Dr Sai-Kiang Lim

Lim Sai Kiang

Principal Investigator, Lineage Restriction in Stem Cells

Research Associate Professor (Joint), Dept. of Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

embryonic stem cells, mesodermal and endodermal stem cells, cell therapeutics, biologics

Email: saikiang.lim@imb.a-star.edu.sg

Biography

Dr Sai-Kiang Lim graduated with B.Sc (Hons in Biochemistry) from National University of Singapore in 1985. She did her PhD thesis on the metabolism of thalassemic mRNA under Prof Lynne Maquat (Dept. of Human Genetics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute), and was awarded the Most Meritorious Student Research Award by Sigma Xi Society in 1989, NY State Predoctoral Fellowship (1989-91) and a PhD (Molecular Biology) from SUNY at Buffalo in 1992. In 1992, she started postdoctoral training on erythroid differentiation with Prof Frank Constantini (Dept. of Genetics and Development College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University) first as a Cooley’s Anemia Foundation Research Fellow (1992-94) and then a Leukemia Society of America Special Fellow (1994-96). After postdoctoral training, she led independent research groups at NUMI, NUS (1996-2001), Genome Institute of Singapore (2002-2007) and then Institute of Medical Biology (2007). Her research focus has always been disease-related with emphasis on the elucidation of the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms in diseases and development of therapies. Her current major research interests are derivation of clinically useful cell types such as mesenchymal stem cells and insulin-producing cell lines from either human or mouse embryonic stem cells and the use of these cells or their products to treat or better understand human diseases.

Insulin & C-peptide immunostaining
of ERoSHK cells

Representative Publications

1. Lian Q., Yeo K.S., Que J., Tan E.K.Y., Yu F, Yin Y, Salto-Tellez M, El Oakley R.M., Lim S.-K. (2006). Establishing clonal cell lines with endothelial-like potential from CD9^hi, SSEA-1^- cells in embryonic stem cell-derived embryoid bodies. PLoS ONE 1:e6.

2. Lian Q., Lye E. Yeo K.S., Tan E.K.Y., Salto-Tellez M., Liu T.M., Palanisamy N., El Oakley R.M., Lee E.H., Lim B., Lim S.-K.* (2007). Derivation of Clinically Compliant MSCs from CD105+, CD24- Differentiated Human ESCs. Stem Cells 25(2):425-36.

3. Sze S.K., de Kleijn D.P.V., Lai R.C., Tan E.K.Y., Zhao H.,Yeo K.S., Low T.Y., Lian Q., LeeC.N., MitchellW., El Oakley R.M., and Lim S.-K.* (2007). Elucidating the secretion proteome of human ESC-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics 6:1680-1689.

4. Que J., Lian Q., El Oakley R.M., Lim B., Lim S.-K.* (2007). PI3 K/Akt/mTOR regulates self-renewal and endothelial differentiation in lineage restricted RoSH stem cell lines. J Mol Signal. Sep 25;2(1):9.

5. Timmers L., Lim S.-K.^†; Arslan F.; Armstrong J.S., Hoefer I.E., Doevendans P.A.; Piek J.J., El Oakley R.M., Choo A., ; LeeC.N., Pasterkamp G., de Kleijn D.P.V. (2008). Reduction of myocardial infarct size by human mesenchymal stem cell conditioned medium. Stem Cell Research 1:129–137.

6. Choo A.; Ngo A. S.; Ding V.; Oh S.; Lim S.-K. (2008). Autogeneic feeders for the culture of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells in feeder and feeder-free conditions. Methods Cell Biol 86:15-28.

7. Chee S.G., Guo T., Zhang H., Lim S.-K., and Sze S.K. (2008). A Comparative Study of Electrostatic Repulsion-Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography (ERLIC) versus SCX-IMAC-Based Methods for Phosphopeptide Isolation/Enrichment. Journal of Proteome Research 7 (11):4869–4877.

8. Li,G.D., Luo R., Zhang J., Yeo K.S., Lian Q., Xie F., Tan E.K.Y., Caille D., Que J., Kon O.L., Salto-Tellez M, Meda, P., and Lim S.-K.^† (2009). Generating mESC-derived Insulin-producing Cell Lines through an Intermediate Lineage-restricted Progenitor Line. Stem Cell Research 2:41–55.

9. Li,G.D., Luo, R., Zhang, J., Yeo K.S., Xie, F., Tan E.K.Y., Caille D., Que J., Kon, O.L., Salto-Tellez M, Meda P., and Lim S.-K.^† (2009). Derivation of functional insulin-producing cell lines from primary mouse embryo culture. Stem Cell Research 2:29–40.

