Singapore is geographically situated near the equator at the southern tip of the Malayan peninsula between Malaysia and Indonesia.  The island's economic success is grounded in the location of the Singapore maritime trading port, as it provides the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.  This tropical location is the Southeast Asian pinnacle of biomedical research. My postdoctoral work (below) was published 3 months early while I traveled as much as possible!  I hope every person creates the opportunity to experience for him/herself the cultural, culinary, human, global experience that is our amazing planet.  
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“Diagnosis of early stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma using ultraviolet autofluorescence excitation–emission matrix spectroscopy and parallel factor analysis”
Analyst, Vo. 136, pages 3896 through 3903: 2011 [pdf]

​This research was also covered in the “Analyst Journal Press Circular”, and a Chemistry World magazine news article. 

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has the highest national incidence rates in the Guangdong province of China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.  Why the occurrence rate in these regions is 10–50 times higher than in Western countries remains unknown.  NPC symptoms generally present at late tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages, resulting in a 34% 5 year survival rate when combined with aggressive radiation therapy.  Developing a minimal to non-invasive method of diagnosing the disease prior to tumor formation would help improve patient survival rates and quality of life by enabling localized detection and treatment at an early TNM stage.  The excitation-emission matrix (EEM) intensity landscapes and parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis results shown above suggest an increase of tryptophan and a decrease of collagen and elastin in NPC tissues compared to healthy tissues.  The critical advantage of using PARAFAC is the ability to simultaneously and a priori resolve the distribution of endogenous fluorophores and their relative contributions in both the emission and excitation modes.  These results may effectively translate early spectral changes indicative of disease into a great wealth of diagnostic information providing new insights into early cancer detection.