Education Qualifications: MBBS, MRCP (UK), MPH
Dr Jenny Low is a Board Certified Senior Consultant with the Department of Infectious Diseases in Singapore General Hospital and a Professor with the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Medical School. Concurrently, she is the Co-Director of the Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre@ SingHealth Duke-NUS (ViREMiCS) in the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC and Deputy Clinical Director at the SingHealth Investigational Medicine Unit (IMU).
Her current research focus is on early phase adaptive clinical trials of viral therapeutics and vaccine development, as well as the role of the innate immune responses in modulating the outcome of infection or vaccination, thereby improving therapeutic interventional strategies for infectious diseases.
Assoc Prof Low led the early dengue infection and outcome (EDEN) study that detailed, in several publications, clinical dengue in adults. She was the lead clinical investigator in the first proof-of-concept clinical trial on the use of Celgosivir as an anti-dengue drug (CELADEN) in Singapore. She was also the lead PI in an investigator led trial that tested the role of pre-existing cross-reactive antibodies in influencing vaccine efficacy using JE and YF vaccinations. She is twice awarded the National Clinician Scientist Award in 2016 and 2019 for her to study these unmet clinical needs.
The overarching goal of ViREMiCS is to accelerate the translation of vaccine and therapeutics through the development of molecular correlates of safety and efficacy. To this end, ViREMiCS collaborates with academia and industry to facilitate vaccine development at the early clinical development stage. Current projects include clinical trials with vaccines or therapeutics against viral pathogens, including Dengue, Zika, and other acute viral diseases.
Our approach interfaces adaptive experimental and clinical trial design with detailed virological and immunological measurements as well as comprehensive transcriptomics and metabolomics profiling of pre-clinical and clinical specimens. We have amassed a database of molecular correlates of live attenuated vaccine immunogenicity and safety and will expand this database to include other forms of vaccines as well as antiviral therapeutic antibodies as an immediate priority but will also expand our approach to include small molecules antiviral therapeutics. We will also define, where possible, the correlates that play a mechanistic and functional role in mediating the desired vaccination or therapeutic outcome. With molecular correlates of safety and protection, we hope to contribute to an evidence-based and streamlined approach to selecting vaccines and therapeutics for further clinical development.
Selected Publications:
Watanabe S, Low JG, Vasudevan SG (2018). Preclinical antiviral testing for dengue virus infection in mouse models and its association with clinical studies. ACS Infect Dis Jul13;4(7).
Chan CY, Chan KR, Chua CJ, nur Hazirah S, Ghosh S, Ooi EE, Low JG (2017). Early molecular correlates of adverse events following yellow fever vaccination. JCI Insight Oct5;2(19).
Lye DC, Archuleta S, Syed-Omar SF, Low JG, Oh HM, Wei Y, Fisher D, Ponnampalavanar SS, Wijaya L, Lee LK, Ooi EE, Kamarulzaman A, Lum LC, Tambyah PA, Leo YS (2017). Prophylactic platelet transfusion versus supportive care in adult dengue with severe thrombocytopenia: a randomized, open-label, superiority trial. Lancet, 389:1611-18.
Chacko AM, Watanabe S, Herr KJ, Kalimuddin S, Tham JY, Ong J, Reolo M, Serrano RMF, Cheung YB, Low JG, Vasudevan SG (2017). 18F-FDG as an inflammation biomarker for imaging dengue virus infection and treatment response. JCI Insight, 2: pii93474.
Wijaya L, Tham CYL, Chan YFZ, Wong AWL, Li LT, Wang LF, Bertoletti A, Low JG (2017). An accelerated rabies vaccine schedule based on toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) agonist PIKA adjuvant augments rabies virus specific antibody and T cell response in healthy adult volunteers. Vaccine, 35:1175-1183.
Low JG, Ooi EE, Vasudevan SG (2017). Current status of dengue therapeutics research and development. J Infect Dis, 215 (suppl 2):S96-S102.
Chan KR, Wang X, Saron WA, Gan ES, Tan HC, Mok DL, Zhang SL, Lee YH, Liang C, Wijaya L, Ghosh S, Cheung YB, Tannenbaum SR, Abraham SN, St John AL, Low JG*, Ooi EE* (2016). Cross-reactive antibodies enhance live attenuated virus infection for increased immunogenicity. Nat Microbiol, 1:16164. *Co-corresponding authors.
Sung C, Wei Y, Watanabe S, Lee HS, Khoo YM, Fan L, Rathore AP, Chan KW, Choy MM, Kamaraj US, Sessions OM, Aw P, de Sessions PF, Lee B, Connolly JE, Hibberd ML, Vijaykrishna D, Wijaya L, Ooi EE, Low JG, Vasudevan SG (2016). Extended evaluation of virological, immunological and pharmacokinetic endpoints of CELADEN: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of celgosivir in dengue fever patients. PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 10:e0004851.
Low JG, Sung C, Wijaya L, Wei Y, Rathore AP, Watanabe S, Tan BH, Toh L, Chua LT, Hou Y, Chow A, Howe S, Chan WK, Tan KH, Chung JS, Cherng BP, Lye DC, Tambyah PA, Ng LC, Connolly J, Hibberd M, Leo YS, Cheung YB, Ooi EE, Vasudevan SG (2014). Efficacy and safety of celgosivir, an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, in dengue fever patients evaluated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled proof-of-concept clinical trial. Lancet Infect Dis 14:706-15.
Low JG, Ong A, Tan LK, Chaterji S, Chow A, Lim WY, Lee WK, Chua R, Chua CR, Tan SW, Cheung YB, Hibberd ML, Vasudevan SG, Ng LC, Leo YS, Ooi EE (2011). The early clinical features of dengue in adults: challenges for early clinical diagnosis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 5:e1191.