10. van Keulen, J.K, Timmers, L., van Kuijk, L.P., Retnam, L., Hoefer, I., Pasterkamp, G., Lim, S.-K., de Kleijn, D.P.V. (2009). The Nuclear Factor-kappa B p50 subunit is involved in flow-induced outward arterial remodelling. Atherosclerosis 202 (2): 424-430.

11. Zhu, Y., Guo T., Park, J.E., Li, X., Meng W., Bern M., Lim S.-K. and Sze S.K. (2009). Elucidating in vivo Structural Dynamics in Integral Membrane Protein by Hydroxyl Radical Footprinting Molecular and Cellular Proteomics 8:1999-2010.

12. van Oostrom O., de Kleijn, D.P.V., Fledderus, J.O., Pescatori, M, Stubbs, A., Tuinenburg, A., Lim, S.-K., Verhaar, M.C. (2009). Folic acid supplementation normalizes the EPC transciptome of patients with type 1 diabetes. Cardiovascular Diabetology 8:47. doi:10.1186/1475-2840-8-47.

13. Datta A., Park J.E., Li, X., Zhang, H.; Ho, Z.S., Heese, K., Lim, S.K.; Tam, J. and Sze S.K. (2010). Phenotyping of an in vitro Model of Ischemic Penumbra by iTRAQ-based Shotgun Quantitative Proteomics. J. Proteome Res., 9 (1): 472–484. doi: 10.1021/pr900829h.

14. Chen T.S., Lai, R.C., Lee, M.M., Choo, A., Lee, C.N., Lim, S.K.* (2010). Mesenchymal stem cell secretes microparticles enriched in pre-microRNAs. Nucleic Acid Research 38 (1): 215–224. doi:10.1093/nar/gkp857.

15. Koh W., Chen T.S., Tan B., Lee Q. Y., Kuznetsov V., Lim, S.K. and Tanavde V. (2010). Analysis of deep sequencing microRNA expression profile fromhuman embryonic stem cells derived mesenchymal stem cells reveals possible role of let-7 microRNA family in downstream targeting of Hepatic Nuclear Factor 4 Alpha. BMC Genomics 11(Suppl 1):S6. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-11-S1-S6.

16. de Kleijn D.P.V., Moll F.L., Hellings W.E., Ozsarlak-Sozer G., de Bruin P., Doevendans P.A., Vink A., Catanzariti L.M., Schoneveld A.H., Algra A., Daemen M.J., Biessen E. A., de Jager W., Zhang H., de Vries J.-P., Falk E., Lim S.K., van der Spek P.J., Sze, S. K., and Pasterkamp G. (2010). Local Atherosclerotic Plaques Are a Source of Prognostic Biomarkers for Adverse Cardiovascular Events. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 30:612-619. doi:10.1161/ATVBAHA.109.194944.

17. Zhang, H., Guo, T., Li, X., Datta, A., Park, J.E., Yang, J., Lim, S.K.; Tam, J. and Sze S.K. (2010). Simultaneous characterization of glyco- and phospho-proteomes of mouse brain membrane proteome with electrostatic repulsion hydrophilic interaction chromatography (ERLIC). Molecular and Cellular Proteomics 9(4):635-47.

18. Lai, R.C., Arslan, F., Tan S.S., Tan B., Choo, A., Lee, M.M., Chen, T.S., Teh, B.J., Eng J.K.L., Sidik H., Tanavde, V., Hwang, W.S., Lee, C.N., El Oakley, R.M., Tan, K.H., Lim S.-K.* (2010). Derivation and Characterization of Human Fetal MSCs: an alternative cell source for large-scale production of cardioprotective microparticles. Journal of Molecular Cardiology 48:1215-1224. doi:10.1016/j.yjmcc.2009.12.021.

19. Lai, R.C., Arslan, F., Lee, M.M., Sze S.K., Choo, A., Chen, T.S., Salto-Tellez, M., Timmers, L., Lee, C.N., El Oakley, R.M., Pasterkamp, G., de Kleijn, D.P.V., Lim S.-K.† (2010). Exosome secreted by MSC reduces myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. Stem Cell Research 4: 214-222. doi:10.1016/j.scr.2009.12.003.

20. Park, J.E., Tan, H.S., Datta, A., Lai, R.C., Zhang H., Meng W., Lim S.-K., and Sze S.K. (2010). Hypoxic tumor cell modulates its microenvironment to enhance angiogenic and metastatic potential by secretion of proteins and exosomes. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics 9(6):1085-99.

21. Chen, T.S., Tan S.S., Yeo W.Y.R., Teh, B.J. Luo, R., Li,G.D., Lim S.-K.* (2010). Delineating biological pathways unique to ESC-derived insulin-producing cell lines from their non insulin-producing progenitor cell lines. Endocrinology 151(8): 3600-10.

* corresponding author

^† co-corresponding author