Communicating research, breaking down walls

With effective genome testing, medical professionals could identify specific drug side effects before they happen. With the right processing method, waste from mushroom production could become a valuable pet nutrition topper. With novel techniques and technology, burn victims could have sheets of their own skin grown from just a small sample and grafted to heal large wounds.

These were some of the groundbreaking ideas presented at Falling Walls Lab Singapore 2023, organised by SGInnovate in collaboration with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), EURAXESS Worldwide and the German Embassy Singapore .

14 researchers gathered to present their solutions to society’s greatest challenges like recycling vast amounts of battery waste, improving alternative protein production methods in a bid for greater food security and maximising data storage more efficiently. Participants were given just three minutes and three slides to communicate their work in a concise manner to a judging panel of distinguished academics and business leaders.

Dr Tan Pei Leng from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) emerged as the winner of the event with her idea to grow skin cells for large burn wound patients. On top of receiving a cash prize, Dr Tan will get the chance to present her breakthrough idea on an international stage, representing Singapore at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin later this year. She hopes that the summit will be an opportunity for her to create the connections she needs to take her idea from bench to bedside.

Dr Tan flanked by Falling Walls Lab Singapore 2023 judges (L to R): Counsellor for Science and Technology Cooperation at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Republic of Singapore, Dr Thorsten Clausing; Chief Scientist of Digital Life Line and former Falling Walls Lab Singapore 2019 winner, Dr Poh Weijie; Director of DAAD Regional Office Jakarta, Dr Guido Schnieders; Dr Tan Pei Leng; Regional Project Director for EURAXESS Worldwide Dr Susanne Rentzow-Vasu; Co-founder and Managing Director of Budding Innovation, Andre Stolz.

Falling Walls Lab Singapore is a valuable platform to showcase Singapore’s innovators and a prelude to the main event, the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin. The summit marks the fall of the Berlin Wall and represents the disruptive and revolutionary power of scientific breakthroughs with a twist – participants only have three minutes to communicate their ideas. 

“In our world today, science has a greater impact on our daily life than ever before,” said Dr Schnieders. “Governments are making decisions based on science—COVID-19 is one example. The decisions on COVID-related restrictions were made on scientific judgements. So, we need to communicate between scientists and the public so that the public can accept decisions made based on scientific results.”

Audiences were treated to a variety of breakthrough ideas, including one from an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, Samyak Baid. Baid came in third place with his innovative method of processing mushroom waste into a pet nutrition topper.

Samyak presenting in front of judges.

The first runner-up, Samantha Kwah spoke about tackling adverse drug reactions with personalised medicine. Her solution, similar to methods used in COVID-19 lab tests, can be adopted for accurate and accessible genotyping. Potential end users include medical staff in hospitals, who can use it to check for potential adverse side effects before a patient is prescribed a drug.

Dr Tan’s winning pitch began with the challenge she hopes to solve and the people affected by the issue—she described 11 million burn patients lying in hospital beds with burn wounds so large they are in constant pain. Currently, doctors transplant healthy skin from unaffected areas to wounded areas. In cases of large burn wounds, where burns cover over 20 per cent of a patient’s body, a person could undergo multiple surgeries over long periods of time due to the scarcity of healthy skin sites available.

Dr Tan’s proposed solution, developed with her PhD supervisor, Associate Professor Tan Lay Poh, from NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering, could reduce the number of operations required drastically. The technology involves encapsulating samples of the patient’s skin cells into microspheres, allowing them to proliferate to a high density. These microspheres would then degrade upon application to the wound site, releasing the proliferative skin cells, which can expand rapidly to form a large epidermal-dermal sheet that facilitates skin regeneration at a much faster rate.

Dr Tan presenting her breakthrough idea. She has been working on this innovation for the last 5 years as part of her PhD thesis. 

At the Falling Walls Summit in Berlin, Dr Tan hopes to meet potential collaborators that can help bring the technology to trials. “Large burn wounds are very prevalent, not only in Singapore, but worldwide—it can happen to any of us,” she shared. “I hope that I can convey the idea to more like-minded experts who can then collaborate with us translating this idea out of academia.”

Despite it being her first time pitching, Dr Tan impressed judges with her confidence and ability to explain her work. Prior to the event, participants attended a training session organised by SGInnovate with one of the judges, Andre Stolz, Co-founder and Managing Director of Budding Innovation. 

At the session, they were advised to describe the impact of their work with a strong statement to draw the audience’s attention—a technique that Dr Tan used to adapt her pitch. She had planned to begin with a simple ‘good afternoon ladies and gentlemen’, but after her session with Stolz, chose to start by addressing the pain that large burn wound patients suffer and the prevalence of the problem.

Related: Top tips for more effective and engaging science communication

“The Falling Walls Lab is very much a science communication competition. So how can you present your idea to an audience that is not a specialist in your subject? Dr Tan made her pitch relevant, and presented her ideas in a very understandable way,” said Dr Schnieders. 

Participants of Falling Walls Lab Singapore 2023 and judges at SGInnovate’s event space.

Falling Walls Lab Singapore 2023 brought together participants from all over Asia who met, mingled and exchanged ideas. Despite there being only one winner, the event helped give researchers exposure and laid the groundwork for potential partnerships within the ecosystem.

“We’re all faced with the same challenges. They’re global and transnational—climate change, ageing societies, viruses—solving them is something we can only do together,” said Dr Susanne Rentzow-Vasu. “One person might have a good idea but it’s probably someone else’s idea that pushes it and turns a small idea into a big solution. You need many smart people to come together to find solutions to big problems.”

Find out more about SGInnovate’s upcoming networking and community events here.