Alex Matter, M.D., is Director, Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore, since October 2003.
Before this new assignment, Dr. Matter was Global Head, Oncology Research, for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Dr. Matter has contributed to the successful marketing of several anticancer drugs including, most recently, Gleevec/Glivec®.
Dr. Matter received his medical degree from the University of Basel. He held fellowships at the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academy for Medical Sciences.
Dr. Matter has published more than 100 scientific articles plus several book chapters in the area of oncology and hematology. He is the recipient of the 13th Warren-Alpert prize in 2000 and the AACR-Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award.

Thomas Keller is responsible for the chemistry unit, the bioinformatics and computational chemistry area and the screening laboratory.
Thomas studied chemistry at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he received his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Larry Weiler. After a postdoctoral year at the University of Geneva in the group of Prof. Wolfgang Oppolzer he joined Sandoz in 1991. Following the merger in 1997 Thomas was appointed unit head of medicinal chemistry at the Novartis Respiratory Research Center in Horsham, London. In January 2003 he joined NITD in his current position.

Thomas Dick is heading the tuberculosis unit at NITD.
He studied biochemistry and genetics at the University of Heidelberg and obtained his PhD in molecular bacteriology. In 1990 Thomas moved to Singapore to join the newly founded Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. In 1996 he became group leader and established the Mycobacterium laboratory. Interested in persistence of TB despite prolonged chemotherapy he focused his research on phenotypically drug resistant dormant tubercle bacilli. He and his co-workers developed culture models for studying the dormancy response and identified DosR as the master regulator of dormancy. In 2002 he became Associate Professor. In August 2003 Thomas joined the NITD in his current position.

Wouter Schul is Senior Research Investigator at NITD and has been with NITD since September 2003. Before joining NITD Wouter was a group leader in functional genomics at the pharmaceutical company Organon-Akzo Nobel in the Netherlands for three years. Wouter obtained his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Amsterdam in 1998 and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam for three years. Wouter has been responsible for developing a mouse model for dengue infection to test anti-dengue compounds in-vivo, and has headed several drug development projects before taking over as acting head of the Dengue Unit in November 2007. Wouter is also the biosafety officer at NITD.

Véronique Dartois is heading the recently added pharmacology unit. She studied Biology and Genetics at the University of Louvain (Belgium) where she received her PhD in Molecular Microbiology. After a few post-doctoral years at the Scripps Research Institute (CA) and Pasteur Institute, she joined a California-based start-up company to discover novel natural product antibiotics. Attracted to the field of neglected diseases, Véronique joined NITD in 2005 after completing a year of training in a pharmacology setting.

Thierry Diagana is the project manager for the malaria projects portfolio funded by grants from the Wellcome Trust, the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Singapore Economic Development Board. He completed his Molecular Biology Ph. D. at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) in 1995. As post-doctoral fellow he joined the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute (San Diego, California). Since joining an innovative biotech company in 2001, he has acquired expertise in oncology and neglected diseases drug discovery. Prior to joining the NITD, Thierry was scientific liaison on the Artemisinin Project Team at the institute for OneWorld Health, a non-profit pharmaceutical company in San Francisco, California.

Kwee Heok Ong is responsible for the tax, legal and financing of the NITD operations, as well as the procurement function in the Institute.
Before joining NITD Kwee Heok was Audit Manager for Novartis Regional Audit, Asia Pacific. Prior to her joining Novartis, she worked in the public accounting profession (PricewaterhouseCoopers) for four years. She is a graduate of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and a Certified Public Accountant.

Patsy Tan is responsible for total human resources support to the NITD operations, including business partnering, staffing, employee relations, compensation & benefits, training & development and performance management. Prior to joining NITD in May 2002, she worked for eight years in a multinational company in the telco industry as HR Manager. Before that she was in HR consultancy, specializing in psychometric testing and assessment methods. Patsy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Psychology from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Management from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Rajesh Kudlur is responsible for Health, Safety & Environment matters as well as Facilities Maintenance at NITD. Before joining NITD, Rajesh Kudlur worked for ten years as Facility manager and an active member of Safety, Health and Environment committee at a R&D Drug Discovery unit. Rajesh Kudlur holds a degree in Bachelor of Instrumentation Engineering from Bangalore University, India.

Joel Leong is responsible for clinical trials and clinical research. He joined NITD in January 2007 and prior to this was Medical Director of the Advanced Applications Division of Siemens Molecular Imaging. Past experience includes five years as Clinical Lecturer in Pathology in the Oxford University Nuffield Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, three years as Visiting Professor in the UCLA Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, and four years in medical industry. His medical degree is from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and he has trained in anatomic pathology in Australia and the United Kingdom. He also has a PhD from Oxford University in bioimaging and computer-aided diagnosis.

Stephanie Thompson is responsible for all patent related matters and fostering partnerships with key stakeholders. Stephanie received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Aberdeen. She spent about 3 years as a post-doctoral research associate in the US and in the UK, before commencing a career in intellectual property at Glaxo and The Wellcome Foundation Ltd in 1987. She holds a LLB degree from the University of London (External Programme) and a Masters degree in Intellectual Property. In Singapore, Stephanie has lectured at the Intellectual Property Academy of Singapore and was a founding member of Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd (ETPL).