Frontiers in Cancer Science 2025
NUS University Cultural Centre
50 Kent Ridge Cres, Singapore 119279
5-7 November 2025 | Singapore
Frontiers in Cancer Science 2025 welcomes you to our 17th International Conference.
We invite scientists, doctors, students and other delegates engaging in scientific research related to cancer to join us at Singapore’s preferred cancer conference.
We bring together distinguished cancer researchers with complementary knowledge and expertise from across the globe for the exchange of ideas and information.
Join us for a time of dynamic interactions and the opportunity to learn from leading cancer experts.
AACR - FCS 2025 Education Session Speakers
Paul BOUTROS
Paul Boutros
Professor, Cancer Center Director, and Senior VP Data Science at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Paul Boutros, Ph.D., M.B.A., is a renowned data scientist and professor in the departments of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He currently serves as the Vice-Dean for Research at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, as director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Cancer Data Science program and as Associate Director of Cancer Genomics at the UCLA Institute for Precision Health.
Boutros earned his B.Sc. degree from the University of Waterloo in Chemistry in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, in Medical Biophysics in 2008. At Toronto, he also earned an executive M.B.A. from the Rothman School of Management. In 2008, Boutros started his independent research career at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research first as a fellow (2008–2010) and then as principal investigator (2010–2018). He moved to California to join the UCLA faculty in 2018.
Daniel DUROCHER
DANIEL DUROCHER
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
Daniel Durocher is a Senior Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and a Full Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Molecular Genetics of the DNA Damage Response. Dr. Durocher studied at Université de Montréal and McGill University before undertaking his postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Durocher’s overarching interest lies in understanding how cells maintain genome integrity and how DNA repair can be exploited for the development of therapeutics. His work employs functional genomics as a tool to chart DNA repair and genome stability processes, with the added aim of discovering novel cancer drug targets or modulating DNA repair to improve gene editing outcomes. Dr. Durocher co-founded Repare Therapeutics, a clinical-stage oncology drug discovery company that is developing new drugs that target genome instability in cancer based on the principle of synthetic lethality. He also recently founded Induxion Therapeutics, a seed-stage company. Dr. Durocher is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2015 Paul Marks Prize from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Joanne NGEOW
Joanne NGEOW
NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Associate Professor Joanne Ngeow is an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. She is also a Senior Consultant in Division of Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS). A/Prof Ngeow currently heads the NCCS Cancer Genetics Service with an academic interest in hereditary cancer syndromes and translational clinical cancer genomics. Her current clinical focus and research revolves around understanding cancer predisposition by studying cancers clustering in families, young adults and in families with multiple / rare cancer presentations.
FCS 2025 Speakers
Paul BOUTROS
US
Paul Boutros
Professor, Cancer Center Director, and Senior VP Data Science at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Paul Boutros, Ph.D., M.B.A., is a renowned data scientist and professor in the departments of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He currently serves as the Vice-Dean for Research at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, as director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Cancer Data Science program and as Associate Director of Cancer Genomics at the UCLA Institute for Precision Health.
Boutros earned his B.Sc. degree from the University of Waterloo in Chemistry in 2004, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, in Medical Biophysics in 2008. At Toronto, he also earned an executive M.B.A. from the Rothman School of Management. In 2008, Boutros started his independent research career at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research first as a fellow (2008–2010) and then as principal investigator (2010–2018). He moved to California to join the UCLA faculty in 2018.
Chit Fang CHEOK
Chit Fang CHEOK
Dept of Pathology, NUS, SG
Dr. Cheok Chit Fang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). She also holds a joint appointment as Principal Investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR, where she leads the Molecular Therapeutics in Cancer and Aging research group. Dr. Cheok earned her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Medical Sciences from the University of Oxford (Wolfson College), following a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree from Imperial College London (ARCS).
Her research focuses on identifying molecular vulnerabilities in cancer, laying the groundwork for novel therapeutic targets and approaches, particularly for drug-resistant cancers. She is especially interested in elucidating how tumour suppressor genes promote replication integrity, using single-molecule approaches combined with gene perturbation studies to uncover unique replication vulnerabilities that can be exploited therapeutically. This interest has expanded to include redox metabolism and metabolic vulnerabilities, revealed through systems biology approaches that highlight key pathway nodes amenable to therapeutic intervention.
Gloryn CHIA
Singapore
Gloryn CHIA
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, NUS, SG
Gloryn Chia is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, and a Principal Investigator at iHealthtech. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in Stem Cell Biology, and went on to complete her postdoctoral training at Columbia University under the ASTAR International Fellowship. In 2019, she was awarded the National Research Fellowship, and in 2021, she was named one of two female scientists to receive the L’Oréal Singapore for Women in Science Fellowship. Her current research interests include developing neoantigen vaccines for treating solid tumors and discovering novel immunotherapies to overcome refractory cancers.
Wee Joo CHNG
CHNG Wee Joo
Professor
Vice President (Biomedical Sciences Research)
Office of the Deputy President (Research & Technology)
National University of Singapore
Professor Wee Joo Chng is Vice President (Biomedical Sciences Research) at the National University of Singapore. In this role, he spearheads the development of the university’s biomedical research as well as strategic collaborations with academic institutes, hospitals, and industrial partners. Presently the Yong Loo Lin Professor in Medical Oncology, he is also a Senior Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, and he concurrently serves as the Group Director of Research at the National University Health System and the inaugural Executive Director of the Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium.
A hematologist by training, Professor Chng has been a senior consultant at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore, for over two decades. He is a distinguished researcher in the fields of genomics, therapeutics, and hematologic malignancies, with extensive experience in clinical practice, administration, and leadership. He has produced highly translational research, including using global genomic techniques to understand drug resistance and improve disease prognosis in hematological malignancies — that has helped to personalise treatment and improve patient outcomes. His groundbreaking work has garnered him a number of national and international honors, such as the National Medical Research Council's National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award in 2016 and the International Myeloma Foundation's Brian G.M. Durie Outstanding Achievement Award in 2020–becoming the first in Asia to achieve this honor.
Professor Chng is currently the chair of the Asian Myeloma Network, and a member of numerous prominent national and international professional groups, including the American Association of Cancer Research and the International Myeloma Working Group, and a former president of the Singapore Society of Hematology.
Christine DESMDT
BE
Christine DESMEDT
KU Leuven
Christine Desmedt is an Associate Professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven, Leuven), where she is heading the Laboratory for Translational Breast Cancer Research. Prof. Desmedt aims at contributing to the personalization of treatment for women with breast cancer through ground-breaking translational research in 3 domains: obesity/lifestyle, less studied breast cancer subtypes with a strong focus on lobular breast cancer, and metastatic disease. Regarding the obesity research axis, Prof. Desmedt developed a full research program which includes the retrospective evaluation of treatment efficacy according to BMI in clinical trials, a prospective observational trial, called FATLAS in which we will provide a single-cell atlas of breast cancer according to various measures of adiposity, diet and lifestyle using state of the art technology. In addition, she is the coordinating Investigator of several clinical lifestyle/preoperative trials with a strong translational focus. Regarding the invasive lobular breast cancer (ILC) research, Prof. Desmedt is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the European Lobular Breast Cancer Consortium. She aims at studying in depth the biology of the disease and the clinical impact it may have, as well at ensuring ILC is well studied and represented in clinical research. She is also co-leader of an endeavor to homogenize the pathological diagnosis of ILC and contributor to the 5th and 6th edition of the WHO Classification of Tumors- Breast Tumors for ILC. Regarding the research on metastatic breast cancer, Prof. Desmedt is the co-developer and co-leader of the breast cancer research autopsy program UPTIDER at UZ/KU Leuven (NCT04531696). She was recently appointed as one of the board members of the Research Autopsy and Procurement Society (RAPS).
Kristian HELIN
UK
Kristian Helin
Professor
The Institute of Cancer Research, UK
Kristian Helin is the CEO and President of The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. Moreover, he is a professor in Epigenetics and Cancer. He obtained a MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a PhD from University of Copenhagen. He was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, started his own research group at the Danish Cancer Society in 1994 and subsequently became a founding member of the Dept of Experimental Oncology at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. From 2003 to 2018 he was the founding director of the Biotech Research and Innovation Centre at University of Copenhagen and in 2018-2021 Prof Helin was the Chair of the Cell Biology Program and the Director of Center for Epigenetics Research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.
