Dr Tuck Seng Wong
BEng(Hons), MSc, PhD
Lecturer
Tel: +44 (0)114 222 7591
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7501
Chemical and Biological Engineering
The University of Sheffield
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Research Interests
- Protein Engineering (Directed Evolution)
- Biocatalysis and Biotransformation
- Biotechnology
- Protein Biophysics
- Cancer, Ageing and Mutational Diseases
Biography
I studied Chemical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and graduated with first class honours. During my undergraduate study, I was awarded Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) by California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and started working with Prof. Frances H. Arnold on directed protein evolution. My interest in protein science was kindled by this experience. Subsequently, I moved to Germany and completed my MSc and PhD degrees in Jacobs University Bremen under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schwaneberg. Together with Prof. Schwaneberg, we developed novel tools for directed protein evolution including Sequence Saturation Mutagenesis (SeSaM) and Mutagenesis Assistant Programme (MAP).
Upon completion of my PhD (passed with special distinction), I joined the research team of Prof. Sir Alan R. Fersht at Medical Research Council Centre for Protein Engineering (MRC CPE, University of Cambridge). My post-doctoral research encompassed characterizing proteins involved in cancers, ageing, and mutational diseases (particularly tumour suppressor p53 and mitochondrial DNA replisome) using advanced biophysical and structural approaches.
In 2009, I joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) as an Associate Professor. In 2010, I was promoted to Acting Head of Department. In August 2011, I moved to the University of Sheffield to further advance my academic and research career.
Key Papers
Wong T.S., Rajagopalan S., Freund S.M., Rutherford T.J., Andreeva A., Townsley F.M., Petrovich M. and Fersht A.R. 2009.
Biophysical characterizations of human mitochondrial transcription factor A and its binding to tumor suppressor p53.
Nucleic Acids Res. 37: 6765-6783
Wong T.S., Rajagopalan S., Townsley F.M., Freund S.M., Petrovich M., Loakes D. and Fersht A.R. 2009.
Physical and functional interactions between human mitochondrial single-stranded DNA binding protein and tumor suppressor p53.
Nucleic Acids Res. 37: 568-581
Wong T.S., Roccatano D., Zacharias M. And Schwaneberg U. 2006.
A statistical analysis of random mutagenesis methods used for directed protein evolution.
J Mol Biol. 355: 858-871 (Cover page)
Wong T.S., Tee K.L., Hauer B. and Schwaneberg U. 2004.
Sequence saturation mutagenesis (SeSaM): a novel method for directed evolution.
Nucleic Acids Res. 32: e26
Wong T.S., Arnold F.H. and Schwaneberg U. 2004.
Laboratory evolution of cytochrome P450 BM-3 monooxygenase for organic cosolvents.
Biotechnol Bioeng. 85: 351-358