Biography

Kong-Peng Lam obtained his BA (summa cum laude) at the University of Minnesota and his M.A., M. Phil and PhD at Columbia University in the USA. Thereafter he joined the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne in Germany as a postdoctoral research scientist, where he was awarded both the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) long-term fellowships to study B cell development using conditional gene knockout approaches. He returned to Singapore in 1998 and assumed the position of Principal Investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). In 2002-3, he attended the Sloan Fellow Program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he graduated with an MSc (Management) degree. He was seconded to Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) where he served as Director (2003), Deputy Executive Director (2004) and Executive Director (2005-2006). He contributed to the establishment of Biopolis and was instrumental in setting up its key infrastructure. He also played a major role in procuring the national funding for biomedical research for 2006 to 2010 under the S&T2010 plan.

Kong-Peng returned to full-time research and was the founding Executive Director of the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) from 2006 to 2008. He conceptualised its research programs and set up its physical laboratories. He joined the Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) as Scientific Director in 2009 and was its Executive Director from 2011 to 2020. Under his leadership, BTI expanded its research in Biologics Discovery & Development, Cell Therapy and Analytical Science & Technology and established major research collaborations with international and local biopharma and biotech companies such as GSK, Amgen, SCIEX, Waters, Bio-Rad, Organo, Biosana, Prestige, and Esco-Aster. Kong-Peng was re-appointed Executive Director of SIgN in July 2020 to re-shape and reposition the institute for RIE2025.

Kong-Peng was awarded NUS Outstanding Researcher Award, the Singapore Youth Award in Science & Technology (2000), and the Arthur Kornberg Memorial Medal (2010). He currently served as Vice-President of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB) and is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of MiRXES, a local biotech that focussed on miRNA as diagnostics.

Adjunct Positions

  • Professor (tenured), Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
  • Adjunct Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University

Research Focus

  • Studying immune cell and receptor signaling
  • Deciphering immune contribution to and resolution of diseases
  • Developing and engineering immuno-therapeutics against various human ailments

Lab Members

Postdocs (Ph.D) Research Officers  PhD Student
Ivan TAN
Joey TEO
 Ana Elfrida Aloka De Sa
Candice YAM
Tingyi SEE 
Biyan ZHANG

 
Weili XU
 

Publications

Publications_Kong Peng Lam (last updated 16 May 2024)