The Helin laboratory has made several seminal discoveries in the field of cell cycle control, epigenetics and cancer. In addition to providing novel insights into mechanisms regulating transcription, stem cell identity and differentiation, the work in Prof Helin’s lab has led to the establishment of the biotech companies EpiTherapeutics and Dania Therapeutics. Dr. Helin is an elected member of European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and Foreign Member of the Royal Society (UK). He has received several prestigious awards for outstanding biomedical research and serves in several editorial boards, committees of advisory boards and grant committees.
Matthew MEYERSON
US
Matthew Meyerson
Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Matthew Meyerson joined the Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School faculty in 1998, with the goal of using genomic approaches to discover the causes of human lung cancer. In 2004, the Meyerson laboratory, in collaboration with Dana-Farber colleagues Bill Sellers, Pasi Jänne, and Bruce Johnson, discovered recurrent mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene, EGFR, in lung adenocarcinoma, which dictated clinical response to EGFR kinase inhibitors. This finding, corroborated by parallel observations from the Haber and Varmus groups, stimulated today’s precision medicine approach to cancer care.
Dr. Meyerson’s group has since made many major genome discoveries in human lung cancer. The Meyerson laboratory has also pioneered many experimental and computational methods in cancer genomics, including cutting-edge methods for sequence analysis of single cell cancer genomes, analysis of circulating tumor DNA in patient blood samples, and discovery of disease-causing pathogens by analysis of human tissue DNA.
In addition to serving as Professor of Genetics and Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber, Dr. Meyerson has served as director of the Center for Cancer Genomics since 2005. In 2010, Dr. Meyerson, along with Drs. Todd Golub, Eric Lander and Levi Garraway, created Foundation Medicine, a cancer genome diagnostics company.
Dr. Meyerson has received numerous honors for his contributions to cancer research, including the Paul Marks Prize in Cancer Research, the AACR Team Science Award, and the Knudsen Award from the National Cancer Institute, among others.
Daniel DUROCHER
DANIEL DUROCHER
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute
Daniel Durocher is a Senior Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and a Full Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Molecular Genetics of the DNA Damage Response. Dr. Durocher studied at Université de Montréal and McGill University before undertaking his postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Durocher’s overarching interest lies in understanding how cells maintain genome integrity and how DNA repair can be exploited for the development of therapeutics. His work employs functional genomics as a tool to chart DNA repair and genome stability processes, with the added aim of discovering novel cancer drug targets or modulating DNA repair to improve gene editing outcomes. Dr. Durocher co-founded Repare Therapeutics, a clinical-stage oncology drug discovery company that is developing new drugs that target genome instability in cancer based on the principle of synthetic lethality. He also recently founded Induxion Therapeutics, a seed-stage company. Dr. Durocher is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has received numerous awards for his work, including the 2015 Paul Marks Prize from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Koji ITAHANA
Singapore
Koji Itahana
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Dr. Itahana obtained his BSc and PhD from Kyoto University, Japan. He undertook postdoctoral training at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under Dr. Judith Campisi, investigating the role of p53 in cellular senescence, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under Dr. Yanping Zhang, focusing on the ARF-MDM2-p53 pathway in tumour suppression. In 2009, he established his own laboratory in the Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research has identified many targets and modulators within the ARF-MDM2-p53 pathway, uncovering its novel non-canonical functions, including roles in cellular metabolism and cancer immunology.
Eirini PAPAPETROU
US
Eirini Papapetrou
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Eirini Papapetrou, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Oncological Sciences, Hematology and Medical Oncology and founding Director of the Center for Advancement of Blood Cancer Therapies at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She was among the first investigators to generate patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and demonstrate their use in disease modeling and regenerative medicine. Her laboratory pioneered human iPSCs as models of myeloid malignancies – specifically acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome –, as well as premalignant conditions – inherited bone marrow failure syndromes and clonal hematopoiesis. By combining patient cell reprogramming with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated precise gene editing, the Papapetrou laboratory develops models of myeloid leukemias and preleukemic blood disorders and exploits the unique capabilities they offer: the ability to perform genotype-to-phenotype studies and to study the oncogenic mechanisms of driver mutations in a faithful cellular and genomic environment; to obtain large numbers of homogeneous cells for multi-omics analyses, genetic and small molecule screens; and to validate findings through functional assays in isogenic conditions. With these models and strategies Dr Papapetrou’s research program seeks to uncover novel disease mechanisms and identify and validate new therapeutic targets.
Eliza FONG
of Singapore
Eliza FONG
National University of Singapore
Dr Eliza Fong received her B.Eng. in Bioengineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and completed her Ph.D. at Rice University in Houston, Texas, under the NUS-Overseas Graduate Scholarship. While at Rice, she was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) fellow under the prestigious Med-into-Grad program in Translational Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She subsequently completed her post-doctoral training back at NUS and received the NUS-Early Career Award in 2017. Dr. Fong has made key contributions in the field of translational tumor engineering by being one of the first to demonstrate the integration of organoid technologies with biomaterials-based strategies to better model patient tumors in vitro. Most recently she was awarded the NMRC Open-Fund Individual Research Grant to develop platforms to maintain patient-derived tumor explants ex vivo for personalized drug testing. Her lab is also actively working with major biopharma companies to develop and test current drugs in development. For this, she was recently awarded the NUS CDE Outstanding Early Career Award.
Dennis KAPPEI
of Singapore
Dennis KAPPEI
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Dennis Kappei is a Principal Investigator and the Head of the Quantitative Proteomics Core at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Dr Kappei obtained his MS degree from Ecole Normale Supérieure and University Paris VI and pursued his graduate studies at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics under the roof of the Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering. Dr Kappei has been awarded membership to the EMBO Global Investigator Network (GIN) in 2024.
Andrea PAVESI
ANDREA PAVESI
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NTU, Singapore
Dr. Andrea Pavesi is an Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, and Principal Investigator at A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore and Mechanobiology institute (MBI) at NUS. Trained as a biomedical engineer, he earned his MSc from Politecnico di Milano and completed a PhD in Biomedical & Biomechanical Engineering.
As an entrepreneurial scientist, Pavesi is a co-founding team member of AIM Biotech, an organ-on-chip company that commercialized microfluidic tumor models; he now serves on its Scientific Advisory Board. At NTU and IMCB, he directs the Pavesi Lab, integrating patient-derived organoids, perfusable vasculature, and autologous immune compartments to decode tumor–immune crosstalk and tumor microenvironment characteristics.
Current projects span blood-brain-barrier glioblastoma models, matrix-stiffness regulation of immune checkpoints, and high-content single-cell profiling of CAR-T infiltration in solid tumours.
Beyond the bench, Pavesi is Vice-President of the Singapore Society for Cell Biology, championing trainee outreach and industry–academia partnerships.
Wei GU
Wei Gu
Institute for Cancer Genetics, Columbia University Medical Center, USA
Dr. Gu is currently an Abraham and Mildred Goldstein endowed chair Professor and Vice-Chairman for Cancer Research at the department of Pathology and cell biology and Institute for Cancer genetics in Columbia University. He obtained his B.S. degree in Biological Science from Peking University and he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in USA. Later he was a post-doctoral fellow of Dr. Robert Roeder at the Rockefeller University. Dr. Gu has received many honors; most recently including the Elected Fellow for AAAS, Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar, NIH Outstanding Investigator Award, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award, Stewart Trust Award, Irma T. Hirshl Trust Scholar Award, and Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research Achievement from Columbia University. Dr. Gu’s work is focusing on the regulation of p53-mediated tumor suppressor function. His lab has made several important discoveries in the area of protein modifications and tumor suppression. For example, he identified the first non-histone protein (p53) that can be regulated by acetylation and deacetylation; his studies of p53 acetylation laid the foundation for the current view that reversible acetylation is a general mechanism for regulation of non-histone proteins. In particular, he established that acetylation of specific p53 residues is required for its transcriptional function and acts as the primary signal to differentially induce its canonical functions in apoptosis, cell growth arrest and senescence. More recently, his team has discovered a new mode of tumor suppression based on p53 regulation of metabolism, ROS responses and ferroptosis independent of its canonical functions.
