Full Name
Dr. Tiong Ong MA, MBBCh, MRCP (UK)
Job Title
Professor, Programme in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology
Company/Affiliation
Duke-NUS Medical School
Speaker Bio
Dr. Ong trained as a hematologist/oncologist at the University of Chicago, where he also began his laboratory research with Michelle Le Beau. Following his clinical fellowship, he repeated his residency at UC Irvine (UCI) to fulfill ABIM certification requirements, and then did further bench work with Hung Fan. His independent research career started in 2001 when he began his studies in cancer drug resistance. While his studies focus on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), the implications of his work have been extended to other human cancers, including EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer, and more recently, glioblastoma and breast cancer brain metastases.
In 2007, he joined Duke-NUS, a collaboration between Duke University and the National University of Singapore (NUS), to help build the first American-style post-baccalaureate medical school in Asia. Since 2015, he was appointed to serve as the inaugural Director of the Duke-NUS MD-PhD Programme and had the opportunity to develop unique educational experiences for budding clinician-scientists in Singapore.
His research career began with foundational work on the role of dysregulated mRNA translation in resistance to imatinib (Gleevec). In recent years, his team has made significant contributions to the understanding of BCR::ABL1-independent factors in CML patient response heterogeneity, including microenvironmental factors (extracellular cytokine signaling via SRSF1, physiologic hypoxia), germline polymorphisms (the BIM deletion polymorphism), and, more recently, BCR::ABL1-independent epigenetic reprogramming of leukemia stem cells. Several of these discoveries have led to early-phase clinical trials conducted by Dr. Ong or his collaborators, leveraging new basic knowledge uncovered by discovery-driven projects.
A common thread that runs through his work is the use of cutting-edge technologies to interrogate primary patient samples, efforts undertaken in close collaboration with leading computational biologists. These discovery efforts are followed by bench-based experiments to dissect, confirm, and therapeutically overcome novel mechanisms of drug resistance.
In 2007, he joined Duke-NUS, a collaboration between Duke University and the National University of Singapore (NUS), to help build the first American-style post-baccalaureate medical school in Asia. Since 2015, he was appointed to serve as the inaugural Director of the Duke-NUS MD-PhD Programme and had the opportunity to develop unique educational experiences for budding clinician-scientists in Singapore.
His research career began with foundational work on the role of dysregulated mRNA translation in resistance to imatinib (Gleevec). In recent years, his team has made significant contributions to the understanding of BCR::ABL1-independent factors in CML patient response heterogeneity, including microenvironmental factors (extracellular cytokine signaling via SRSF1, physiologic hypoxia), germline polymorphisms (the BIM deletion polymorphism), and, more recently, BCR::ABL1-independent epigenetic reprogramming of leukemia stem cells. Several of these discoveries have led to early-phase clinical trials conducted by Dr. Ong or his collaborators, leveraging new basic knowledge uncovered by discovery-driven projects.
A common thread that runs through his work is the use of cutting-edge technologies to interrogate primary patient samples, efforts undertaken in close collaboration with leading computational biologists. These discovery efforts are followed by bench-based experiments to dissect, confirm, and therapeutically overcome novel mechanisms of drug resistance.
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