As a SINGA award recipient, Semih AKINCILAR received his PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of Singapore in 2017 He was awarded an OF-YIRG grant in 2018 to study the role of lncRNAs in inflammation and secured an industrial GAP fund and co-founded Denome Technologies, a startup focusing on developing gene expression-based disease prediction algorithms. His research focuses mainly on the epigenetic regulation of signaling pathways in human disorders. He spent significant time understanding how telomerase is reactivated in 90% of cancer cells to provide infinite proliferation capability. He has identified several novel genomic regions critical for telomerase expression and filed a patent and several technology disclosures. His research interest is understanding how the non-coding genome regulates chronic inflammation and participates in cancer progression.
