Daphne Teo

Daphne Teo isn’t one to rest on her laurels. Besides her role as advisor at Engine Biosciences, she’s also the CEO of start‐up nsg BioLabs, a co‐working laboratory space she founded. Its newest one is opening in November this year in Singapore, adding to its two existing spaces – in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Hangzhou, China.

Years of interactions with scientists and researchers made Teo realise that the high cost of equipment and space rental is something that many of them struggle with, especially when they are small start‐ups with limited budgets. NSG BioLabs, a complete global life sciences incubation ecosystem, was launched to help solve this problem. “Providing state‐of‐the‐art tissue culture suites and shared equipment enables research teams to concentrate on scientific discoveries,” she says.

Teo’s drive and tenacity perhaps stems from her past life as a former national swimmer – she won a bronze medal at the 1997 Southeast Asian Games. A former investment banker, she also co‐founded genomics‐focused, ai‐enabled biotech company Engine Biosciences, and venture creation and capital firm Nest.Bio Ventures with her husband Jeffrey Lu, who was in Prestige’s 40 Under 40 list last year.

Teo is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University, to better understand the researchers and scientists that she works with.