Dr Christina Chai is a Professor of the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore. She earned her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Australian National University and has held several prominent academic and research positions across UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. She served in various leadership capacities at A*STAR and NUS, including as Assistant Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of Science, as well as more recently, as the Head of Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at NUS from 2016-2024.

Her research is focused on medicinal chemistry, particularly in the development of small-molecule therapeutics for diseases such as inflammation, infectious, and neurodegenerative diseases. She has made significant contributions to the study of natural products and has authored numerous papers in leading scientific journals. In addition to her research publications, Dr. Chai has been granted several patents related to small-molecule therapeutics e.g. for the treatment of inflammation, hematopoietic stem cell expansion and so on. Her patents have been granted across multiple countries, including Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, and China

Dr. Chai has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and the Violette and Samuel Glasstone Research Fellowship. She has also served on various editorial boards and international scientific committees, contributing significantly to the field of synthetic and medicinal chemistry.