Illaria MALANCHI
UK
Illaria MALANCHI
The Francis Crick Institute, UK
Ilaria is a Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, she has a long-standing interest in understanding the cancer cells functional heterogeneity driving their tumourigenic potential.
After a PhD at the DKFZ in Heidelberg did her Postdoctoral training at the ISREC, Federal University (EPFL) of Lausanne, Switzerland. During these Postdoc years she began to investigate the importance of tumour microenvironment during metastatic progression. Building on this expertise in mouse tumour models, Ilaria set up her laboratory at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 2011 (now part of the Francis Crick Institute) and has since focused the scope of investigation on the interaction that cancer cells have with the surrounding tissue cells during tumorigenesis and metastatic progression. Ilaria was promoted to Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute in 2018 and become EMBO member in 2021.
Krishnaraj RAJALINGAM
Sun Young RHA
SK
Sun Young Rha
Yonsei Cancer Center
Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Professor Rha is a clinical and translational researcher, leading “Gastric Cancer Research team” and “phase I and early phase clinical trial team” of Yonsei Cancer Center. Her research interests include therapeutic strategies and new drug development, genomics-based biomarker development and pharmacogenomics of gastric cancer, renal cell cancer and urothelial carcinoma. She has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles. As a clinical researcher, she has been involved in various global Phase I-III clinical trials including many novel immune-oncologic agents.
She is currently actively working as executive committee members in many academic societies, including Korean Cancer Association (KCA), Korean Cancer Study Group (KCSG), Korean Genomic Organization (KOGO), Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO) and Korean Association of IRB (KAIRB). She is also a key member of ESMO GI education committee and GI preceptorship for ESMO.
Anders SKANDERUP
Anders SKANDERUP
Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
Anders Skanderup is a principal investigator at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), with adjunct positions at National University of Singapore and National Cancer Center Singapore. His group is interested in computational and data-intensive approaches to decipher the molecular basis of cancer, discover novel biomarkers, and improve treatments. Key contributions to the field include computational and data-intensive methods for identification and characterization of cancer mutations, tumor heterogeneity, and circulating tumor DNA.
Chris SANDER
US
Chris Sander
Harvard Medical School, Boston, US
Chris Sander started his career as a theoretical physicist and then switched to theoretical biology, in part inspired by the first completely sequenced genome. He founded two departments of computational biology - at the EMBL in Heidelberg and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York - and co-founded the research branch of the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge and a biotech startup with Millennium in Boston.
Chris joined the Harvard community in 2016 as faculty in Cell Biology and then Systems Biology. Special Advisor for Quantitative Biology to the Ludwig Center at Harvard, and Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He is creating new connections between scientists at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School, including building translational collaborative bridges for scientists using quantitative sciences to solve biological problems.
With his group and collaborators, Chris aims to beat drug resistance in cancer using systems biology methods to develop combination therapies. They are also developing the next generation cBioPortal for cancer research and therapy, obtaining biomolecular structures and functional interactions on a large scale using evolutionary information, and adapting machine learning methods to mine millions of genomes. He is collaborating with groups in Denmark and the US to apply AI to longitudinal health records to identify patients at high risk for pancreatic and ovarian cancer and collaborates with clinicians in the design of effective affordable surveillance program aiming at the early detection of cancer.
Tadatsugu TANIGUCHI
JP
Tadatsugu Taniguchi
Department of Inflammology, Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Japan
I was born in Japan and obtained Ph.D. degree at University of Zurich. I worked at Cancer Institute, Tokyo, Osaka University, and then served as Professor and Chair of Department of Immunology, The university of Tokyo. Among the numerous awards I received, including Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research, I received Order of Culture medal in Japan in 2023. I am member of National Academy of Science and National Academy of Medicine, USA.
Yang SHI
UK
Yang SHI
University of Oxford
Yang Shi received his PhD and postdoctoral training from NYU and Princeton University, respectively. He began his independent research career at Harvard Medical School as a tenure track assistant professor in 1991 and received tenure and full professorship in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 2004. In 2009 he joined Boston Children’s Hospital as a Merton Bernfield Professor in the Newborn Medicine Division. He became the inaugural C. H. Waddington Professor of Pediatrics of Harvard Medical School in 2018. In 2020, Yang joined Oxford University where he is currently Professor of Epigenetics and a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. His was a recipient of the Ray Wu Award, the American Cancer Society Research Professorship and the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award. He is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Academy, EMBO, National Academy of Medicine, UK Academy of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society.
Wee Wei TEE
Wee Wei TEE
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
Dr. Wee-Wei Tee earned his Ph.D. in stem cell biology under Prof. Azim Surani at the University of Cambridge, UK. He then completed his postdoctoral training with Prof. Danny Reinberg at HHMI-NYU School of Medicine, where he studied epigenetic gene silencing mechanisms.
Dr. Tee has received multiple prestigious awards, including the New York Stem Cell Foundation Druckenmiller Fellowship and the NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) Award. In 2016, he was awarded the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship to establish his independent research group. In 2022, he was recognized as an EMBO Global Investigator.
Currently, Dr. Tee is a Senior Principal Investigator at A*STAR-IMCB and serves as the Division Director for ‘Cancer Signalling & Therapy’. His research focuses on the epigenetic mechanisms that drive cancer cell phenotypic plasticity.
Kevan SHOKAT
US
Kevan Shokat
University of California San Francisco, US
Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Reed College in 1986, his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at UC Berkeley with Professor Peter Schultz and carried out post-doctoral work in cellular immunology at Stanford University with Professor Chris Goodnow. Kevan’s research group is focused on the discovery of new small molecule tools and drug candidates targeting protein/lipid kinases, GTPases and RNA helicases. His laboratory utilizes the tools of synthetic organic chemistry, protein engineering, structural biology, biochemistry and cell biology. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences (2010), the National Academy of Medicine (2011), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011). In 2023 he was awarded the Vollum Prize from Reed College, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery and the Sjöberg Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for ‘discoveries that enable the inhibition of mutated K-Ras in cancer treatment’ and the Heath Memorial Award Lecture, from MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2024, he was awarded the Edward E. Smissman Award by the ACS Medicinal Chemistry division and also the Hope Funds Award of Excellence for Basic Science. He has commercialized discoveries from his laboratory through co-founding several biotechnology companies including Intellikine, Araxes, Wellspring Biosciences, Kura Oncology, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Mitokinin, Revolution Medicines, Erasca and Kumquat Biosciences.
J.C. C. Bisneto VILLASBOAS
US
Jose Villasboas Bisneto
Mayo Clinic
Dr. Villasboas is a physician-scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He is specialized in the evaluation and treatment of adult patients with lymphoma, in addition to stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. He leads the Indolent Lymphoma Working Group at Mayo Clinic and is principal investigator in a number of trials focused in the indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma population. His research laboratory studies the interaction between the patient’s normal immune cells and cancer cells and aims to find ways to modulate the immune system to eradicate lymphoma. Dr. Villasboas is also the Director of the Mayo Clinic Immune Monitoring Core Laboratory.
Yoon Sim YAP
Singapore
Yoon Sim YAP
National Cancer Center Singapore
Dr. Yap is Senior Consultant in the Division of Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, and Professor at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School.
A recipient of the Singapore National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Clinician Scientist Award (CSA), her research focuses primarily on clinical and translational research in breast cancer, including liquid biopsies and predictive biomarkers, development of novel therapeutic strategies, and epidemiologic studies on treatment outcomes in breast cancer. She is the principal investigator of several phase 1 to 3 clinical trials for various compounds, including CDK inhibitors, PI3K and mTOR inhibitors, selective estrogen receptor degraders, HER2-targeting agents, radioligands and immunotherapy, in addition to investigator-initiated studies.
Allen YEOH
of Singapore
Allen YEOH Eng Juh
National University of Singapore
Allen Yeoh is the VIVA-Goh Professor in Paediatric Oncology in NUS Medicine and Head of Paediatric Haematology-Oncology in NUH.
Allen’s research focuses on acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). He works on validating biomarkers that predicts treatment response in ALL. Together with Professor Dario Campana, Allen co-leads the NUHS CAR T programme for blood cancers.
Allen is the recipient of National Medical Excellence Award for Clinician Scientist in 2014.
