Kevin Pethe

Associate Professor Kevin Pethe is known for his contribution in the area of chemical biology and antibiotic drug discovery for tuberculosis and mycobacterial diseases. He has provided fundamental insights into the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, on microbial bioenergetics, and on strategies to discover novel antibacterial agents. Notably, he led interdisciplinary teams that developed clinical-stage drug candidates for tuberculosis and related mycobacteria.

He is teaching microbiology, antibiotic drug development, infectious diseases and pharmacokinetics to undergraduate and graduate students in the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, the College of Science, and the College of Engineering. He is also acting as personal tutorial for undergraduate medical students of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

Among other services, he is serving as academic chairperson for the NTU Institutional Biosafety Committee since 2016.

Before joining NTU, he gained expertise in Research & Development in the private sector as research investigator and project manager at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Disease (Singapore) from 2004 to 2011. In 2011, he took a position of principal investigator at Institut Pasteur Korea to pursue his interest on host-pathogen interactions and chemical biology applied to tuberculosis and multidrug resistant bacteria. He was promoted to head of the department of disease biology & chemical genomics in 2013, and nominated acting CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea the same year, two positions that refined his leadership skills.

His professional experience includes evaluating research grants for various National and international agencies. He is review panel member for the Open Fund Young Individual Research Grant scheme (Singapore Ministry of Health), and for the French National Research Foundation (ANR).

He received his PhD in genetics and molecular biology from Institut Pasteur and University of Lille II (France), and received his postdoctoral training in cellular microbiology at Cornell University.

Companies

• Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University (2014)
• Acting CEO Institut Pasteur Korea (2013 — 2014)
• Executive Director, biology and core technology centers Institut Pasteur Korea (2013 — 2014)
• Head, tuberculosis and antbacterial drug discovery Institut Pasteur Korea (2011 — 2014)
• Adjunct Assistant Professor National University of Singapore (2008 — 2011)
• Senior Research Investigator Novartis (2004 — 2011)
• Research Fellow Cornell University (2002 — 2004)