Cheng Kai Lim is a PhD-MBA student at the National University of Singapore, where he works on synthetic biology and DNA data storage. He is interested in developing tools that can enable everyone to engineer biology more effectively, thereby accelerating the process of bringing therapies to market. He is also keen on new models for doing science and how it can be more equitable. He was previously with iGEM as the Global Chair of their Entrepreneurship Programme (EPIC), and has worked in multiple biotech startups, helping them drive their business development efforts. Cheng Kai was a Leader of Tomorrow for the 2020 iteration of the GapSummit, a conference dedicated to selecting top potential biotech leaders, and was also a highly commended awardee for the Global Undergraduate Thesis awards.

In his free time, Cheng Kai enjoys playing the piano, bouldering and reading all sorts of content - online or offline.

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GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT

Starting and running a completely virtual incubator programme for aspiring Synthetic Biology entrepreneurs for the past two years of the pandemic, and seeing some of the companies grow and thrive has been the most fulfilling thing of my life (so far!).

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WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT ARTIS

To me, ARTIS is a pioneer in the TechBio space, which is something that I've always been interested in, but never conceptually developed until now. I believe that working with ARTIS will allow me to immerse myself in this space, and hopefully inspire me to start a TechBio company of my own!

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RECENT INNOVATION OR DISCOVERY THAT HAS HAD GREATEST IMPACT ON TECH/HEALTH

The change in mindset for scientists to think about potential commercialization of their work. The shift in career paths from academia to entrepreneurship, driven by the many innovations in bio-startup models, will likely be the genesis of the next TechBio game changers.