Qiang YU
Qiang YU
Genome Institute of Singapore
Dr. Qiang Yu's research at the Genome Institute of Singapore focuses on uncovering mechanisms of cancer progression, immune evasion, and therapeutic resistance. They integrate genomics, epigenetics, and immunology to develop precision cancer therapies. Dr. Yu's lab was the first to discover DZNep as a histone methylation inhibitor, a breakthrough in targeting epigenetic regulators in cancer. This work provided foundational insights into inhibiting EZH2, a key component of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), leading to new therapeutic strategies for epigenetically driven cancers. The team also uncovered the non-catalytic function of EZH2, demonstrating its role in promoting tumor growth independently of its histone methyltransferase activity. Additionally, they explore genomic biomarkers and targeted therapies, identifying chromosome 1q21.3 amplification as a trackable biomarker and therapeutic target for breast cancer recurrence, along with novel oncogenic signaling pathways. These findings are being translated into clinical applications.
A significant recent focus of the team is the tumor microenvironment, particularly in understanding the immune suppressive tumor microenvironment of solid tumors. They have shown how cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) contribute to therapy resistance in colorectal cancer. The team has also identified EZH2-mediated immune deficiency as a key mechanism leading to anti-HER2 immunotherapy and hypoxia-driven epigenetic reprogramming of T cell effector activity in breast cancer.
Their latest work revealed P4HA1 as a critical regulator of CD8+ T cell differentiation, with targeting P4HA1 promoting the expansion of T cell progenitors toward an immune memory phenotype, enhancing systemic anti-tumor immunity. This discovery has significant implications for improving T cell-based immunotherapies and overcoming immune exhaustion in cancer. Based on this finding, they are developing novel T cell technology platforms to empower T cell therapy, such as CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors. Through these discoveries, Dr. Yu's team is pioneering new approaches to precision medicine, epigenetic therapy, and immune-based cancer treatments, bridging fundamental cancer biology with translational applications.
Dr Corrine Ying Xu Chua – Houston Methodist Research Institute Kimberly Meza – Brown University Xiao Jing Ong – Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Suphong Plangsothorn – Chulalongkorn University Kansate Prasertsuk – Chulalongkorn University Agustina Sabater – The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center + University of Buenos Aires Madelaine Theardy – Harvard University Lucas Ueta – University of California, Irvine Arun Viswanathan – Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology Dr Shu Zhang – Stanford University
Dr Allison Chan – Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Singapore Dr Corrine Ying Xu Chua – Houston Methodist Research Institute Dr Komal Gupta – National Cancer Centre Singapore Dr Michal Marek Hoppe –Singapore Translational Cancer Consortium (STCC) Ankit Jana - National University of Singapore Xiao Jing Ong – Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Yating Shen – National University of Singapore Madelaine Theardy – Harvard UniversityShobha VASUDEVAN • Senior Principal Scientist II; Genome Institute of Singapore, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Dr Shu Zhang – Stanford UniversityProgram
Timeline
Venue
NUS University Cultural Centre
50 Kent Ridge Cres, Singapore 119279
Registration
- Please note that entry to the conference is strictly by registration only.
- Please note that entry to a single talk on a complimentary basis is STRICTLY not allowed.
- Registrations will allow admission to all scientific sessions, poster sessions, exhibition booths and lunch receptions.
- Conference badges can be collected at the reception counter at the commencement of the conference.
- All registered participants are requested to display the conference badge visibly at all times during the conference for identification.
- Registration passes are strictly not transferable.
- Unutilized registrations are strictly non-refundable.
- If a registered delegate has left the organization, the registration MUST BE cancelled; replacements are not allowed. The cancellation and refund policy applies.
- For affiliate registrations, please register latest by 29 October 2025, 23 59 SGT. Afterwhich, payment has to be made upfront upon registration.
- For all registrations, cancellations must be made latest by 22 October 2025, 23 59 SGT. Cancellations are strictly not allowed after the above date.
- Payments are debited to ‘National University of Singapore’.
- Payments must be made online via a credit card at the point of online registration.
- All Registration Fees are subject to prevailing GST
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- After completing the registration form, you will be prompted to make payment online via a credit card.
- In the event your payment fails, please kindly arrange for payment via another credit card.
- After completing the online payment, you will receive an acknowledgment for your registration and payment. However, please note that registrations are not confirmed until funds are received.
- Please allow 7 working days for the updating of your payment in our records.
- Once payments have been received, a confirmation email will be sent to you informing that your registrations are confirmed.
- For your records, please print a copy of the confirmation email.
- For group registrations, an invoice will be sent after registration closes.
- For other payment methods, please contact the conference secretariat.
Click here to register.
Abstract Submission
◊ The 'Outstanding FCS Abstract Travel Award' will be given out to selected abstracts to cover their expenses to present their oral abstract in-person at #FCS2025!
◊ Top poster abstracts stand a chance to win AACR travel awards to facilitate their attendance at AACR 2026!
Oral Presentation and Poster Presentation
- Abstracts are limited to a total maximum of 300 words, excluding authors’ affiliations.
- All abstract titles should be in Title Caps.
- Please submit your abstracts as an attachment in MS Word Format.
- Authors’ affiliations should be submitted in the following sample format:
Peter Tan1,21Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, 2Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore - Please avoid adding graphics, charts or photographs in your abstracts; they should only be included in your poster.
- Please ensure that all special characters / symbols and formatting are properly displayed in your submission.
- Please refer to the Abstract Template provided.
- Please note that selected abstracts may be included in the E-program/abstract booklet that participants will receive upon registration.
- Deadline for Submission for Oral and Poster Presentation: 28 July 2025
- Please indicate your interest in either the oral and/or poster presentation categories which you are submitting for. Successful Oral Presenters will be able to present their work during the Frontiers in Cancer Science 2025’s programme.
- Results for Oral Presentation abstracts will be announced at least 3 weeks before the conference.
- Abstract submissions are free.
- All abstracts submitted must represent scientific research relevant to the studies of cancer research.
- Authors submitting abstracts are responsible for ensuring that all authors listed on the abstract have been notified of the submission.
- Abstracts must be submitted by the presenting author.
- Preliminary Selection: All abstracts received will be assessed by members of the Review Committee, who are authorized to decide if an abstract shall be accepted to participate in the FCS 2025 Posters Presentation and/or Oral Presentation.
- Only submitters of accepted abstracts will be notified about the acceptance via email.
- All accepted posters, poster presentations and oral presentations will be reviewed by the appointed panel of Poster Judges.
- Please ensure that the abstracts you have submitted are accurate; no revisions can be made after the abstract has been submitted.
- Submission of your abstract/s implies that you have read, understood and comply with the Terms and Conditions as outlined.
- Results of the poster presentations and oral presentations will be announced on Thursday, 6 November 2025 and awards will be presented to the winners on Friday, 7 November 2025.
Abstract submission is a simple two-step process.
Step 1: Prepare your abstract using the Abstract Template provided.
Please download the Abstract Template here.
Step 2: Complete and submit an Abstract Submission Form.
Please fill in your Abstract Submission Form.
Abstract Submitter Registration
- The invitation to submit an abstract does not constitute an offer to pay travel, accommodation or registration costs associated with the Conference.
- Submitters of accepted abstracts will receive registration waivers.
- By submitting an abstract, submitters are responsible for gaining appropriate permissions from the copyright holder.
Click here to submit your abstract.
- Successful Poster abstract submitters will be notified via email by mid September 2025*.
- Successful Oral abstract submitters will be notified via email by mid September 2025*.
- Participants of the FCS Posters Presentations should print a physical poster that is A1-sized, colored and of portrait orientation and bring it along to be displayed at the conference.
- Results will be announced on Thursday, 6 November 2025.
- Certificates of award and prizes will be presented to the winners at the end of the conference on Friday, 7 November 2025.
* Dates are subject to change, please check back for updates.
