He received his Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) with First Class Honors from NUS in 2000, having also won the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal and Chalmers Medal in 1999 as one of the top and most proficient graduate of the programme. In 2000, he received the inaugural EDB overseas postgraduate scholarship in life sciences, and was subsequently inducted into A*STAR as the pioneer batch of overseas PhD scholars. With this award, he obtained his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Washington in 2005, investigating the molecular mechanisms of specific drug-induced liver toxicity (under the mentorship of Prof Sid Nelson). After which he returned to Singapore for a 3-year post-doctoral fellowship with Prof Axel Ullrich, investigating the roles of tyrosine kinases in various malignancies.