Duke-NUS - Collaborative Grants

The Cancer ImmunoTherapy Imaging (CITI) Programme, aims to develop a diagnostic non-invasive real-time in vivo imaging tool to visualize immune response in cancer patients undergoing cancer immunotherapy. With this precision immune-imaging tool, it would be possible to select only those patients who are most likely to respond to immunotherapy, and choose the most effective combination therapy, thereby maximising patient outcomes while reducing costs.

CITI programme efforts will be centered on the discovery, validation, and clinical translation of novel peptide-based multimodal imaging probes (optical and nuclear), which specifically target treatment-response relevant immune cell surface markers that define the tumour microenvironment status. This will be a first-of-its-kind national initiative in building a peptide-based “ImmunoOncology imaging toolbox”. Funded by a 5-year, S$22 million Industry Alignment Fund-Pre-positioning (IAF-PP) grant awarded by Singapore’s Health and Biomedical Sciences (HBMS), the CITI programme team has Singapore’s leading experts from across 12 research organisations in orthogonal capabilities, from Immunology, to Chemistry, Imaging, Bioinformatics, Clinical Trials, and Commercial Innovation. The CITI programme also has an inbuilt industry alignment component through which strategic industry partnerships would be explored at any entry point of the CITI programme with any Rx/Dx (e.g., peptides, Abs, small molecules, T cells, etc.) as fits their interests and needs.

For more details on the CITI programme, please view the Executive Summary and press release.

Name	Role	Position/s	Institution
Ann-Marie Chacko	Corresponding Principle Investigator (PI) Imaging Theme PI	Assistant Professor, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Program (CSCB) Head, Laboratory for Translational and Molecular Imaging (LTMI)	Duke-NUS Medical School
Daniel WS Tan	Co-PI Clinical Theme PI	Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology Director, Experimental Cancer Therapeutics Unit	National Cancer Centre Singapore
Laurent Renia	Immunology Theme PI	Executive Director, Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN)	Agency for Science, Technology & Research
Charles W Johannes	Chemistry Theme PI	Head, Chemistry, P53 Lab	Agency for Science, Technology & Research
Edward G Robins	Chemistry Theme PI	Head, PET Radiochemistry, Clinical Imaging Research Centre (CIRC) Head, PET Radiochemistry, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC)	National University of Singapore  Agency for Science, Technology & Research
Julian Goggi	Imaging Theme PI	Group Lead, Isotopic Molecular Imaging Laboratory (IMIL), SBIC	Agency for Science, Technology & Research
Christopher Laing	Innovation Theme PI	Senior Associate Dean, Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE)	Duke-NUS Medical School

Organised by Prof Koh Woon Puay and team from the Centre for Clinician-Scientist Development (CCSD), the Khoo Pilot Award (Collaborative) grant awards funding for collaborations among budding and early stage clinician-scientists, and encourages clinician-scientists to either collaborate among themselves or with their PhD-trained scientist counterparts to generate translational or clinical research that has potential for bench-to-bedside or bedside-to-bench applications.

Principal Investigator	Principal Investigator	Project Title
Chan Kuan Rong Principal Research Scientist, Emerging Infectious Diseases programme, Duke-NUS Medical School	Chan Yuen Yue Candice Adjunct Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Singapore General Hospital	Characterization of mitochondrial function and energy metabolism in response to infection with wild-type and attenuated Zika virus strains
Tay Hwee Goon Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders programme, Duke-NUS Medical School	Gavin Tan Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Senior Consultant, Surgical Retina, Singapore National Eye Centre	Functional Role of human embryonic stem cell derived photoreceptor progenitors in non-human primates
Than Hein Adjunct Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Consultant, Haematology, Singapore General Hospital	Vaidehi Krishnan Principal Research Scientist, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology programme, Duke-NUS Medical School	Exploring the Potential of DNA Replication Stress Pathway as a Target Against Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) Stem Cells
Lim Tze Peng Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Senior Principal Pharmacist Researcher, Pharmacy - Inpatient, Singapore General Hospital	Jinki Yeom Assistant Professor, Emerging Infectious Diseases programme, Duke-NUS Medical School	Combating Acinetobacter baumannii Infection by Killing Persister Cells
Nicholas F Grigoropoulos Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Consultant, Haematology, Singapore General Hospital	Chin Yee Ho Senior Research Fellow, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology programme, Duke-NUS Medical School	Understanding the role of Wnt Synergy in Multiple Myeloma: a pilot study
Francis Wong Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Associate Consultant, Orthopaedic Surgery, Sengkang General Hospital	Tay Yu-Kwang Donovan Adjunct Assistant Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Consultant Endocrinologist, General Medicine, Sengkang General Hospital	Topical protease-inhibitor-modulating matrix application with negative pressure wound therapy on diabetic foot surgical wound healing: A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial with Advanced Glycated Endproducts (AGE) correlation

