Chin Yan Lim

Affiliations

• Principal Investigator, Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS.

Education Degree and Institution Year(s)

• Ph.D, University of California, San Diego 2006
• B.Sc (First Class Honors), National University of Singapore 2000

Professional Experience Position and Institute Year(s)

• Principal Investigator, Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR 2017- present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS 2017 – present
• Junior Principal Investigator, Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR 2013 – 2017
• Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR 2008 – 2013
• Research Fellow, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR 2006 – 2008

Research Interest

Unique chromatin landscapes present in different cell types facilitate the cell-specific expression of genes that define cellular phenotypes and functions. As stem/progenitor cells differentiate, reversible modifications are made to the chromatin to allow for changes in gene expression. My research centers on understanding gene regulatory mechanisms that influence cell fate decisions during embryonic development and extending parallels of these pathways to cancer progression. Our studies have led to the identification of regulatory factors that control lineage specification and proliferation of embryonic cells at various stages of development e.g. the epiblast/primitive endoderm specification in blastocysts, mesodermal differentiation during gastrulation, and teratocarcinoma formation.

At present, the lab is focused on investigating the major principles of how changes in chromatin dynamics influence cell identity specification during embryonic development. Using the developing mouse epidermis as a model, we aim to identify and functionalize novel chromatin-associated factors that regulate epidermal stem cell proliferation and differentiation during normal ageing, wound healing as well as in squamoproliferative skin disorders. On-going projects include genomic approaches to delineate the chromatin landscapes of epidermal progenitor cells and functional assays to characterize transcriptional and epigenetic regulators involved in the specification of different skin cell types such epidermis, hair follicle and dermal papilla.