Humans of HTX: Adventures of an intrepid scientist

• HTX scholar Andre Dumont has eclectic passions, combining a background in microbial biology with high-adrenaline pursuits like skydiving and motorcycling.
• Witnessing a relative’s incarceration due to drug abuse drove him to pursue forensic science and contribute to public safety.
• At HTX’s FIRST Lab, he conducts cutting-edge forensic genomics research into extracting investigative clues from microbial DNA.
• He also gives back through community volunteering, working with children from rental-flat communities.

A freewheeling, adrenaline-chasing motorcyclist isn’t what most people would peg for a scholar, unless they’ve met Andre Dumont.

While studying microbial biology at the University of California, Berkeley, he took the plunge with the student skydiving club, over the sweeping valley plains of Sacramento’s farm country. And when the open road beckoned, he streaked down California’s sun-dappled coast on his motorbike, revved up by years of riding pillion with his father.

But his time on two wheels included a traffic accident in the United States, which he kept from his parents to avoid needlessly sending them into a tailspin of anxiety.

“I was riding down a hill in San Francisco when I had to jam my breaks to avoid colliding into a car that didn’t signal turning out,” he recounted.

“I got a bit of airtime as my bike toppled over.”

At that moment, there was no transcendental, epic flash of his life before his eyes. Instead, he fretted: “Oh no, my bike.”

Although the two-wheeler was totalled, the young undergraduate was fortunate to escape with gnarly abrasions on his ungloved hands. By providence, the mishap unfolded right before a fire truck ferrying paramedics, who helped patch him up.

“What are the odds? I believe it’s testament to the importance of frontline work,” mused the 26-year-old.

A free spirit with public spiritedness

The adventurous, self-sufficient youngest of three – who backpacked Europe with his sexagenarian mother and now zips around on a Triumph Daytona – has always steered with intent: from figuring out how to fund his tertiary education through an HTX scholarship, to single-handedly setting up his housing, utilities and day-to-day logistics when he moved to the US alone as an international student.

Not to mention the time he steered through a mini crisis when he and his mother were robbed in Belgium – a quagmire that reinforced their bond.

“My parents decided early on that I knew what I was doing. They were busy with work, so I was left to figure things out on my own, which worked out well in terms of me gaining independence,” he said.

That freedom helped cultivate his eclectic interests, from the performing arts – he sang in choirs and once played King Shahryar in a school production of Arabian Nights – to bingeable true crime podcasts. In the foreground is his abiding passion for biology, a subject he describes as “very intuitive.” Thus, discovering HTX’s Forensics Centre of Expertise (CoE) lit a fire in him.

“Being able to deploy scientific techniques to a crime scene appeals to me,” he shared.

But that belies a deeper personal motivation for becoming a forensic scientist. “My relative was incarcerated due to drug use. Growing up, I saw how that affects a family – my dad would have to step in to help take care of her kids,” he revealed.

HTX’s efforts in identifying psychoactive substances thus resonated with him, undergirding a desire to “help protect families”.

That mission now finds expression at HTX’s FIRST (Forensic Innovation and Research for Strategic Transformation) Lab, where Andre works. While his area of focus isn’t drug detection, he channels that same impulse to make a positive impact through forensic research and development, exploring new ways to collect and analyse evidence so that frontline officers have reliable tools and clear protocols to use on the ground.

Drawing on his background in microbiology, Andre focuses on DNA-related work, researching how minute biological traces – from skin cells to microbial DNA from bacteria, viruses and fungi – can be analysed using advanced genomic sequencing to yield investigative clues. While this may not exactly be fodder for lively discussions at parties, Andre explained that his research pushes boundaries by unlocking previously inaccessible evidence.

“There are endless avenues to explore when it comes to forensic techniques, and it’ll be exciting to create additional tools,” he said. And he’s channelled his audacious spirit into his work, having tackled his first project at HTX head-on despite lacking programming experience.

“Not everything worked out as planned, but I’m glad I gave it a shot as I managed to write a programme and process my data – which wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t set out to do something that was initially beyond my abilities.”

He isn’t planning to stop there – the young scientist is also fascinated by nascent forensic fields, such as using insects to estimate time of death in tropical climates (forensic entomology).

Far from a white whale, these ambitions feel attainable for Andre, who values the latitude HTX offers to pitch ideas. “Unlike academia where you generally stay in your lane of research, anything goes here,” he said.

“If you can make a good case for it, there’s a lot of encouragement to get a project off the ground.”

Paying it forward

Working at HTX is his way of “contributing to society,” and this sense of noblesse oblige stems from his gratitude for having benefitted from a good education, safe home and robust healthcare system. 

Since returning to Singapore following his studies, Andre has paid it forward in multiple ways, from assisting elderly beneficiaries to accompanying children from rental flat communities on eco-kayaking excursions at Kallang Basin. The latter activity strikes a chord, as it lets him promote environmental stewardship while making meaningful personal connections.

“There was this shy girl who really got into our game of trash-picking once we’d paddled out to the open sea. It’s nice to see how these experiences help kids blossom and step out of their comfort zone,” he recalled.

By the same token, he aims to force-multiply the Home Team, never forgetting his brush with frontliners years ago.

“I hope that the things I do will have a ripple effect.”