Overview
The SIgN
Cancer program uses deep immunophenotyping via the SIgN Immunomonitoring
Platform to
identify the pathological immune mechanisms and signalling pathways underlying cancer and to discover new
biomarkers to better predict cancer prognosis and treatment responses. Here, pre-clinical studies, such
as in
vivotargeting in
xenograft and humanized mouse models, and the Human
Monoclonal Antibodies Platform are
driving the development of new biologics. The overall research objective of the Cancer program is to translate
novel discoveries to the clinic, and perform clinical immunomonitoring, clinical trials monitoring and develop
point-of-care screening platforms.
The Cancer program covers three main themes:
- Cancer Metabolism: using metabolomics, fluxomics and metabolic targeting
- Immunotherapy: based on CAR-T cells, human monoclonal antibodies, immune checkpoint inhibitors and protein scaffold biologics
- Immunomonitoring: by deep immune-phenotyping, immunogenomics and studies of the immune repertoire
Principal Investigators involved include:
- Giulia ADRIANI
- Subhra BISWAS
- Jinmiao CHEN
- Florent GINHOUX
- Kaibo DUAN
- Lai Guan NG
- Ee Chee REN
- Cheng-I WANG
Click here to
visit the Principal Investigators page.
Research highlights
The data
produced by researchers in this program is of high scientific excellence, as indicated by numerous successful
publications in high impact journals including Science,
Blood, Gut, Lancet Oncology and Nature
Cell Biology (see below).
Furthermore, the studies conducted by our researchers have health, economic and industrial impact. Examples of
the translational research conducted, and novel discoveries and innovative technologies contributed by the
program include:
- Immune-oncology antibodies targeting immune checkpoint inhibitors (licensed)
- Immuno-metabolic profiling in human cancer
- Humanized NOG mice models in cancer
- Human vaccine platform in cancer
- Immune-signatures for cancer and immunotherapy
Based on
such developments, partnerships with various industry partners have been successfully established, including
EuChole Bio Pte. Ltd (local spin-off acquired by Tessa Therapeutics), Merck, CIEA Japan and others.
In addition,
the Cancer program has established collaborations with several clinical partners for access to various cancer
cohorts including: the National Cancer Center Singapore, the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and Singapore
General Hospital (Singhealth) and the National University Health Systems.
The Cancer
program has international collaborations with researchers including at: the Humanitas University Milan, Italy;
the University of Washington, USA; the University of California, USA; the University of Minnesota, USA.
Key Publications
Fehlings M
et al. Checkpoint blockade immunotherapy reshapes the high-dimensional phenotypic heterogeneity of murine
intratumoural neoantigen-specific CD8+ T cells. Nat
Commun. 2017.
Simoni Y et
al. Human Innate Lymphoid Cell Subsets Possess Tissue-Type Based Heterogeneity in Phenotype and
Frequency. Immunity. 2016.
Saha S et
al. Tumor-Associated Neutrophils Show Phenotypic and Functional Divergence in Human Lung
Cancer. Cancer
Cell. 2016.
Lee Y et al.
Rewiring macrophages for anti-tumour immunity. Nat
Cell Biol. 2016.
Salmon H et
al. Expansion and Activation of CD103(+) Dendritic Cell Progenitors at the Tumor Site Enhances Tumor Responses
to Therapeutic PD-L1 and BRAF Inhibition. Immunity. 2016.
Tan WL, Jain
A, Takano A, Newell EW, Iyer NG, Lim WT, Tan EH, Zhai W, Hillmer AM, Tam WL, Tan DS. Novel therapeutic targets
on the horizon for lung cancer. Lancet
Oncol. 2016.
Hanna RN et
al. Patrolling monocytes control tumor metastasis to the lung. Science. 2015.
Biswas SK.
Metabolic Reprogramming of Immune Cells in Cancer Progression. Immunity. 2015.
Shalova IN
et al. Human Monocytes Undergo Functional Re-programming during Sepsis Mediated by Hypoxia-Inducible
Factor-1α. Immunity. 2015.
Garnelo M et
al. Interaction between tumour-infiltrating B cells and T cells controls the progression of hepatocellular
carcinoma. Gut. 2015.
Chittezhath
M et al. Molecular profiling reveals a tumor-promoting phenotype of monocytes and macrophages in human cancer
progression. Immunity. 2014.
Click here to
visit the full SIgN Publications page.