Li Shan Eliza Fong
Associate Professor Li Shan Eliza Fong
Faculty & Department
Joint Appointments
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering
Jt Appt - Assistant Professor, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore
Jt Appt - Assistant Professor, N.1 Institute for Health, N.1 Institute for Health
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Rice University, United States
Bachelor of Engineering (Bioengineering) Hons Class 1, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Bio
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Concurrently, I am also a Principal Investigator at the N.1. Institute for Health and an Associate Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute (CSI).
I lead a diverse and inclusive team of trainees to develop platforms that contribute to improved drug development in cancer, and the possibility of personalizing cancer medicine through functional precision oncology. Together, we strive to overcome some of the bottlenecks in in vitro and ex vivo tumor modeling to make a difference to the treatment of cancer patients.
Contact Information
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapore-made-gel-allows-lab-testing-of-drugs-on-live-samples-from-advanced-abdominal-cancer
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/singapore-scientists-preserve-lymph-nodes-outside-body-to-test-vaccines
Broadly, research in my laboratory can be categorized into three major research pillars: (1) Tumor explants 2.0, (2) Cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) heterogeneity, and (3) Tumor-stromal co-cultures. These three research pillars seek to address the need for tumor models that reflect the extent of stromal complexity and heterogeneity in cancer. It is important that I clarify this intent here to set the stage for why the research in my laboratory is impactful and translational. With the advent of single-cell profiling and more recently spatial transcriptomics, it is now evident that human tumors are highly heterogeneous not only in the cancer compartment, but also within the stromal compartment. Hence, there is not only stromal complexity (referring to the different stromal cell types present), but also stromal heterogeneity (the different stromal states present). Yet, existing in vitro tumor models are not able to reflect this diversity with fidelity or control. I mentioned the term ‘translational’ because this problem was identified not only through thorough landscape review, but also through actual discussions and collaborations with leaders in the oncological space in top biopharma companies. Furthermore, spatial profiling now tells us that tumors are organized into cellular neighborhoods, and that stromal subpopulations adopt specific locations within tumors i.e. spatial heterogeneity.
My laboratory’s single-minded focus is to recapitulate aspects of stromal heterogeneity in in vitro/ex vivo models for drug development.