Singapore
During my postdoctoral fellowships at the London Hospital Medical College and the National Institute for Medical Research (UK), I was among the first in the world to: • Report the modifcation of tumour immunogenicity using MHC-mediated cell transformation (gene therapy) to restore MHC expression in MHC-deficient tumour cells to enable MHC-resticted killing of tumour cells (Nature 1984; 311: 750-752); and • Study the structural polymorphism of the human class II genes by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and correlated with serological typing of MHC antigens for transplantation (Immunogenetics 1985; 22: 231-239). In 1987, I was invited to head the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at Singapore’s newly-established Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). In 1997, I was appointed the founding Director of Research at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS). In 2001, I was a founding director of the biopharma start-ups Qugen Therapeutics Pte Ltd (launched by King's College London, NCCS and Cancer Research Ventures Ltd (UK)) and Agenica Research Pte Ltd (launched by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Japan) and NCCS). I am currently Professor and Principal Investigator, Cellular and Molecular Research Division, at NCCS; Joint Research Director at IMCB; and Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School and NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. My research focuses on the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms of early recurrent human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) disease. To tackle the pathogenesis of HCC, my laboratory has systematically gathered molecular evidence and established clinical corroboration to discover novel molecular theranostic biomarkers that are independent from clinical risk factors and are altered/modulated in early recurrent HCC. These strategies enable the diagnosis of early HCC and the design of timely and precise treatments. In 2011, my laboratory started a programme to investigate the molecular biology of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). We have established a full continuum, including deciphering the underlying molecular mechanism(s), establishing animal models, and clinical studies aiming to tackle mCRPC. To date, I have been awarded over SGD 30 million in research funding (as Principal Investigator).