Chuan YAN

Chuan Yan is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) . 

Chuan joined IMCB as a junior investigator in 2022, to establish a research program aimed at understanding therapy resistance mechanisms in liver cancer. He was promoted to Principal Investigator in 2023.

Prior to IMCB, Chuan was a Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) , working with Dr. David Langenau, to create an immunocompromised zebrafish model that allows engraftment and growth of human cells. This work has resulted in the seminal publication at Cell in 2019, providing a novel xenotransplantation animal model that is useful in both basic biological and translational drug discovery studies. As a postdoctoral fellow at MGH, Yan Chuan has received fellowship supports from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Cancer Foundation, MGH ECOR and Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation (PCRF). In 2022, He was named as the Broad’s Institute Next Generation in Biomedicine, and an emerging investigator by PCRF. 

Chuan trained with Prof. Gong Zhiyuan in the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS, where he obtained his PhD in 2016.

Chuan’s current research interest is trying to understand therapy resistance mechanisms in cancer. His group employs a combination of cutting-edge bulk/single cell sequencing, preclinical animal modelling, high throughput drug discovery approaches to dissect resistance mechanisms for translational applications. 

RESEARCH

At IMCB, Chuan’s lab investigates functional consequences of acquired genomic and transcriptomic changes during therapy resistance of first line cancer therapy drugs in cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma, soft-tissue sarcoma, and ovarian carcinoma. This work leverages on a combination of next generation bulk and single cell sequencing approaches, as well as xenograft-based animal modelling using immunodeficient zebrafish and mice. The lab aims to uncover new combination therapies or diagnostics that can quickly translate into potential clinical applications.

PUBLICATIONS