Past Conferences
FCS 2024
FCS 2024
Matrix, Biopolis
Vinod BALACHANDRAN, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, US
Leif BERGSAGEL, Mayo Clinic Arizona, US
Melvin CHUA, National Cancer Centre Singapore, SG
Jinmiao CHEN, Duke-NUS Medical School, SG
Xi CHEN, MD Anderson Cancer Center, US
Sarah-Maria FENDT, Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, BE
Marco FOIANI, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, SG
Eliza FONG, National University of Singapore, SG
Romina GOLDSZMID, National Cancer Institute, US
Douglas GREEN, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, US
Yinghui LI, Nanyang Technological University, SG
Steven JONES, The University of British Columbia, CA
Rajiv KHANNA, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, AU
Vaidehi KRISHNAN, Duke-NUS Medical School, SG
Jonathan LEE, National University Hospital, SG
David MALKIN, SickKids, CA
Jeffrey MILLER, University of Minnesota, US
Luc MORRIS, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, US
Luke O’NEILL, Trinity College Dublin, IL
Katy REZVANI, MD Anderson Cancer Center, US
Xiaoyu SONG, Duke-NUS Medical School, SG
Wai Leong TAM, Genome Institute of Singapore, SG
Andrew Nguan Soon TAN, Nanyang Technological University, SG
David VIRSHUP, Duke-NUS Medical School, SG
Valerie YANG, Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology, SG
Zemin ZHANG, Peking University, CN
FCS 2023
FCS 2023
NUS University Cultural Centre
Shelley BERGER (virtual), University of Pennsylvania, USA
Tom James CARNEY, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Polly Leilei CHEN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Sanjay DE MEL, National University Cancer Institute Singapore
Scott DIXON, Stanford University, USA
Christian HACKENBERGER, FMP Berlin, DE
Mien-Chie HUNG, China Medical University, TW
Anand JEYASEKHARAN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore & National University Cancer Institute Singapore
Calvin KUO, Stanford University, USA
Thi Nguyet Minh LE, National University of Singapore
Jianjun LIU, Genome Institute of Singapore
Stephanie MA, The University of Hong Kong, HK
Babita MADAN, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Manolis PASPARAKIS, University of Cologne, DE
Shazib PERVAIZ, National University of Singapore
Bin Tean TEH, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Michel TREMBLAY, McGill University, CA
Karen VOUSDEN, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
Mei WANG-CASEY, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Valerie Shiwen YANG, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
Timothy YAP, MD Anderson Cancer Center, US
Lee ZOU, Duke University School of Medicine, US
FCS 2022
FCS 2022
Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (Novena Campus)
Antonio BERTOLETTI, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Shruti BHATT, National University of Singapore
Christina CURTIS, Stanford University, USA
David M. EPSTEIN, Black Diamond Therapeutics, USA
Ernesto GUCCIONE, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA
Jiaoti HUANG, Duke University School of Medicine, USA
Gopal IYER, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Jingmei LI, Genome Institute of Singapore
Soon Thye LIM, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Paul S. MISCHEL, Stanford University, USA
Sin Tiong ONG, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Kristijan RAMADAN, University of Oxford, UK
Victoria SEEWALDT, City of Hope National Medical Center, USA
Ramesh A. SHIVDASANI, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
John SILKE, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia
Toshio SUDA, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Joseph SUNG, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Ian Bee Huat TAN, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Patrick TAN, Genome Institute of Singapore
Yvonne TAY, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Matthew VANDER HEIDEN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Roel VERHAAK, The Jackson Laboratory, USA
Carmen Chak-Lui WONG, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Sunny WONG, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Joe YEONG, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
FCS 2021
FCS 2021
ZOOM
Timothy CHAN, Cleveland Clinic, USA
Gerard EVAN, University of Cambridge, UK
Bernard FOX, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute
Mathew GARNETT, Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK
Thomas F. GAJEWSKI, University of Chicago, USA
Jesús GIL VALLES, Imperial College London, UK
Chuan HE, University of Chicago, USA
Jerry SHAY, UT Southwestern Medical Center, USA
Charles SWANTON, Francis Crick Institute, UK
Clotilde THÉRY, Institut Curie, France
Glenn Kunnath BONNEY, National University of Singapore
Xiaoyuan CHEN, National University of Singapore
Melissa Jane FULLWOOD, School of Biological Sciences, NTU & Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Jonathan GÖKE, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
Chin-Ann Johnny ONG, National Cancer Centre Singapore
David SP TAN, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Carol TANG, National Neuroscience Institute
TEH Bin Tean, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
Lisa TUCKER-KELLOGG, Duke-NUS Medical School
Qi ZENG, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
Franklin ZHONG, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
FCS 2020
FCS 2020
ZOOM
Susan CLARK, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Ronald DePINHO, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
Rani E GEORGE, Dana Farber Medical School, USA
Marco HEROLD, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Ricky JOHNSON, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia
Kenneth KINZLER, Ludwig Center, Johns Hopkins University, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
Muthiah MANOHARAN, Alynlam Pharmaceuticals, USA
Antoni RIBAS, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Ali SHILATIFARD, Northwestern University, USA
Erwei SONG, Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, China
Melvin CHUA, National Cancer Centre, Singapore
Ray DUNN, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Boon Cher GOH, National University Cancer Institute of Singapore
Takaomi SANDA, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Anders SKANDERUP, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
Raghav SUNDAR, National University Cancer Institute of Singapore
Puay Hoon TAN, Singapore General Hospital
Yee Joo TAN, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
FCS 2019
FCS 2019
Academia @ SGH
Sir Gregory WINTER, University of Cambridge, UK
Sung Hee BAEK, Seoul National University, South Korea
Yinon BEN-NERIAH, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Israel
Maria FIGUEROA, University of Miami, USA
Sankar GHOSH, Columbia University, USA
Margaret A. GOODELL, Baylor College of Medicine, USA
Michael N. HALL, Biozentrum University of Basel, Switzerland
Lijian HUI, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
David KOMANDER, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Ira MELLMAN, Genetech, USA
Dorothy A. SIPKINS, Duke Univesity, USA
Nahum SONENBERG, McGill University, Canada
Sabine TEJPAR, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Jing YANG, University of California, San Diego, USA
Yi Arial ZENG, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Bing ZHU, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Jason CHAN, National Cancer Centre, Singapore
Polly Leilei CHEN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Valerie CHEW, Singhealth, Singapore
Edward Kai-Hua CHOW, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Ramanuj DASGUPTA, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
Nai Yang FU, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Jonathan GÖKE, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
HONG Wanjin, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
William HWANG, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Philipp KALDIS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
Joanne NGEOW, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Derrick ONG Sek Tong, National University of Singapore
Jason J. PITT, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Steven G. ROZEN, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Daniel Shao-Weng TAN, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Wee-Wei TEE, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
FCS 2018
FCS 2018
University Cultural Centre, NUS
Omar ABDEL – WAHAB, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, USA
Stephen BAYLIN, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, USA
Karlene CIMPRICH, Stanford University, USA
James DECAPRIO, Harvard Medical School, USA
Vishva DIXIT, Genetech, USA
Andrew FIRE, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
Elaine FUCHS, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Rockefeller University, USA
Geoff LINDEMAN, Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Hiroshi MAEDA, Kumamoto University, Japan
Paul MODRICH, Duke University, USA
Anjana RAO, University of California San Diego, USA
Feyruz RASSOOL, University of Maryland, USA
Andrew ROBERTS, Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Serrano MANUEL, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Spain
Tony TIGANIS, Monash University, Australia
Fred BARD, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
Ernesto GUCCIONE, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
N Gopalakrishna IYER, National Cancer Centre, Singapore
Sudhakar JHA, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
H Phillip KOEFFLER, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
LI Shang, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Prabha SAMPATH, Institute of Medical Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
TAM Wai Leong, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
Patrick TAN, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Daniel TENEN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Vinay TERGAONKAR, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
Navin Kumar VERMA, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Virgile VIASNOFF, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore
David VIRSHUP, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Mei WANG, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Hanry YU, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
YU Qiang, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
FCS 2017
FCS 2017
Matrix Auditorium, Biopolis
Shizuo AKIRA, Osaka University, Japan
CHEN Ye-Guang,Tsinghua University, China
Mark DAWSON, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia
Gen-Sheng FENG, University of California, San Diego, USA
Xi HE, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA
Michael T HEMANN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Raghu KALLURI, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
Rong LI, Johns Hopkins, USA
Roeland NUSSE, Stanford University, USA
Ann Marie PENDERGAST, Duke University, USA
Danny REINBERG, NYU & Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
