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Dr Lim graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore in 1998. He underwent residency in Otolaryngology in Singapore and was awarded the Gold medal for the MRCS (Edinburgh) General Surgery examination in 2003 and subsequently the Gold medal award by the College of Surgeons for the best performing resident in the exit examination organized by the Specialist Training Committee in Otolaryngology in 2009. In 2010, he was awarded the Ministry of Health Overseas Training award and pursued a 2-year Head and Neck Oncologic Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the United States of America. This fellowship is accredited by the Advanced Training Council of the American Head and Neck Society. During these 2 years, Dr Lim did translational benchwork research in immunotherapy in head and neck cancer (under Professor Robert Ferris), focusing of immunological mechanisms in monoclonal antibody based therapy in cancer and identifying novel immune modifiers in cancer therapy. In his clinical training, he was trained in transoral robotic surgery (TORS), minimally invasive video assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) and minimally invasive approaches in head and neck surgery, in addition to the major head and neck resections. Upon his return to Singapore in 2012, he was appointed Consultant in the Division of Surgical Oncology (Head and Neck Surgery), NCIS and Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, NUH as well as Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. His awards included the National Healthcare Group Clinical Research Scientist Leadership Award, best oral presentation for the Pitch for fund award and NHG Clinician Scientist Gold Award. He has won numerous National grants in line with his research interests in robotic surgery, cancer immunology and immunotherapy. He was awarded the Best Cancer Prevention Award by American Head and Neck Society in 2016 for his work in Raman spectroscopy in surveillance of Nasopharyngeal Cancer; Best Cancer team science research project by the New York Science Academy/Japan Medical Research Council in 2017; and Robert Maxwell Award for the best research paper in the American Head and Neck Society Meeting in 2023. He is the principle investigator in the clinical trial exploring the use of autologous NK cell therapy with cetuximab in patients with refractory nasopharyngeal cancer in 2018, and more recently, as the lead PI integrating allogeneic NK cells in advanced NPC patients in 2022. He is also co-chair of the Head and Neck Clinical Trial Planning committee of the National Cancer Institute exploring the use of immunotherapy in Nasopharyngeal Cancer in recurrent NPC in 2018. His academic grants included the NMRC New Investigator Grant (2013), Transitional Award (2015), Bench to Bedside Grant (2015), LCG (Co-Theme PI 2019), Clinician Scientist Award (2019 and 2022), A*star STDR grant (2023) and NMRC Clinical Trial Grant (2023). These grants amounted to approximately $9M. He has published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals and book chapters; and has several inventions/patents on novel robotic driven medical devices and cancer vaccines. He moved to Duke-NUS Medical School and Singapore General Hospital in 2019. He also serves as the director of the Department of Translational Research SGH, Deputy Vice Chair research Surgery ACP, and Research Director of IMCB A*star. He has mentored numerous medical students, residents, post-doctoral candidates and overseas post-doctoral fellows in their research projects. At Duke-NUS, he has mentored duke-nus students in their research year attachment, and mentored overseas PhD research fellows in their research endevaours. He also serves as a member of PhD thesis committee of PhD candidates at National University of Singapore and provides co-supervisor of PhD candidate at the University of Luxemberg. 

Professionally, Dr Lim is actively involved in the American Head and Neck Society (corresponding member); Asia Pacific Thyroid Surgery (Executive member); Asia Society of Head and Neck Oncology (ASHNO); International Guild of Endoscopic/Robotic head and Neck Surgery; Singapore Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery; and Robotic Society of Singapore (Secretary and Board Member). He is regularly invited to give talks in the area of cancer immunotherapy and immunology, head and neck oncology and robotic head and neck surgery in many International Head and Neck Meetings. Dr Lim’s long-term goal is to continue to advance the field of cell-based immunotherapy to treat head and neck cancers; and continue to excel in his clinical expertise as a head and neck surgeon. His vision of advancing cancer immunotherapy is through unravelling the immune escape mechanism(s) in cancer; and also, in boosting anti-tumour immune effects through novel cell therapies. Through rigorous scientific research, he believes that the prospects of translating cell-based immunotherapies are likely with new manufacturing technologies, and discovery of neoantigens which are likely to translate into new therapies for our patients. He would like to be part of the research team putting Singapore on the roadmap of transforming medicine through translational research. He hopes to mentor young clinician scientists in order to build a core of such talents to benefit the field of medicine in time to come.