IMCB researcher awarded the NRF class of 2023 fellowship
Dr. Yan Chuan, Principal Investigator, Cancer Therapy Resistance Modelling Laboratory
The National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship supports independent research onpotential breakthrough projects led by early-career investigators. The NRF recentlynamed 12 fellows in its Class of 2023 NRF Fellowship awards (15th NRFF). This was outof a total of 113 applications. Six of the 12 awardees were from the Agency for Science,Technology and Research (A*STAR). The Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB)is proud to announce that one of the six recipients of this prestigious award is ourPrincipal Investigator, Yan Chuan.
Yan Chuan’s project entitled “Precision oncology approaches for hepatocellularcarcinoma” focuses on developing combination therapies that target therapy-resistanttumour cells in liver cancer. Liver cancer is very prevalent in Singapore. The disease isasymptotic, which means majority of patients are diagnosed at advanced stages.Unfortunately, there is no effective therapies for these patients, and most of themeventually succumb to the disease. Yan Chuan’s take on this devastating problem buildson two directions: 1) Understanding therapy-resistant subpopulation evolution at singlecell resolution using cutting edge single cell transcriptomic sequencing; 2) Buildingsuperior immunodeficient zebrafish models that are “humanised”, hence allowingengraftment of primary patient samples. Following completion of both goals, Yan Chuanwill leverage on the superior single cell resolution imaging and high throughputcapabilities of zebrafish to find combination therapies that can target therapy-resistanttumour cells. These effective combination therapies will be further preclinically validatedin gold standard mice xenograft models for preclinical rationale. Yan Chuan will be activelyengaging in collaborations with clinicians to translate his research to translationally usefulfindings.