Johnny ONG

RESEARCH

Advanced cancer translational therapeutics

Our laboratory is an interdisciplinary laboratory, with a specific focus on peritoneal and sarcoma malignancies. The dual-hatting of surgeon–scientists in the Department of Sarcoma, Peritoneal and Rare Tumours (SPRinT), NCCS, gives our laboratory an intrinsic advantage by combining our clinical practice with laboratory research, effectively paving the way for bench-to-bedside translational research. We are a group of young and enthusiastic team of researchers with a vision of making an impact on patients’ lives through sound scientific research and to harness technology to transit scientific research to clinical care beyond proof of concept. Our laboratory’s area of expertise harnesses this advantage, allowing for a) multi-sampling of surgically collected samples to correct for intra-tumoral heterogeneity, b) rapid transfer of tissues to prevent degradation, and c) generation of in vivo mouse models of human samples. Our approach to solving clinical questions with translational relevance and addressing hypotheses is illustrated in Figure 1. 

There are three main pillars to our laboratory - translational therapeutics, innovation and academic pursuits. 

Translational Therapeutics
In 2022, we detailed the identification of a key paracrine factor (PAI-1) found within the fluid microenvironment of the peritoneal cavity, which can be directly targeted via ligand inhibition, providing proof of concept of therapeutic perturbation in peritoneal metastases (PM) (Hendrikson et al., 2022), which was published in Cell Reports Medicine and featured as the cover image of the journal issue. Building upon this, we included paracrine inhibition as a key therapeutic strategy in tackling PM in our review article in Journal of Clinical Oncology (Gwee et al., 2022). Recently, we highlighted the potential utility of our novel antibody in the treatment of colorectal PM in Clinical Cancer Research (Ong et al., 2025).

Innovation
Our patent describing the use of biomarkers for molecular stratification of PM patients to predict response to PAI-1 ligand inhibition is currently in the National phase review in 5 countries (China, USA, Europe, Singapore and Taiwan). We have also filed for a PCT for novel biologics that target PAI-1 in June 2025.

Academic Pursuits
Our team has published extensively in the field of peritoneal disease and sarcomas. To date, we have published close to 45 articles including publications in high impact factor journals. We are also highly committed in nurturing the next generation of scientists and clinician scientists. Within our laboratory, we have formulated an informal program to stimulate the interests of surgical residents and junior doctors to pursue scientific research that can accommodate their hectic schedules. We have had significant success in this area; we have mentored more than 40 residents, junior doctors and medical students, many of which have published in Top 10/ 20% journals and presented in local and international conferences by working together with us. 

Selected Publications

• Wu KZ, Ding RH, Zhao Z…Ong C-AJ*, Fong ELS* (2025) Hydrogel-mediated preservation of live tumour explants for drug development in peritoneal metastases. Adv Mater 37(33): e2418647 (* Co-corresponding authors, JIF: 26.8)
• Ong C-AJ*^, Zhao JJ*, Liu Y* et al. (2025) Spatial heterogeneity, stromal phenotypes, and therapeutic vulnerabilities in colorectal cancer peritoneal metastasis. Clin Cancer Res 31(12): 2515-2529 (* Equal contribution, ^ Co-corresponding authors, JIF: 10.2)
• Sundar R, Chia DKA, Zhao JJ…Ong C-AJ et al. (2024) Phase 1 PIANO trial-PIPAC-oxaliplatin and systemic nivolumab combination for gastric cancer peritoneal metastases: clinical and translational outcomes. ESMO Open 9(9): 103681(JIF: 8.3)
• Zhao JJ*, Ong C-AJ*, Srivatsava S et al. (2024) Spatially resolved niche and tumor microenvironmental alterations in gastric cancer peritoneal metastases. Gastroenterology 167(7): 1384-1398.e4 (* Equal contribution, JIF: 25.1)
• Chia CS, Li Y, Ceelen W, Ong C-AJ* (2023) Editorial: Translational research in the diagnosis and development of therapeutics for peritoneal surface malignancies. Front Oncol 13: 1232993(* Corresponding author, JIF: 3.3)
• Gwee YX, Chia DKA, So J…Ong C-AJ*, Sundar R* (2022) Integration of genomic biology into therapeutic strategies of gastric cancer peritoneal metastasis. J Clin Oncol 40(24): 2830 (* Co-corresponding authors, JIF: 41.9)
• Hendrikson J, Liu Y, Ng WH…Ong C-AJ*, Singapore Peritoneal Oncology Study (SPOS) Group and Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium (SGCC) (2022) Ligand-mediated PAI-1 inhibition in a mouse model of peritoneal carcinomatosis. Cell Rep Med 3(2): 100526 (* Corresponding author, JIF: 10.6)