The Diabetes studY of Nephropathy And other Microvascular cOmplications (DYNAMO) aims to determine the genes and processes involved in the development of kidney disease due to diabetes, so that diabetic patients at risk can be identified and treated earlier. Using multiple experimental approaches, the proposed research programme also aims to identify and validate new potential treatments for kidney complications from diabetes. 

Capitalising on the current diabetic populations being studied in Singapore, comprising of nearly 30,000 individuals, DYNAMO plans to analyse both the genetic and body fluid samples collected to devise new ways to identify and treat diabetic kidney disease. In addition, with diabetes commonly affecting both the kidneys and eyes, the research team will also be investigating similarities in both organs are affected by diabetes. This will hopefully provide a non-invasive method to identify diabetic patients at risk of developing diabetic complications in both the eyes and kidneys.

DYNAMO takes advantage of world-class expertise in research on diabetes and its complications here in Singapore and we aim to expand our knowledge of kidney complications from diabetes, and advance its treatment and prevention.

Discovery and validation of new targets for therapy in DN
1. Thomas Coffman, Theme PI & Lead PI
2. Enrico Petretto, Co-Investigator
3. Jean-Paul Kovalik, Co-Investigator
4. Karl Tryggvason, Co-Investigator
5. Koh Woon Puay, Co-Investigator
6. Tazeen Jafar, Co-Investigator

This programme is a multi-modal, multi-dimensional approach to understanding Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), through the integrated expertise of retinal specialists, clinician-scientists, and basic scientists from across major research institutes in Singapore, as well as other countries in Asia and beyond.

For more information, please visit the TAAP page.

Principal Investigator	Principal Investigator	Theme Title
Cheng Ching Yu Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School  Senior Clinician Scientist, Glaucoma Department, Singapore National Eye Centre Principal Clinician Scientist & Head, Ocular Epidemiology Research Group and Data Science Unit	Wong Tien Yin Vice Dean, Office of Academic & Clinical Development, Duke-NUS Medical School Medical Director & Senior Consultant Ophthalmologist, Singapore National Eye Centre Chairman of the Board, Singapore Eye Research Institute	Population Health: Characterising disease burden, novel and genetic risk factors among Asians
Leopold Schmetterer Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Scientific Director and Head of Ocular Imaging, Singapore Eye Research Institute	Caroline Chee Senior Consultant, Department of Ophthalmology, National University Hospital Head, Surgical Retina, National University Hospital	Novel Imaging Biomarkers: New technology to understand disease progression to guide treatment
Gemmy Cheung Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Head & Senior Consultant, Medical Retina Department, Singapore National Eye Centre Senior Consultant, Cataract & Comprehensive Ophthalmology Department, Singapore National Eye Centre	Colin Tan Associate Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Senior Consultant and Clinician-Researcher, Department of Ophthalmology, Tan Tock Seng Hospital	Therapy: Clinical trials to test novel strategies and therapies, guided by personalised medicine
Ecosse Lamoureux Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Director, Population Health, Singapore Eye Research Institute	Dan Milea Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School Senior Clinician, Neuro-Ophthalmology Department, Singapore National Eye Centre Head, Visual Neuroscience Group, Singapore Eye Research Institute	Quality Of Life: Improving patient-centered outcomes in AMD and PCV