BORN
1956

INDUCTED
2022

CATEGORY
Science/Technology

THE HONOURED INDUCTEES TO THE SINGAPORE WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME

DING JEAK LING

Pioneering researcher in biochemistry

When Ding Jeak Ling was a child, her father one day brought home a horseshoe crab. She thought it looked like an alien from outer space and was amazed to learn it was totally harmless. Little did she know then that, years later, the horseshoe crab would play a central role in her scientific research and that she and her team would make a discovery that would change the biomedical industry – and save the horseshoe crab from extinction.

Biochemist Jeak Ling, who is a professor at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Biological Science, has been researching the fundamentals of innate immunity since 1984. Innate immunity is the defence system with which we are born – the barriers that protect us from having harmful germs enter our bodies.

The horseshoe crab has been around for more than 450 million years. Its unique blue blood has an enzyme known as Factor C that is extremely sensitive to endotoxins from bacteria. For the last 50 years, pharmaceutical and medical device companies have been using this blood to ensure that injectable drugs and medical equipment are free from endotoxins. In other words, the horseshoe crab’s blood is used to help save human lives.

Huge numbers of horseshoe crabs are caught each year and a portion of their blood extracted. The horseshoe crabs are then released back to the sea, but a significant number of them die because of this traumatic process and they have become an endangered species, which also endangers other species in the ecosystem. Furthermore, the process of gathering the creatures and extracting the blood is time consuming, costly, and the batch-to-batch variations lead to inconsistency in the endotoxin test results.

In 2000, after nearly two decades of research, Jeak Ling and her research team including her husband, microbiologist Ho Bow, succeeded in the genetic engineering of the key bacterial detection enzyme called Factor C. This cloned version of recombinant Factor C (rFC) is more stable and chemically consistent than the natural form, thus ensuring unlimited supply of animal-free and standardised endotoxin tests for the biochemical industry.

The technology, commercially known as Pyrogene, is now being used globally to develop safer injectable medications, such as vaccines and intravenous drugs. It is one of the National University of Singapore’s most successfully commercialised technologies.

Jeak Ling has published many research papers in international journals and won several awards for her work. These include the National Science & Technology Award for ‘outstanding contributions to genetic engineering’ in 1995, the Far Eastern Economic Review Innovations in Award in 2000, and the NUS Outstanding Researcher Award in 2000 and 2008.

In 2016, she was one of two women awarded the Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS) Fellowship. It was the first time that the SNAS Fellowship, which was established in 1977, went to women scientists.

Jeak Ling counts among her role models British chemist Rosalind Franklin who, she says, despite gender bias, “made monumental discoveries that lent necessary insights into solving the DNA structure”.

For Jeak Ling herself as a female scientist, there were challenges in building and maintaining a robust laboratory while also nurturing two children at home. She was able to manage because, she said, she had strong and consistent family support.

Her message to young women contemplating a career in science is: “It is not impossible to do good quality research and at the same time bring up a family. Persevere, and never give up, even in the midst of challenges. Enjoy each moment of successful and exciting new findings and the next one will be even bigger and better. Make every piece of work a masterpiece.”

DING JEAK LING

Pioneering researcher in biochemistry

BORN 1956 INDUCTED 2022
CATEGORY Science/Technology

When Ding Jeak Ling was a child, her father one day brought home a horseshoe crab. She thought it looked like an alien from outer space and was amazed to learn it was totally harmless. Little did she know then that, years later, the horseshoe crab would play a central role in her scientific research and that she and her team would make a discovery that would change the biomedical industry – and save the horseshoe crab from extinction.

Biochemist Jeak Ling, who is a professor at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Biological Science, has been researching the fundamentals of innate immunity since 1984. Innate immunity is the defence system with which we are born – the barriers that protect us from having harmful germs enter our bodies.

The horseshoe crab has been around for more than 450 million years. Its unique blue blood has an enzyme known as Factor C that is extremely sensitive to endotoxins from bacteria. For the last 50 years, pharmaceutical and medical device companies have been using this blood to ensure that injectable drugs and medical equipment are free from endotoxins. In other words, the horseshoe crab’s blood is used to help save human lives.

Huge numbers of horseshoe crabs are caught each year and a portion of their blood extracted. The horseshoe crabs are then released back to the sea, but a significant number of them die because of this traumatic process and they have become an endangered species, which also endangers other species in the ecosystem. Furthermore, the process of gathering the creatures and extracting the blood is time consuming, costly, and the batch-to-batch variations lead to inconsistency in the endotoxin test results.

In 2000, after nearly two decades of research, Jeak Ling and her research team including her husband, microbiologist Ho Bow, succeeded in the genetic engineering of the key bacterial detection enzyme called Factor C. This cloned version of recombinant Factor C (rFC) is more stable and chemically consistent than the natural form, thus ensuring unlimited supply of animal-free and standardised endotoxin tests for the biochemical industry.

The technology, commercially known as Pyrogene, is now being used globally to develop safer injectable medications, such as vaccines and intravenous drugs. It is one of the National University of Singapore’s most successfully commercialised technologies.

Jeak Ling has published many research papers in international journals and won several awards for her work. These include the National Science & Technology Award for ‘outstanding contributions to genetic engineering’ in 1995, the Far Eastern Economic Review Innovations in Award in 2000, and the NUS Outstanding Researcher Award in 2000 and 2008.

In 2016, she was one of two women awarded the Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS) Fellowship. It was the first time that the SNAS Fellowship, which was established in 1977, went to women scientists.

Jeak Ling counts among her role models British chemist Rosalind Franklin who, she says, despite gender bias, “made monumental discoveries that lent necessary insights into solving the DNA structure”.

For Jeak Ling herself as a female scientist, there were challenges in building and maintaining a robust laboratory while also nurturing two children at home. She was able to manage because, she said, she had strong and consistent family support.

Her message to young women contemplating a career in science is: “It is not impossible to do good quality research and at the same time bring up a family. Persevere, and never give up, even in the midst of challenges. Enjoy each moment of successful and exciting new findings and the next one will be even bigger and better. Make every piece of work a masterpiece.”

“It was a moment of realisation that it’s going to change the biomedical industry, and it’s going to save a very, very highly threatened species.”

“My childhood was enjoyed in a humble home where games and toys were made with much imagination and creativity from scratch, using simple and recyclable materials such as matchboxes, eggshells, seeds and twigs. An experience I recall was holding an old fallen-out lens over a straw-mat that ‘curiously’ focused the sunrays and caused a fire—a very frightening experience, though. I realised then that simple materials developed in a laboratory can hold great promise: it almost created a hellfire at home. That exhilarating experience for a six-year-old was perhaps the spark to a lifelong research career.”

“My home environment, parents, siblings, schoolmates, teachers and professors have inspired and instilled a great passion and excitement for science. The sense of giving back to society by making novel findings and translating them into real-world applications is very important and gratifying, that is, being accountable for the financial support provided by tax-payers.”

Profile last updated: 8th March 2022