A*STAR Research
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Subscribe to this channel to stay up-to-date with the latest scientific research and innovations from Asia. A*STAR Research is official R&D magazine for Singapore's largest science agency, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
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Channel Posts
Here are three ways A*STAR researchers are giving plastic waste a higher-value second life.
Did you know? Only 4% of Singapore’s plastic waste was recycled in 2025.
To help address this challenge, researchers at A*STAR IMRE and A*STAR ISCE², together with international collaborators, have developed three new approaches for hard-to-recycle plastics:
• Rearranging polystyrene to produce valuable specialty chemicals
• Turning mixed plastics into stronger, reprocessable materials
• Making thermosets easier to reshape and recycle
Together, these approaches could help recover more value from plastic waste and reduce what ends up discarded.
Read all three stories here 👇
1. Breaking barriers in plastic waste
https://research.a-star.edu.sg/articles/highlights/breaking-barriers-in-plastic-waste/
2. Sturdier second lives for mixed plastics
https://research.a-star.edu.sg/articles/highlights/sturdier-second-lives-for-mixed-plastics/
3. Changing tunes to soften tough plastics
https://research.a-star.edu.sg/articles/highlights/changing-tunes-to-soften-tough-plastics/
| 2 | Making electronic materials move with light
A thin material used in electronics responded to light at least 100 times faster than previously reported photostrictive systems.
Researchers from A*STAR IMRE and Nanyang Technological University found that scandium-doped aluminium nitride developed mechanical strain when exposed to modulated laser light.
This light-induced movement could support non-contact micro-actuators and optomechanical devices, although it remains weaker than electrically driven motion.
Read the full story:
https://bit.ly/4f2sp43 | 112 |
| 3 | Trapping light to build more energy-efficient lasers.
A new laser device required just one-quarter of the energy to begin producing light compared with existing devices using the same light-trapping principle.
Researchers at A*STAR IMRE, together with global collaborators, developed a patterned titanium dioxide structure that traps light across a wider range of operating conditions.
At room temperature, the device produced strong and stable laser emissions while remaining less sensitive to external changes.
The team is now exploring its potential for on-chip lasers, optical communications and sensing.
Read the full story here:
https://bit.ly/44g3FAr | 122 |
| 4 | Three ways A*STAR’s research is making AI more useful
A*STAR researchers and collaborators are refining AI models to better support practical tasks, from summarising news and planning stepwise procedures to supporting fairer decision-making.
Take something as ordinary as reading the news. General-purpose AI models such as GPT-4 tend to overlook local nuances when synthesising several multilingual and region-specific news articles. CLUST-McMs, a targeted pipeline from A*STAR I²R's Longyin Zhang and team, captures these contextual details and outperforms general models in summarising Southeast Asian news.
Fairness presents a similar challenge. Automated decisions on things like loan approvals or candidate screening can carry bias, but correcting for it usually requires demographic information that is often unavailable. Researchers at A*STAR IHPC and A*STAR CFAR, including Xiuju Fu and Ivor Tsang, developed a reweighting method that can improve AI model fairness even when individual identities are unknown.
Then there's the familiar struggle of following a detailed procedure, whether cooking or manufacturing. Given just a starting image and an end goal, could AI predict the steps in between? A*STAR I²R's Fen Fang and colleagues built the VISTA-D framework to train models that can fill in those missing steps, improving prediction accuracy by up to 11 percent.
Together, these studies show how focused AI research can make AI systems more accurate, fair and useful for real-world applications.
Read more about them here:
1. https://bit.ly/4gkWDRQ
2. https://bit.ly/3SyFLxD
3. https://bit.ly/4qDHSgo | 161 |
| 5 | Helping fast-charging batteries retain more energy
Fast-charging batteries can lose unable energy right from their first charge.
Researchers from A*STAR IMRE and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore found that a protective layer on titanium dioxide anodes repeatedly broke down and reformed, consuming lithium each time. By modifying the anode surface through fluorination, the team helped this layer stabilise earlier. This raised its initial Coulombic efficiency from74% to over 90%, leaving more lithium available for energy storage.
The researchers are now exploring whether the same strategy could support safer, large-scale stationary energy storage.
Read the full story:
https://bit.ly/4f72OqF | 187 |
| 6 | Can bacteria be turned to make more citrus scent?
At A*STAR SIFBI, a team led by Scientist Clement Scipion and Group Leader Xixian Chen engineered a plant enzyme to help bacteria produce limonene, the citrus-scented compound used in fragrances, flavours, and medicines.
The best-performing enzyme increased limonene production by up to 4.8-fold, and the team has filed a patent in Singapore for the work.
