Dr. Seah-Ling Kuan
Seah Ling received her B.Sc (Hons) from the National University of Singapore in 2003 and completed her PhD (Chemistry) in the same institute in 2009. She joined Prof. Tanja Weil in NUS from 2008-2010 as a research fellow. She took up a scientist position in the Health Authority Sciences of Singapore in 2010. In 2011, she began her independent research as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow in the groups of Prof. Tanja Weil and Prof. Klaus Müllen. She was a group leader in the Institute of Organic Chemistry III from 2013-2016. She relocated to the MPI-P in 2016 and leads the Molecular Gates and Reaction Networks group. Since October 2022, Seah Ling serves concurrently as the head of the mass spectrometry core facility at the MPI-P.
Seah Ling is involved in several national cross-disciplinary collaborative research centers (CRC1066 and CRC1279) that aim to develop breakthrough treatments for cancer and infectious diseases.
She has been appointed as the Europe coordinator for the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry overseas members network from 2017-2019. Since 2020, she is an international advisory board member of the ChemMedChem.
Research Interest (Molecular Gates and Reaction Networks)
Engineering therapeutic systems that function reliably amid the biochemical complexity of living systems remains a central challenge in chemical biology and biomedicine. The tumor microenvironment (TME) is especially difficult to tackle, as it is defined by dynamic pH gradients, redox imbalances, metabolic heterogeneity, and elevated reactive oxygen species that frequently compromise drug efficacy.
Our long-term vision is to create TME-aware therapeutics that can sense, process, and respond to chemical signals within diseased tissues. Through rationale chemical design, we aim to transform therapeutics from passive agents into adaptive systems capable of decision-making at cellular interfaces.
Designing Programmable Protein Conjugates and Translational Nanocarriers
We seek to transform fundamental chemical concepts into translational macromolecular platforms. The group pioneered various site-selective bioconjugation reagents to expand the arsenal of multifunctional biotherapeutics. In addition, we are interested in developing protein-based nanocarriers that are stable in vivo and selectively engage tumor-relevant cell populations.
Logic-Gated Drug Activation and Reaction Networks in Complex Microenvironments
We design and integrate molecular gates and multi-input logic elements into bioactive molecules to form responsive reaction networks in cancer cells. In this way, self-regulating medicines are created that operate seamlessly within the complex biochemical landscape of cancer, in order to substantially improve selectivity and reduce off-target toxicity.
Key Achievements: Innovation of bioconjugation chemistry for synthetic customization of multifunctional peptide or protein target structures. Devising molecular gates and reaction networks for controlled drug activation/release and communication within the complex TME.
Mass Spectrometry Core Facility @ MPIP
Since June 2024, Seah Ling Kuan took over the full leadership of the Mass Spectrometry (MS) Core Facility, which supports research projects within the Weil department as well as fostering broader institute-wide efforts. In the meanwhile, the facility is moving towards digitalization and user-friendly format, as well as significantly expanding its capabilities with MALDI-MS imaging, enabling spatially resolved visualization of drug distribution and release dynamics in tumor spheroids and tissue-like constructs. The MS platform now supports high-sensitivity quantification of metabolites, therapeutic intermediates, and reactive species, including collaborative studies with the Barayeu/Gräter to detect and characterize radical species formed in peptides and proteins. These analytical advances provide essential mechanistic insights into the behavior, stability, and activation pathways of gated therapeutics and nanocarriers. Beyond routine service, the MS Core serves as a scientific driver, integrating synthetic chemistry, quantitative mass spectrometry, and biological context, to ensure that newly developed molecular systems are rigorously validated in physiologically relevant environments. Additional partnership with the Biocore Group (FLIM imaging) provides further integrative analytical systems.