NUS students drive impactful undergraduate research in healthcare and software

The potential for future breakthroughs benefitting society was the cornerstone of the Distinguished Undergraduate Research Prize (DURP) and Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Prize (OURP) which were awarded to 47 NUS undergraduate research projects this year. A total of 91 entries were submitted and these projects were rigorously evaluated based on stringent criteria, such as impact factor, understanding of the subject, evidence of critical and independent thinking, originality and significance, and accolades received. Two outstanding projects were awarded the DURP and 45 projects received the OURP.

Established almost 20 years ago, the OURP recognises students who demonstrate outstanding participation and achievement in research. These exemplary research projects were undertaken through a range of initiatives, including the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) and Field Service Projects. The DURP was launched in Academic Year 2023/24 to recognise top-ranked research projects in OURP.

NUS News highlights three student projects from the NUS School of Computing (NUS Computing) and the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine), that tackles real-world issues, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular risk factors, and the testing of concurrent software.

Advancing liver cancer diagnosis and treatment

Lin Hong Yi, who had recently graduated from NUS Medicine, won the DURP (Individual Category) for his project on primary liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This type of cancer is challenging to treat because of its complex composition from varied gene expression. Conducted as part of the larger Precision Medicine In Liver Cancer Across An Asia-Pacific Network 2.0 (PLANet) programme, Hong Yi’s study analysed human liver cancer tissues in great detail, focusing on both gene activity and a specific type of “epigenetic switch” that helps control whether genes are turned on or off.

He discovered several cancer-promoting genes that are switched on through these epigenetic mechanisms, with liver cancers caused by different factors — such as Hepatitis B virus infection or fatty liver disease — showing distinct patterns of gene activation. Certain regions of the genome that are usually inactive in normal cells but appear to play a key role in activating cancer genes in HCC were also identified. These findings could potentially pave way for future studies to develop better tests, earlier detection, and more personalised treatments for HCC.

In the study, Hong Yi extracted DNA from cancer cells and used a combination of chemical treatments and ultrasonic waves to isolate specific regions of interest. The samples were then decoded using advanced sequencing technology, with the genetic information analysed with powerful computer algorithms to identify gene regions that are commonly activated by these epigenetic switches.

Enhancing cardiovascular health

NUS Medicine students Yiming Chen, Srinithy Nagarajan, Jayanth Jayabaskaran and NUS Medicine alumna Rachel Goh received the DURP (Group Category) for their project “The Global Syndemic of Modifiable Cardiovascular Risk Factors projected from 2025 to 2050”.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of global mortality and understanding the trends driving CVDs is essential in designing effective countermeasures. This group project forecasts trends in five key modifiable cardiovascular risk factors — high systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, fasting glucose levels, and tobacco use — over the next 25 years till 2050. Modifiable risk factors refer to factors that can be controlled by individuals, in contrast to non-modifiable factors such as genetic risks.

The group found that despite improved management of CVDs leading to a projected decline in rates of disability-adjusted life years (a measure of the overall burden of disease in a population) across all cardiovascular risk factors, the overall disability-adjusted life years will continue to rise due to population growth and ageing. High systolic blood pressure and BMI are the fastest-growing contributors to these trends, emphasising the urgent need for tailored, region- and demographic-specific cardiovascular prevention and intervention to curb global cardiometabolic risk.

The historical and projection data for the study was taken from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Global Burden of Disease database, with the largest contributors measured based on deaths and disability associated life years (i.e. years of life lost to disability and death from disease) attributable to each risk factor. Further studies are also being conducted to examine the impacts of these risk factor trends on future cardiovascular health.

Boosting software reliability

Jed Koh, a Computer Science major at NUS Computing was awarded the OURP in the Individual Category for his project “Property Testing for Trace Regular Languages”. He conducted the research project as part of UROP last year when he was a third-year student. Working with Assistant Professor Umang Mathur, Presidential Young Professor at NUS Computing, on concurrency testing and trace languages, Jed combined both theoretical depth and practical applications for his project.

To meet the rising demands of modern software such as cloud services and web browsers, concurrency is increasingly leveraged, enabling different components of a software application to run simultaneously for a shared task. However, this exponentially increases the number of ways in which individual components interact, concealing software bugs which are notoriously hard to find.

Jed’s project, one of the top-ranked OURP projects, aims to enhance the reliability of modern software and detect concurrency bugs early in the software development cycle. Existing techniques that attempt to find these bugs tend to be extremely resource-intensive, requiring a lot of time, computing and monetary resources. Hence, he proposed an algorithmic framework to build fast, scalable, randomised algorithms to detect a large class of concurrency bugs that routinely impact software correctness and usability. As part of the formal analysis of these algorithms, he proved mathematical theorems that show that the error rates of these algorithms can be made arbitrarily small.

Experience the Excitement of Research

Could you be the next to make a similarly groundbreaking discovery? Extolling the additional benefits of research, Mr John Caines, Assistant Senior Manager, Research Experience (REx) said, “Undertaking research activities is incredibly meaningful and valuable — not just because of the potential outsized impact on solving real-life problems, but also educational and employability advantages when entering the workforce.”

To explore a multiverse of possibilities in research with UROP and REx today, visit NUS Undergraduate Research to learn more.