Laura SOUCEK, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Spain
Ulrich STEIDL, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA
Stephen C. WEST, London Research Institute, UK
Jeff WRANA,University of Toronto, Canada
Jean ZHAO, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
CHNG Wee Joo, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Hyungwon CHOI , Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
David EPSTEIN , Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Koji ITAHANA, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Anand JEYASEKHARAN, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Dennis KAPPEI, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
David LANE, A*STAR, Singapore
Jonathan LOH, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
ONG Choon Kiat, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Shyam PRABHAKAR, Genome Institute of Singapore
Giulia RANCATI, Institute of Medical Biology, Singapore
Kanaga SABAPATHY, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Yvonne TAY, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
TOH Han Chong, National Cancer Centre Singapore
WANG Xiaomeng, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
ZHAI Weiwei, Genome Institute of Singapore
FCS 2016
FCS 2016
University Cultural Centre, NUS
William KAELIN (KEYNOTE), Dana Farber Cancer Institute, USA
Michael KARIN (KEYNOTE), University of California San Diego, USA
Cheryl H. ARROWSMITH, University of Toronto, Canada
Kimberly L. BLACKWELL, Duke University, USA
Navdeep S. CHANDEL, Northwestern University, USA
Robert EISENMAN, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA
Tak Wah MAK, University of Toronto, Canada
Jean-Christophe MARINE, VIB-KU Leuven, Belgium
Bing REN, University of California, San Diego, USA
Shimon SAKAGUCHI, Osaka University, Japan
Michael TAYLOR, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Canada
Hong WU, Peking University, China
Michael B. YAFFE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Antonio BERTOLETTI, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Edward Kai-Hua CHOW, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Pierce Kah Hoe CHOW, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Balram CHOWBAY, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Karen CRASTA, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Melissa J. FULLWOOD, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
HONG Wanjin, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
Philipp KALDIS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
LEE Sang Hyun, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
LEE Soo Chin, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
ONG Sin Tiong, Duke-NUS Medical School
Andrea PAVESI, SMART, Singapore
Takaomi SANDA, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Iain TAN Bee Huat, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Reshma TANEJA, National University of Singapore
WOO Wei Meng, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
FCS 2015
FCS 2015
University Cultural Centre, NUS
Ashok R. VENKITARAMAN (KEYNOTE), University of Cambridge, UK
Tony HUNTER (KEYNOTE), Salk Institute of Biological Studies, USA
Bruno AMATI, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy
Axel BEHRENS, The Francis Crick Institute, UK
Christopher M. COUNTER, Duke University Medical Center, USA
Amato J. GIACCIA, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
Laurie H. GLIMCHER, Weill Cornell Medical College, USA
Florian R. GRETEN, Georg Speyer Haus, Germany
Michael C. JENSEN, University of Washington, USA
Randall S. JOHNSON, University of Cambridge, UK
Jan KARLSEDER, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA
Gerry MELINO, MRC Toxicology Unit, University of Leicester, UK
Raul MOSTOSLAVSKY, MGH Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, USA
Andreas STRASSER, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia
Nathalie WONG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Masayuki YAMAMOTO, Tohoku University, Japan
Frederic BARD, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
Ramanuj DASGUPTA, Genome Institute of Singapore
Ernesto GUCCIONE, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
HUI Kam Man, National Cancer Center Singapore
Philip W. INGHAM, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore
Sudhakar JHA, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Par L. NORDLUND, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Motomi OSATO, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
SHEN Han-Ming, National University of Singapore
David SP TAN, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Daniel G. TENEN, Cancer Sciencce Institute of Singapore
Vinay TERGAONKAR, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
David M. VIRSHUP, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
Mei WANG, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
FCS 2014
FCS 2014
The Academia, Singapore
Michael B. KASTAN (KEYNOTE), Duke University, USA
Geneviève ALMOUZNI, Institut Curie, France
Steven ARTANDI, Stanford University, USA
FENG Cong, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, USA
Brian HUNTLY, University of Cambridge, UK
Charles G. MULLIGHAN, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA
Seishi OGAWA, Kyoto University, Japan
Emmanuelle PASSEGUÉ, University of California, San Francisco, USA
Duanqing PEI, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health (GIBH), China
Eric SO, King’s College London
Terry SPEED, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Nicholas K. TONKS, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA
Marian L. WATERMAN, University of California, Irvine, USA
Nicholas BARKER, Institute of Medical Biology, Singapore
Curtis A. DAVEY, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Pieter EICHHORN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Mikael HARTMAN, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Yoshiaki ITO, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Philipp KALDIS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Singapore
Koji KONO, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Caroline LEE, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Shang LI, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
Paul A. MACARY, National University of Singapore
Sven PETTERSSON, National Cancer Centre Singapore
David L. SILVER, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore
Jean-Paul THIERY, National University of Singapore
David William TOWNSEND, A*STAR-NUS Clinical Imaging Research Centre, Singapore
FCS 2013
FCS 2013
Matrix, Biopolis
Alan ASHWORTH (KEYNOTE), The Institute of Cancer Research, UK
Iannis AIFANTIS, NYU Cancer Institute, USA
Rene BERNARDS, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, The Netherlands
Kun-Liang GUAN, University of California, San Diego
Carl-Henrik HELDIN, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Uppsala, Sweden
Guillermina (Gigi) LOZANO, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
Nickolas PAPADOPOULOS, The Johns Hopkins University, USA
Luis PARADA, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
Mark J. RATAIN, The University of Chicago Medicine, USA
Martine F. ROUSSEL, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA
David SIDRANSKY, The Johns Hopkins University, USA
Makoto Mark TAKETO, Kyoto University, Japan
Karen VOUSDEN, The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, UK
Hai YAN, Duke University, USA
Pan-Chyr YANG, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Dario CAMPANA, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Polly CHEN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
CHNG Wee Joo, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Steve COHEN, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Peter DROGE, Nanyang Technological University
Ernesto GUCCIONE, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Koji ITAHANA, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Philipp H. KOEFFLER, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
Sang Hyun LEE, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
LIM Soon Thye, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Daniela RHODES, Nanyang Technological University
Kanaga SABAPATHY, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Toshio SUDA, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
TEH Bin Tean, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Qi ZENG, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
FCS 2012
FCS 2012
University Cultural Centre, NUS
Elizabeth H. BLACKBURN (KEYNOTE), University of California, San Francisco, USA Recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Jules A. HOFFMANN (KEYNOTE), Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, France Recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Roger Y. TSIEN (KEYNOTE), University of California, San Diego, USA Recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Constanze BONIFER, University of Birmingham, UK
Peter JONES, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
Gustavo LEONE, The Ohio State University, USA
Hiroyuki MANO, University of Tokyo, Japan
John MATTICK, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Martin McMAHON, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, USA
Peter RATCLIFFE, Head, University of Oxford, UK
Inder VERMA, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA
Xiao Fan WANG, Duke University Medical Center, USA
Paul WORKMAN, The Institute of Cancer Research, UK
DAN Yock Young, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore
HONG Wanjin, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Barbara KNOWLES, Institute of Medical Biology
Darren LIM, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Eugene MAKEYEV, Nanyang Technological University
ONG Choon Kiat, National Cancer Centre Singapore
ONG Sin Tiong, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Lorenz POELLINGER, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Steve ROZEN, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Prabha SAMPATH, Institute of Medical Biology
SU I-Hsin, Nanyang Technological University
Patrick TAN, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Daniel G. TENEN, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Vinay TERGAONKAR, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
David M. VIRSHUP, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
FCS 2011
FCS 2011
Joseph SCHLESSINGER (KEYNOTE), Yale University School of Medicine, USA
Mina J. BISSELL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Lewis C. CANTLEY, Harvard Medical School, USA
Tsutomu CHIBA, Kyoto University, Japan
Alan D’ANDREA, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
David A. JONES, The University of Utah, USA
Frank McCORMICK, University of California, San Francisco, USA
Donald P. McDONNELL, Duke University Medical School, USA
Sean J. MORRISON, University of Michigan, USA
Shigekazu NAGATA, Kyoto University, Japan
Louis M. STAUDT, National Cancer Institute, USA
David A. TUVESON, Cambridge Research Institute, UK
Jane VISVADER, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Fiona M. WATT, Cambridge Research Institute, UK
