Ps of research success for membrane tech pioneer Wang Rong

- Judith Tan

At 61, Professor Liu Jianjun is a leading human geneticist who has advanced the understanding of diseases prevalent in Asians, as well as the treatment outcomes.

But Prof Liu, acting executive director and distinguished principal scientist of the Laboratory of Human Genomics at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), did not start out studying genetics.

His academic roots are in marine biology.

"I was in China then, and the only way for me to go overseas was through science.

"I was not rich, so the only way to go to the United States to study was to get a scholarship. My master's degree was in marine biology, and I was doing environmental science.

"For me to go overseas, I would have to continue in this field," he said.

But after having spent a year on his doctorate at the coastal campus of Duke University in North Carolina in 1991, Prof Liu felt that the field then was largely about environmental protections and species conservation, and it was no longer of interest to him.

It was the siren call of something else that he found irresistible.

"I wanted a change. I wanted to learn about numbers and mathematics, equations and calculations.

"That was when I abandoned my original fellowship and started searching for a new lab, new supervisors, new faculties," said Prof Liu.