Read the full story:
https://bit.ly/3Tmyykh | 191 |
| 7 | Four research priorities shaping Singapore’s future
Under RIE2030, A*STAR is focusing its research on four areas to boost Singapore’s economy, improve well-being and support sustainability.
• Manufacturing, Trade and Connectivity: Advancing semiconductor manufacturing, while helping emerging tech reach industry faster.
• Human Health and Potential: Improving population health through data-driven risk prediction, preventive strategies and targeted therapeutics.
• Smart Nation and Digital Economy: Growing Singapore's AI and supercomputing capabilities to drive economic transformation across sectors.
• Urban Solutions and Sustainability: Scaling solutions for carbon reduction and climate resilience through the S$800-million Decarbonisation RIE Grand Challenge.
Learn how these priorities will guide A*STAR’s translation of research discoveries into societal impact. ⬇️
Read the full story:
https://bit.ly/4aEDyXu | 185 |
| 8 | When marine fuel leaks, some of it can “rain out” as liquid instead of becoming gas.
Researchers from A*STAR IHPC, working with the A*STAR NMC and Seatrium, developed a simplified model to estimates this rainout using a few datapoints such as storage pressure and ambient temperature.
The model could support faster safety assessments as ports prepare for alternative fuels.
Read the full story here 👇
https://bit.ly/4f46idC | 180 |
| 9 | Issue 53 of A*STAR Research is here! 🎊
More than a century after the first insulin trials, the hormone remains one of medicine's biggest success stories, largely thanks to engineering microbes to mass-produce it. This issue traces similar breakthroughs happening today in bioprocessing and biomanufacturing.
Our cover story, Nurturing Factories of the Future, spans the pipeline from drug discovery to manufacturing. We also sit down with Zach Pang of A*STAR BTI and AuctuCel, who's bringing computational modelling to culture media development, and A*STAR International Fellow Bo Xing, who explores predicting the behaviour of quantum many-body systems and where quantum computing is headed.
Plus: new insights on tuberculosis's hidden risks and fresh ways to upcycle single-use plastics.
Grab your copy of Issue 53 now 👇
https://bit.ly/4ga4u3h | 177 |
| 10 | Healing may work better as a team.
After procedures such as pancreatic surgery, skin wounds can be exposed to conditions that increase the risk of infection and slow healing.
Researchers from A*STAR ISCE² and A*STAR IMRE developed a nanogel called Zn@nGSC that keeps three enzymes working together to support healing in a coordinated way.
Xiaotong Fan, Chaobin He, Zibiao Li and collaborators found that in mice the nanogel accelerated wound closure, reduced bacterial infections and better blood vessel, outperforming systems carrying only one or two enzymes.
Read the full story here 👇
https://bit.ly/4hlGfkC | 213 |
| 11 | Mosquitoes are more than just virus carriers. Their saliva matters, too. 🦟
Sialokinin, a molecule in 𝘈𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘨𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘪 saliva, interferes with the protective activity of human immune cells during chikungunya infection. In mice, it gave the virus a better chance to establish infection and led to more severe disease outcomes.
Researchers are now investigating whether similar mechanisms are involved in other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and Zika.
The research was driven by Senior Scientist Siew-Wai Fong and A*STAR IDL Executive Director Lisa Ng, who led a multi-institutional team including NUS and NCID.
Read the full story here 👇
https://bit.ly/3REI4yU | 201 |
| 12 |  The A*STAR Research annual survey is ending soon! ⏰
You only have until 31 July (23:59 hours, SGT) to share your feedback and join our giveaway of US$50 Amazon vouchers for 10 lucky participants.
Tap the button below to access the survey form ⬇️ | 207 |
| 13 | Building light-powered catalysts in a single step
A*STAR IMRE researchers, working with the National University of Singapore, devised a one-step method to build stable covalent organic frameworks (COFs) while incorporating highly reactive nickel ions. These COFs are porous, crystalline structures that can be specially modified with metal reaction centres, turning into powerful catalysts for industrially relevant chemical reactions.
The team’s approach created a more robust, integrated structure than conventional approaches. It also showed better light absorption and catalytic performance, achieving high conversion rates for a coupling reaction used in producing pharmaceuticals and organic electronics.
As the frameworks retained their crystallinity and remained reusable across multiple cycles, the researchers hope these catalysts can be used to power more sustainable chemical manufacturing processes in the future.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4xRqaJE | 218 |
| 14 |  Let’s shape the future of A*STAR Research together 🤝
We want to know what our readers envision for our next chapter. Tell us what you think in our annual survey, which now runs until 31 July (23:59 hours, SGT).
🎁 As a token of gratitude for your continued support, we will be giving away US$50 Amazon vouchers to 10 lucky participants. | 215 |
| 15 | Could a single strand of RNA help detect disease and trigger a response?