Kevin P. WHITE, The University of Chicago, USA
Jean-Pierre ABASTADO, Singapore Immunology Network
Rebecca DENT, National Cancer Centre Singapore
FU Xin-Yuan, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
GOH Boon Cher, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Koji ITAHANA, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Philipp KALDIS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
David LANE, p53 Lab, A*STAR
LIM Chwee Teck, Mechanobiology Institute
Peter LOBIE, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
John LUK, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Frank McKEON, Genome Institute of Singapore
TAN Nguan Soon, Andrew, Nanyang Technological University
TAN Soo Yong, SingHealth
Mei WANG-CASEY, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
YEOH Khay Guan, National University of Singapore
FCS 2010
FCS 2010
NUHS Tower Block
Stephen QUAKE (KEYNOTE), Stanford University, USA
Philip BEACHY, Stanford School of Medicine, USA
Robert BENEZRA, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, USA
Michael CLARKE, Stanford University, USA
Chi Van DANG, Johns Hopkins University, USA
Napoleone FERRARA, Genentech, USA
Andrew FUTREAL, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK
William C. HAHN, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
Masanori HATAKEYAMA, University of Tokyo, Japan
Michael KAHN, University of Southern California, USA
Tak W. MAK, University of Toronto, Canada
Markus MÜSCHEN, University of California San Francisco, USA
Paul POLAKIS, Genentech, USA
Eileen WHITE, Rutgers University, USA
Nick BARKER, Institute of Medical Biology
Dmitry BULAVIN, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Patrick CASEY, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
CHNG Wee Joo, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Neal COPELAND, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Nancy JENKINS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
LEE Soo Chin, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Bing LIM, Genome Institute of Singapore
RUAN Yijun, Genome Institute of Singapore
Kanaga SABAPATHY, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Uttam SURANA, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Patrick TAN, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
TEH Bin Tean, National Cancer Centre Singapore
Allen YEOH, National Cancer Centre Singapore
YU Qiang, Genome Institute of Singapore
FCS 2009
FCS 2009
Clinical Research Centre, NUS
Mariano BARBACID, Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), Spain
Tadatsugu TANIGUCHI, University of Tokyo, Japan
Irving L. WEISSMAN, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
Stephen NIMER, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, USA
Anthony GREEN, University of Cambridge, UK
Edward SETO, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, USA
Charles LEE, Harvard Medical School, USA
Anthony GREEN, University of Cambridge, UK
David LANE, p53 Lab, A*STAR
Nancy JENKINS, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Bing LIM, Genome Institute of Singapore
NG Huck Hui, Genome Institute of Singapore
ONG Sin Tiong, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
Conference Partner
Media Partner
Sponsors
Platinum Sponsor
Premium Sponsors
Innovation Sponsor
Academic Sponsors
Spatial Biology Core
**Inclusion of the sponsors’ names and/or logos does not imply CSI Singapore’s / NUS’ / FCS’ endorsement of the sponsors’ products and/or services.
Executive Committee
Soo Chin LEE (co-chair)
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Soo Chin LEE (Co-Chair)
National University Cancer Institute Singapore
Professor Lee Soo Chin’s laboratory focuses on novel therapeutics and predictive biomarkers in breast cancer. She has studied different novel treatment strategies, including using low-dose anti-angiogenic agent to improve chemotherapy delivery. Her team has identified a biomarker detectable in blood that predicts breast cancer recurrence, and that can be used to select patients for a novel targeted therapy. Her team has found a genetic variant common in Asians but rare in Caucasians to influence metabolism of a commonly used breast cancer drug, highlighting that inter-ethnic differences in genetic make-up could account for geographic differences in outcomes to anti-cancer treatment.
Reshma TANEJA (co-chair)
Reshma TANEJA
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Dr. Taneja obtained her Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore, India. Her post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Pierre Chambon in Strasbourg, France was on retinoic acid receptor signaling. She started her laboratory at the Mt Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and focused on cellular differentiation mechanisms using skeletal muscle as a model system. In 2008, she relocated to the National University of Singapore (NUS) where she is currently Head of the Department of Physiology. Her research program currently focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms that drive oncogenesis and metastasis in a paediatric cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma.
Sanjay DE MEL
Sanjay DE MEL
National University Cancer Institute Singapore
Dr Sanjay de Mel graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Southampton in 2005. He completed training in general medicine at the Southampton University Hospital, UK and National University Hospital in Singapore. He subsequently completed his advanced specialist training in Haematology at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore under the National University Health System.
Marco FOIANI
Marco FOIANI
Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
A molecular biologist by training, Marco Foiani is professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and senior principal investigator at the Cancer Science Institute (CSI) of Singapore. Foiani obtained his Ph.D in molecular and cell biology from University of Milan in 1988. in 1989, he moved to the National Institute of Health (NICHD) in Bethesda, USA for his post-doctoral studies and remained there till 1991. In 1991, he joined as an assistant professor the University of Milan where he started his career in the field of chromatin dynamics. He became associate professor (1995) and subsequently professor (2001) at the University of Milan. He was one of the first scientists to join IFOM. The Genome integrity research lab started functioning in 2000 with the aim of studying the various pathways that safeguard genomic integrity and play a role in oncogenesis. He was he Scientific Director of IFOM (2009 to 2022). He has been a member of the editorial board of Cell (2009-2019), and is a member of the Academia Europea and EMBO. His major contributions are within the fields of chromosome dynamics and genome integrity. His work has contributed to elucidate the ATR and ATM-dependent checkpoint processes controlling the interfaces between DNA replication, recombination, transcription and DNA topology and preventing abnormal chromosome transitions. In recent years, focus of his research has geared more towards the connections between cell metabolism and genome integrity pathways and between chromosome dynamics and mechano-transduction circuits controlling cell and nuclear plasticity.
Koji ITAHANA
Koji Itahana
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Dr. Itahana obtained his BSc and PhD from Kyoto University, Japan. He undertook postdoctoral training at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under Dr. Judith Campisi, investigating the role of p53 in cellular senescence, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under Dr. Yanping Zhang, focusing on the ARF-MDM2-p53 pathway in tumour suppression. In 2009, he established his own laboratory in the Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research has identified many targets and modulators within the ARF-MDM2-p53 pathway, uncovering its novel non-canonical functions, including roles in cellular metabolism and cancer immunology.
Narayanan Gopalakrishna IYER
Narayanan Gopalakrishna IYER
National Cancer Centre Singapore
Dr Iyer graduated top of his medical school class at NUS in 1998, with Honours. He subsequently went on to complete a PhD in molecular carcinogenesis at the University of Cambridge under Prof Carlos Caldas. Trained as a General surgeon at Singapore General Hospital he went on to two separate head and neck surgical fellowships at Sydney Head and Neck Cancer Institute at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Australia and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC), New York, USA. At the end of his fellowship at MSKCC, he was awarded the Michael Burt award for being the best fellow in the surgical division both in terms of operative skill and research output.
Currently, Dr Gopal Iyer works as a head and neck surgeon in National Cancer Centre and Singapore General Hospital. He is also Senior Consultant of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Head and Neck Centre. Dr Gopal has extensive experience in the surgical management of head and neck cancers, as well as surgery for benign diseases in the head and neck (including thyroid, salivary gland and skin lesions). He performs complex resections and reconstructions of cancers involving the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx, nasopharynx, paranasal sinuses and neck. He is involved in the robotic and endoscopic head and neck surgical program having performed a number of these procedures locally and mentored the first ever robotic thyroidectomy in Australia in Feb 2012.
Ann LEE-LIM
Ann LEE-LIM
National Cancer Centre Singapore
Dr. Ann Lee is a Principal Investigator at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at both the Duke-NUS Medical School and the National University of Singapore (NUS). She majored in Pathology at the University of Melbourne where she obtained her BSc(Hons), and completed her MSc (Immunology) at NUS and DPhil(Oxon) (Molecular Pathology) at the University of Oxford. She has trained at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (UK).
Dr. Lee’s research group has received funding from the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) of Singapore, Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) of Singapore and A*STAR (Industry Alignment Fund grants). Her research focuses on biomarker discovery and identifying cancer risk markers. Current research interests are to develop blood-based assays for cancer which may be utilised for the early detection of cancer.
Besides research, Dr. Lee teaches at NUS and has served as a grant reviewer for the NMRC for 12 years, and as a member of the international UICC TNM Expert Panel for breast cancer.
Sin Tiong ONG
Sin Tiong ONG
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Professor Sin Tiong Ong completed his undergraduate and medical training at the University of Cambridge in the UK and subsequently trained as a haematologist and oncologist at the University of Chicago, where he also began his laboratory research under the mentorship of Professor Michelle Le Beau.
