Bio
Prof. Ann-Marie Chacko is an accomplished translational scientist and leader in nuclear molecular imaging, with expertise in radiochemistry, pharmacology, nano drug delivery, small animal imaging, and clinical translational medicine. Joining Duke-NUS Medical School in 2015 and promoted to tenure-track faculty in 2018, she established the Laboratory for Translational and Molecular Imaging (LTMI), focusing on developing in vivo imaging approaches to assess cancer and viral infection biomarkers.
Her team successfully translated a dengue viral infection imaging protocol to the clinic and developed a peptide-based T cell imaging probe, Singapore’s first publicly-funded radiopharmaceutical diagnostic. Since 2015, Prof. Chacko has secured over S$15M in direct research funding and helped obtain an additional ~S$40M for collaborative projects. She leads the Cancer ImmunoTherapy Imaging (CITI) Programme, which received a S$22M grant for biomarker-driven monitoring of tumor immune responses.
Prof. Chacko mentors a diverse group of students and clinician-scientists and teaches at Duke-NUS and NUS. She is faculty at the Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine, delivering lectures on healthcare inequalities and scientific leadership diversity. As a regional and global leader, she organizes conferences, chairs scientific sessions, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Molecular Imaging and Biology and npj Imaging.
Combining expertise in various scientific fields, LTMI develops and translates novel imaging agents for precision medicine. Prof. Chacko also leads the SingHealth Duke-NUS Women in Science (WinS) network, supporting female research scientists through the Career Advancement Programme (WinS-CAP).
Education
Doctorate of Philosophy (Pharmacology)
University of Pennsylvania, United States
Master of Science in Chemistry
University of Western Ontario, Canada
Bachelor of Sci with Hons Biochemistry
Bishop's University, Canada