Professor Wee Han Ang stands as a preeminent figure in bioinorganic chemistry, currently serving as Professor, Vice Dean (Special Duties), and Associate Provost for NUS Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Masters' Programmes at the National University of Singapore. He earned his BSc with first class honors in Chemistry from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London in 1995 before dedicating eight years to service in the Republic of Singapore Navy, where he developed strategic leadership capabilities that would later inform his academic trajectory. Returning to academia with a prestigious Roche Research Fellowship, he completed his doctoral studies at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne under Professor Paul Dyson, where his innovative work on metal-based anticancer compounds earned him the Prix EPFL de Doctorats for best thesis. He further refined his expertise through a NUS Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Professor Stephen Lippard, establishing the foundation for his independent research career at NUS starting in 2009.
Dr. Ang's groundbreaking research has transformed the field of therapeutic metallopharmaceuticals, with his work accumulating over 9,916 citations that underscore his profound impact on both chemistry and medicine. His pioneering investigations into transcription inhibition by platinated DNA lesions provided critical insights that reshaped our understanding of how metal-based anticancer drugs interact with their biological targets at the molecular level. Awarded both the Prix EPFL de Doctorats and the Prix Alliance de l'Invention (awarded by EPFL in 2008 to Wee Han Ang and Paul J. Dyson) for his doctoral research on overcoming drug resistance in metal-based anticancer compounds, he has consistently demonstrated exceptional innovation in developing techniques to investigate the complex interactions between transition metal compounds and biological systems. His work has catalyzed new paradigms in metal-based drug design that directly address critical medical challenges in treating drug-resistant cancers and bacterial infections.
Currently, Dr. Ang leads cutting-edge research that recently yielded the first water-stable Ru-arene complex capable of selectively reducing nitroaromatics using endogenous formate, a breakthrough with significant therapeutic implications for targeting pathogenic bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. His development of bioinspired metallo-nitroreductase complexes represents a paradigm shift in antibacterial therapy through targeted activation of nitro-caged prodrugs, demonstrating his commitment to solving real-world medical challenges. Through his laboratory at NUS, he continues to pioneer novel metal-based therapeutic platforms that precisely target disease mechanisms while minimizing off-target effects. His visionary leadership bridges fundamental chemical principles with practical medical applications, positioning his work to transform the treatment of some of the most challenging infectious and oncological diseases facing modern medicine.