His independent research career began in 2001 at the University of California, Irvine, where he initiated studies in cancer drug resistance. While his research primarily focuses on chronic myeloid leukaemia, the mechanistic implications of his work have been extended and validated in other human cancers, including EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer, and more recently, glioblastoma and breast cancer.
In 2007, he joined Duke-NUS Medical School to help build Asia’s first American-style post-baccalaureate medical school. Drawing on his clinical background, his research is focused on discovering and elucidating novel mechanisms of resistance to targeted cancer therapies, with the goal of developing therapeutic strategies to overcome clinical drug resistance.
In addition, he has been deeply involved in training the next generation of clinician-scientists, particularly through his leadership of the Duke-NUS MD-PhD Programme—the only dedicated programme of its kind in Singapore. As Programme Director, he has established and overseen a unique curriculum tailored to meet the clinical training needs of students during their PhD years.
His service contributions include membership on the Singapore Medical Council, as well as participation in award and review panels for the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the American Society of Hematology (ASH). His research teams have received international recognition, including Career Development Awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the John Goldman Award from the European Hematology Association, and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).
Kristijan RAMADAN
Kristijan RAMADAN
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Kristijan Ramadan is the Director of the Developmental Biology & Regenerative Medicine Programme at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) and the Toh Kian Chui Distinguished Professor of Cancer and Stem Cell Biology at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is also an Honorary Senior Research Scientist and Medical Research Council (MRC) Investigator at the Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, UK.
Before joining LKCMedicine, Kristijan was a Full Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford and an MRC Investigator at the Department of Oncology.
Kristijan holds degrees in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and veterinary pathology (MSc), as well as a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology under the supervision of Prof Dr Ulrich Hübscher. He did his post-doctoral training at the ETH-Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in the group of Dr Hemmo Meyer. Between 2009 and 2013, he was Junior Group Leader and Lecturer at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology-Vetsuisse, University of Zürich. In 2013, he moved to the UK to join the Department of Oncology as MRC Senior Group leader. From 2014 to 2019, he was an Associate Professor at the Department of Oncology, University of Oxford. In 2019, Kristijan was promoted to the Full Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford. In 2024, he took a chair position in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology at LKCMedicine, NTU, Singapore.
Kristijan received the Proud of Croatia Award (Croatian Hero for 2014) for his scientific co-contribution to saving the life of a young boy who had liver cancer caused by mutations in the SPRTN gene.
Kristijan's research has made significant contributions to Medicine. His work has led to the codiscoveries of Chromatin-Associated Degradation, DNA-Protein Crosslink Proteolysis Repair, and Ruijs-Aalfs Syndrome (RJALS), all of which have had a profound impact on our understanding and treatment of various medical conditions, including cancer and ageing.
In 2020, Kristijan was elected to the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) as a distinguished scientist in Medicine.
In 2024, Nanyang Technological University awarded him the Toh Kian Chui Distinguished Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Professorship to lead a research programme and provide leadership and mentorship to take LKCMedicine to the frontiers of research.
Kanaga SABAPATHY
Kanaga SABAPATHY
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Kanaga Sabapathy obtained his B.Sc (Hons) degree in Zoology from the NUS, and then his PhD in Molecular & Cellular Immunology from the Institute for Molecular & Cell Biology (IMCB), Singapore, in 1995. His post-doctoral work was conducted at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, investigating the role of the c-Jun-N-terminal kinase stress signaling pathway, using genetically-engineered mice. He moved to the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) in late 1999 as the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis, and since 2013 to 2023, has been the Head of the Division of Cellular & Molecular Research. He has been newly appointed as the Chair of the School of Biological Sciences (SBS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as of June 2023. He is also the President’s Chair Professor in Biological Sciences at NTU. Professor Sabapathy is a joint Senior Principal Investigator at NCCS and a joint Research Director at the IMCB. Professor Sabapathy is a Fellow to the Royal College of Pathologists (UK), and the recipient of the inaugural National Research Foundation Investigatorship award (2015).
Anders SKANDERUP
Anders SKANDERUP
Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore
Dr Anders Jacobsen Skanderup is Senior Research Scientist and principal investigator at the Genome Institute of Singapore. He also holds adjunct positions at the National Cancer Center Singapore and Deptartment of Computer Science at NUS. His research focuses on using integrative and data-intensive computational approaches to decipher the genetic and molecular basis of cancer.
Wai Leong TAM
Wai Leong TAM
Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR, Singapore, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Wai Leong TAM performed his PhD research on stem cell biology at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS, A*STAR). He undertook his postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute/MIT, where he concentrated on understanding breast cancer stem cell biology and cancer metastasis. He then joined the GIS and the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore as a faculty member. His lab focuses on uncovering emerging paradigms of cancer stem cells, specifically in the areas of cancer metabolism, cell state transitions, and tumor microenvironment. Current efforts are focused on identifying and validating preclinical targets that can lead into drug development, as well as translating fundamental discoveries into paradigms that can help change and advance clinical practice.
Wee Wei TEE
Wee Wei TEE
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A*STAR, Singapore
Dr. Wee-Wei Tee earned his Ph.D. in stem cell biology under Prof. Azim Surani at the University of Cambridge, UK. He then completed his postdoctoral training with Prof. Danny Reinberg at HHMI-NYU School of Medicine, where he studied epigenetic gene silencing mechanisms.
Dr. Tee has received multiple prestigious awards, including the New York Stem Cell Foundation Druckenmiller Fellowship and the NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) Award. In 2016, he was awarded the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship to establish his independent research group. In 2022, he was recognized as an EMBO Global Investigator.
Currently, Dr. Tee is a Senior Principal Investigator at A*STAR-IMCB and serves as the Division Director for ‘Cancer Signalling & Therapy’. His research focuses on the epigenetic mechanisms that drive cancer cell phenotypic plasticity.
David VIRSHUP
David VIRSHUP
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
David Virshup, M.D., is Director of the Programme in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology (CSCB) and Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School and is jointly appointed as Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University in North Carolina.
Dr. Virshup received his B.A. magna cum laude from Beloit College, majoring in chemistry. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, followed by clinical residency in Pediatrics and a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He credits his research training and mentoring to William Zinkham, Vann Bennett, and Tom Kelly in the departments of Pediatrics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, and Molecular Biology and Genetics, all at Hopkins. Dr. Virshup established his first independent laboratory at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where over the course of 17 years he rose to Professor of Pediatrics and Oncological Sciences with an endowed chair as an investigator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He moved to Duke-NUS in Singapore in 2007 to help establish CSCB.
He has been elected to several honorific societies including the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Association of American Physicians (AAP). He is board certified in both Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in the USA.
His research has focused on signal transduction, with an emphasis on both Wnt signaling and circadian rhythms. Early work examined the roles of Protein Phosphatase 2A and Casein Kinase 1 play in these processes. In Singapore, studies of phosphorylation of the PERIOD protein lead to the elucidation of the phosphoswitch model controlling circadian clock speed. In addition, his laboratory collaborated to develop a small molecule inhibitor of Wnt secretion, ETC-159, a drug now in human clinical trials.
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Steven JONES
The University of British Columbia, CA
Dr Jones gained his PhD at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, where he was involved in the C. elegans genome project. Currently, he is Head of Bioinformatics and Co-Director of the Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer in Vancouver. Dr Jones has played a role in numerous other genome projects, including that of the human, mouse, rat, bovine, fruitfly and the SARS coronavirus.
Dr Jones’s research focus is the computational analysis of DNA sequence and the analysis of genomic and transcriptomic data. He has applied next-generation DNA sequencing technology to determine the mutations and rearrangements driving many tumour types. A key goal is to develop bioinformatic approaches to predict the most efficacious therapies from the genetic analysis of patient tumour samples to help guide clinical decision making.
Amongst Dr. Jones many and varied honours and awards he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada as well as the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2014 and again in 2016, he was named by Thomson Reuters as one of the world's most influential researchers being in the top 1% of cited scientists. In 2018, 2019, and 2020. Dr. Jones is Canada Research Chair in Computational Genomics at the University of British Columbia.
He has been invited to give over 167 presentations, nationally and internationally, is an author on over 535 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar h-index 152) and is Principal Investigator and co-applicant on grants that have totaled over $700 million to date.