Track A3: Charting the Paths to Clinical Frontiers
Sunday, 28 September | 10:30–12:00 | Grand Ballroom (Level 4)
This session showcases various efforts to push the boundaries of clinical care, particularly in the areas of advanced therapeutics and future therapy targets. Participants will be introduced to cutting-edge research, innovative treatment approaches, and evolving trends that are shaping the future of patient care. The session also provides an opportunity for attendees to engage in meaningful discussions on emerging challenges. Additionally, it serves as a platform for building new professional collaborations, fostering interdisciplinary connections that can lead to future research initiatives, clinical partnerships, and knowledge exchange across institutions and specialties.
Presentations
Lipoprotein(a) – the Must-Know Cardiovascular Risk Factor and Treatment Strategies by Dr Wann Jia LOH
Lipoprotein(a) is an underdiagnosed and currently the most neglected risk factor for cardiovascular disease, despite being a common lipid disorder affecting 20% of people globally. This session will discuss epidemiology and clinical implications, past and new therapies, and the novel LILAC-for-Lp(a) holistic approach that the speaker has created.
Cancer Vaccines by Asst Prof Gloryn CHIA
Cancer vaccines are immunotherapies designed to stimulate the immune system to recognise and eliminate tumour cells by targeting tumour-associated or tumour-specific antigens. They work by activating cytotoxic T lymphocytes and other immune effectors to specifically attack cancer cells while sparing normal tissues. Cancer vaccines may target neoantigens, which are tumour-specific peptides arising from tumour mutations, or overexpressed self-antigens. Challenges include tumour immune evasion, heterogeneity, and immunosuppressive tumour microenvironments.
Recent advances in genomics, neoantigen prediction, and delivery platforms have led to personalised vaccines tailored to an individual’s tumour mutation profile, as well as “off-the-shelf” vaccines for shared antigens. Clinical trials are exploring their use, alone or in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, to improve therapeutic outcomes.
Therapeutics in Multiple Sclerosis – Bruton Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and Beyond by Dr Jeanne TAN
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the neuroinflammatory disease model of the central nervous system. Great success has been achieved in molecular medicine with disease modifying therapies for MS, using monoclonal antibodies targeting CD20, CD52 and a4 integrin. However, there is disability progression despite control of new lesion formation and relapses. This has led to the recognition of shouldering inflammation that is ongoing in both the relapsing and progressive forms of MS.
This presentation discusses the pregnancy data for CD20 monoclonal antibodies, new therapeutic strategies with bruton tyroxine kinase inhibitors, and the possible use of chimeric-antigen receptor T-cell therapies in MS.
Panel Discussion/Q&A moderated by Asst Prof Kar Tong TAN
Synopsis
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Speakers and Moderator
Dr Wann Jia LOH
Senior Consultant
Endocrinology
Changi General Hospital
Singapore
Dr Wann Jia Loh is a senior consultant endocrinologist working in Changi General Hospital. In 2019, she set up the Lipid Service in CGH and continues to build the lipid team. Apart from general endocrinology and internal medicine, she has subspecialty interest in metabolic conditions, including obesity, dyslipidaemia, atypical diabetes, and severe insulin resistant states.
She graduated from Imperial College London (UK) with Distinction and an intercalated degree of Bachelor of Science in Endocrinology with first-class honours. She undertook clinical and research fellowships in London (2017) and in Australia (HMDP 2022). She has written multiple publications related to dyslipidaemia, including lipoprotein(a). She has won a few research awards, including the Nurturing Clinician Researcher Award, the Singhealth Publish! Award, and the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) research training fund and the NRMC Population Health Research Grant – New Investigator Grant.
Asst Prof Gloryn CHIA
Assistant Professor
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
National University of Singapore
Singapore
Dr Gloryn Chia is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, and a Principal Investigator at iHealthtech. Her research focuses on advancing cancer immunotherapy by overcoming immune resistance in solid tumours. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in Stem Cell Biology, and went on to complete her post-doctoral training at Columbia University under the A*STAR International Fellowship. In 2019, she was awarded the National Research Fellowship, and in 2021 she was one of two female scientists to receive the L’Oréal Singapore for Women in Science Fellowship. Her current research interests include developing neoantigen vaccines for treating solid tumours and discovering novel immunotherapies to overcome refractory cancers.
Dr Jeanne TAN
Consultant
Neurology
National Neuroscience Institute
Singapore
After obtaining her PhD from the National University of Singapore, Dr Jeanne Tan went on to do her scientific post-doctoral training at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI), Singapore, and John-Hopkins, Baltimore, USA, under the supervision of A/Prof Lim Kah Leong and Professor Ted Dawson, respectively. She then got her Doctor of Medicine from Duke-NUS and embarked on a career in clinical medicine. She completed junior residency in internal medicine and entered neurology clinician scientist (CS) training in 2016. For her CS training, she focused on research in autoimmune encephalitis at the University of Oxford under the supervision of A/Prof Sarosh Irani. After obtaining her neurology clinician scientist specialist accreditation, she joined NNI as an Associate Consultant in Neurology. She is now a Consultant and runs clinic in general neurology and a weekly neuroimmunology clinic at NNI.
Speaker
Title
Affiliation
Country
Bio
Asst Prof Kar Tong TAN
Assistant Professor
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
National University of Singapore
Singapore
Dr Kar Tong Tan is an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), jointly appointed in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Biomedical Informatics. His research focuses on large-scale genome mining and computational genomics. Dr Tan earned his PhD in Computational Genomics and Bioinformatics from Harvard University, where he also completed an SM in Computational Science and Engineering. Prior to that, he completed his Bachelor in Life Science and Master in Computer Science degrees at NUS. His lab develops cutting-edge computational methods to uncover hidden somatic alterations in cancer, engineer novel RNA-based therapeutics, and explore the role of somatic mutations in age-related diseases.
