Dr. Kai Sen Tan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is also serving as the Research Director of the NUSMed BSL-3 Core Facility. Dr. Tan’s research focuses on host-pathogen interactions, particularly concerning respiratory viral diseases. He utilizes in vitro models of nasal epithelial 3D cultures and complex co-cultures to study host responses to infections like influenza, rhinovirus, and SARS-CoV-2, complemented by in vivo validations. His work also explores long-term alterations of the mucociliary barrier post-infection and their role in chronic airway inflammatory conditions such as asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis.  Throughout the years of his young research career, he has authored 75 papers (31 of them as main author) in scientific journals, including in journals like Science, Cell Host and Microbe, PNAS, Allergy, Emerging Microbes and Infection, PLoS Pathogens and Clinical Infectious Diseases. He currently has an h-index of 23 as an early to mid-career researcher. He is an active member of the Asia Pacific Society of Medical Virology and the Singapore Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology, currently serving as the treasurer in the council of both societies.