Yee Hwee LIM
Yee Hwee LIMAdjunct Associate Professor
[email protected]

Office Location – 8 Biomedical Grove, Neuros, #07-01, Singapore 138665

Affiliations

Director, Chemical Biotechnology and Biocatalysis, A*STAR
Adjunct Associate Professor, NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI)

Biography

Yee Hwee Lim is passionate about advancing chemistry frontiers and harnessing nature’s catalytic powers to solve molecular challenges. Her research focuses on the engineering and development of biocatalysts, including new-to-nature biocatalysts, and their chemoenzymatic applications towards more sustainable manufacturing of specialty chemicals or pharmaceuticals.
She also currently leads the Chemical Biotechnology and Biocatalysis division at the Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2), A*STAR. Her division focuses on innovations at the nexus of chemistry and biotechnology enabled by digital technologies (AI and automation). The goal is to enable sustainable manufacturing of specialty chemicals and bioproducts development, re-inventing manufacturing pipelines and drive Singapore’s Energy & Chemicals sector transformation. Key efforts include developing hybrid chemical-biological catalysis approaches and creating sustainable alternative routes to chemicals from next generation feedstocks such as CO2, waste plastics and biomass.

Professional Appointments

Deputy director, SINERGY, 2024-
Director of Graduate Affairs (SERC), 2020-2023

Education

The Scripps Research Institute, USA & University of Oxford, UK
Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry) & D.Phil. (Biochemistry)

Research Interest

Biocatalysis, New-to-Nature Biocatalysis, Chemoenzymatic synthesis: AI/ML-driven enzyme engineering for pharmaceutical & specialty chemicals & waste plastic bio-valorization
Natural products: Biosynthesis, isolation, characterization & diversification for biotechnology applications, chem-informatics tools for genes to chemicals mapping
Next generation feedstocks valorization and upcycling to specialty chemicals

Selected Publications

  1. Ravi Kumar Verma, Wan Lin Yeo, Elaine Tiong, Ee Lui Ang*, Yee Hwee Lim*, Fong Tian Wong*, Hao Fan*, Unveiling the molecular basis of selective fluorination: computation-guided identification, characterization, and engineering of SAM-dependent fluorinases, Chem. Sci. 2025, 16, 10610-10619. https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC00081E
  2. Shreyas Supekar, Dillon W. P. Tay, Wan Lin Yeo, Eric K. W. Tam, Ying Sin Koo, Jie Yang See, Jhoann M.T. Miyajima, Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, Ee Lui Ang, Yee Hwee Lim*, Hao Fan*, A Machine Learning-Guided Approach to Navigate the Substrate Activity Scope of Galactose Oxidase: Application in the Conversion of Pharmaceutically Relevant Bulky Secondary Alcohols. ACS Catal. 2024, 14, 23, 17233-17243. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscatal.4c04660)
  3. Dillon Tay, Lee Ling Tan, Elena Heng, Nadiah Zulkarnain, Kuan Chieh Ching, Mario Wibowo, Elaine Chin, Zann Tan, Chung Yan Leong, Veronica Ng, Lay Kien Yang, Deborah Seow, Yi Wee Lim, Winston Koh, Lokanand Koduru, Yoganathan Kanagasundaram, Siew Bee Ng, Yee Hwee Lim* and Fong Tian Wong*, Exploring a general multi-pronged activation strategy for natural product discovery in Actinomycetes, Comm. Bio. 7, 50 (2024). https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05648-7
  4. GuangRong Peh, Terence Tay, Lee Ling Tan, Elaine Tiong, Yi Ling Goh, Suming Ye, Fu Lin, Cheryl Jia Xin Tan, Yong Zi Tan, Joel Wong, Huimin Zhao, Fong Tian Wong*, Ee Lui Ang*, and Yee Hwee Lim*, Site-selective Chlorination of Pyrrolic Heterocycles by Flavin Dependent Enzyme PrnC, Comm. Chem. 7, 7 (2024). https://www.nature.com/articles/s42004-023-01083-1

* Corresponding author; # Co-first author