A new molecular platform called UNBAR (UNlocked by Activating RNA), developed by A*STAR IMCB with A*STAR BII and the National University of Singapore, could give researchers a versatile technology for sensing molecular signals and designing tailored responses inside cells.
Upon detecting a specific RNA sequence, UNBAR cuts at its two sites to release a corresponding RNA product. Since its parts are independently programmable, UNBAR can be adapted to detect various sequences and produce different outputs in response.
In cell-free tests, UNBAR also amplified RNA signals without needing additional protein machinery. The team is now working to speed up this signal amplification, eyeing potential applications in RNA-based diagnostics and precision therapeutics.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4gpZVnb | 240 |
| 16 | A centuries-old materials technique, applied to battery design
Plunging red-hot metal into cold water has long been used to mould the material’s properties. Applying this same idea to the atomic scale, A*STAR IMRE researchers flash-froze heated battery materials to create atomic changes that improve performance.
The team focused on titanium sulphide (TiS₃) nanobelts for magnesium-ion batteries (MIBs), a promising next-generation alternative to lithium-ion batteries. By rapidly cooling the nanobelts from high temperatures, they preserved sulphur vacancies that trap intermediate molecules that would otherwise drain the battery's capacity.
The resulting cathode achieved a discharge capacity of 717.3 mAh g⁻¹ and, scaled up to pouch cells, an energy density of 220 Wh kg⁻¹, putting it within range of commercial lithium-ion batteries. The material also performed well in lithium-ion, sodium-ion and aluminium-ion battery systems.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4vgKiCo | 220 |
| 17 | A drug candidate designed to work against multiple coronaviruses, not just one
As SARS-CoV-2 evolved, mutations in its spike protein allowed new variants to evade vaccine-induced immunity. A*STAR EDDC researchers turned to a different target: the coronavirus main protease (Mᵖʳᵒ), an enzyme the virus needs to replicate and that remains highly conserved across coronavirus strains.
The team designed and refined a candidate, currently called compound 18, to block the activity of Mᵖʳᵒ. The drug inhibited several SARS-CoV-2 variants as well as other coronaviruses like MERS-CoV in cultured cells, and reduced viral load in the lungs of infected mice. It also performed well in pharmacokinetic studies across several animal species, suggesting it is metabolically stable with a encouraging preclinical safety profile.
With a patent filed, the researchers say clinical trials are the next step to confirm the candidate's activity and safety.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4fYomrF | 213 |
| 18 | Could better plant-based meat come down to enzyme dosing?
Replicating the fibrous texture of cooked chicken using plant proteins remains a challenge for meat alternatives. Enzyme activity is critical in altering protein network formation, impacting the end-product’s texture. A*STAR SIFBI and A*STAR SIMTech researchers compared three commercial proteases (enzymes that break down protein chains) to see how they affect the texture and digestibility of soy-pea meat analogues.
The team found that enzyme type and concentration both matter. At low-to-moderate doses, two of the enzymes tested improved fibrous structure, while a third caused the protein network to break down and collapse at higher concentrations, reducing chewiness by nearly 75 percent. Digestion simulations also showed that enzyme-treated samples released more soluble protein in the stomach phase compared to untreated samples.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3Ssce8z | 249 |
| 19 | What drives cell death in ALS? A*STAR researchers have found one of the culprits
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) gradually hinders a person's voluntary movement, caused by the progressive loss of motor neurons. These motor neurons carry defective mitochondria that can’t produce enough energy to sustain the cell. Restoring these powerhouses of the cell could point to therapeutic approaches for broader ALS patient groups, according to an international team led by A*STAR IMCB and A*STAR GIS researchers.
After discovering elevated levels of BLOC1S1 in degenerating ALS motor neurons, they developed RNA-targeting technology called splice-switching oligonucleotides to reduce BLOC1S1 expression. This restored mitochondrial performance, which was linked to delayed disease progression and improved survival in ALS mouse models.
The technology has been patented as a therapeutic candidate, and the approach appears to work across multiple ALS genetic subtypes.
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/4w3uNyj | 221 |
| 20 | A smooth tune-up for tiny lasers
Imagine a laser you could tune like a radio, smoothly changing its colour with a dial. Researchers at the A*STAR IMRE, working with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, have developed a microlaser that does just that and is small enough to fit on a chip.
The design combines a phase-changing perovskite material with a specially engineered optical cavity that keeps emitted light tightly confined. Rather than relying on slow and energy-intensive external tuning methods, the microlaser switched between two emission states within the device itself, its colours shifting 20 nanometres in mere milliseconds. Moreover, the emissions stayed stable across thousands of cycles.
While some technical hurdles remain before real-world use, the researchers see several potential applications in advanced imaging, communications, sensing and display technologies.
Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/4wfyPUf | 219 |
