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Our Researchers

Our Researchers

  • Daniel Tan
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  • Tony Mok
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  • Dong-Wan Kim
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  • James Yang
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  • Ross Soo
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  • Chee Khoon Lee
  • |
  • Thanyanan Baisamut
Executive Committee
Scientific Steering Committee
Dr. Daniel S W Tan
Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology
Dr Daniel Tan is the current head of the Department of Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Sciences, National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), an Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, and a Senior Clinician-Scientist at Genome Institute of Singapore.

His main area of interest is in thoracic, head and neck malignancies and drug development. He currently leads the Experimental Cancer Therapeutics Unit (ECRU) at NCCS, and has been instrumental to growing it to one of the largest Phase I units in Asia, running up to 30 – 40 trials at any one time.

He is also the Principal Investigator of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Laboratory at NCCS focused on developing representative patient-derived preclinical models to gain insights to drug response and resistance, complementing his role as the principal investigator for multiple biomarker-driven early phase clinical trials including first-in-human studies.

He is the principal investigator for the National Medical Research Council Lung Cancer Large Collaborative Grant (2019 – 2023), and Chairs the Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group, the latter set up as a platform to coordinate translational research and clinical trials in the region.

Dr. Tan’s research interests include rational application of “omics” technologies to unravel drug resistance in cancer therapeutics and accelerating the development of novel agents and biomarkers in the clinic.

His research has been recognized through multiple local and international awards, including European Society of Medical Oncology Congress Travel Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Awards, ASCO Young Investigator Award as well as most recently being awarded the IASLC Daniel C. Idhe Lectureship Award in 2019, the latter in recognition of his work in the field on medical oncology and extensive contributions to the lung cancer arena.

Dr. Tan also holds a SingHealth GCEO Outstanding Clinician-Researcher Award and a National Medical Research Council Clinician-Scientists Award. He has published widely in journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology and Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Tan is the past Chair of the Education Committee of the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and has participated in the organizing scientific committees and faculty member for multiple international conferences including WCLC, ESMO and ASCO.

In ESMO 2021, he is the track chair for translational research. He has been active in developing educational resources to enhance quality of lung cancer care globally and was involved in The Lancet Commission on Lung Cancer. He serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Thoracic Oncology and was the conference chair for the World Conference in Lung Cancer 2020, the flagship and largest interdisciplinary conference of the IASLC.
Singapore National Cancer Centre Singapore
Executive Committee
Scientific Steering Committee
Prof. Tony SK Mok
Chairman, Department of Clinical Oncology
Li Shu Fan Professor of Clinical Oncology
Prof. Tony S. K. Mok trained at the University of Alberta, Canada and subsequently completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Canada.

After working as a community oncologist in Toronto, Canada for seven years, he returned to Hong Kong in 1996 to pursue an academic career.

He is Li Shu Fan Medical Foundation Named Professor and Chairman of Clinical Oncology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

His main research interest focuses on biomarker and molecular targeted therapy in lung cancer. He co-founded the Lung Cancer Research Group, and has led a number of important multinational clinical trials, which include the IPASS, FASTAST 2, IMPRESS and PROFILE 1014 that contributed to the current standard of practice on management of advanced stage lung cancer.

Prof. Mok has contributed to over 185 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Lancet and Journal of Clinical Oncology, and contributed to multiple editorials and textbooks. He is active and experienced in serving the academic societies.

He is the Past President of the International Association for the Study Of Lung Cancer (IASLC), Past Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) International Affairs Committee, a member of the ASCO Publications Committee and Vice Secretary of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO).

He is closely affiliated with the oncology community in China, and has received an Honorary Professorship at Guang Dong Province People’s Hospital, Guest Professorship at Peking University School of Oncology, Visiting Professorship at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and West China School of Medicine/West China Hospital, Sichuan University.

He is an Editor on Thoracic Oncology for Journal of Clinical Oncology. He has also authored six books in Chinese and hosted three television series in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Executive Committee
Scientific Steering Committee
Prof Dong-Wan Kim
Department of Internal Medicine
Dr. Dong-Wan Kim is a Professor of Medicine at the Seoul National University (SNU) College of Medicine and Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), Seoul, Korea.

Dr Kim received his MD from the SNU and completed a residency in internal medicine at the SNUH.

After completing his fellowship at the SNUH, he has been working at SNUH and SNU College of Medicine as a staff member since 2003. He spent a year at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center as a Visiting Research Fellow in 2007.

Dr. Kim’s specialty is medical treatment for lung cancer and research interests include clinical and translational research related to lung cancer. He has extensive experience in conducting clinical studies including first-in-human phase I studies with molecular targeted agents.

Also, he carried out researches to identify predictive factors and resistant mechanisms of anti-cancer drugs for lung cancer patients.
South Korea Seoul National University Hospital
Executive Committee
Scientific Steering Committee
Dr. James Chih-Hsin Yang
Chairman, Department of Clinical Oncology
Director, Department of Oncology
Dr. James Chih-Hsin Yang is currently the Director and Professor of Graduate Institute of Oncology at the National Taiwan University (NTU). He is also the director of the Department of Oncology at the National Taiwan University Hospital. He has been a staff member in the Department of Oncology at the University Hospital since 1995.

Dr. Yang received his MD from NTU in 1986 and completed his internal medicine residency at the NTU Hospital. Between 1992 and 1995, he undertook medical oncology fellowship training at the National Cancer Institute at Bethesda, Maryland.

He completed his PhD degree between 1996 and 2000 at the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, NTU.

Dr. Yang’s research focuses on lung cancer treatment and the mechanism of multidrug resistance of chemotherapy or targeted therapy. His basic research work includes molecular mechanisms of resistance and reversal of resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

Dr. Yang is a leader in lung cancer clinical studies, especially in the development of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR TKI). He and other Asian investigators have established EGFR TKI as the front line treatment for lung cancer patients with EGFR mutation (IPASS).

He is also the global principal investigator of several pivotal trials that led to the global approval of a second generation EGFR TKI, afatinib (LUX-LUNG 1, 2 &3). An area of active research is now focused on the development of third generation EGFR TKIs and Dr. Yang has contributed to the approval of osimertinib.

Dr. Yang has published more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He served on the editorial board of Annals of Oncology and Lung Cancer and is the current associate editor of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology and Nature Scientific Report.

He received the 2nd Kobayashi Foundation Cancer Research Award in Asian Clinical Oncology Society in 2012, and the distinguished research award of National Science Council, Taiwan from 2012-2015 and distinguished research award of Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan from 2016-2018.

He is also the recipient of the TECO award for biotechnology in 2015.
Taiwan National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH)
Scientific Steering Committee
Dr. Ross Soo
Senior Consultant, Department of Haematology-Oncology, NCIS
Principal Investigator, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, NUS
Dr. Ross Soo is a senior consultant in the Department of Haematology-Oncology at the National University Cancer Institute Singapore, and an adjunct principal investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore.

He received his medical degree from Monash University, underwent specialist training in Melbourne and Sydney, and subsequently became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Academy of Medicine, Singapore.

He specialises in lung cancer and head and neck cancer and leads the lung tumour group at the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore.

Dr. Soo’s professional affiliations include memberships of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and the Singapore Society of Oncology.

He sits on various committees including National Healthcare Group Domain-Specific Ethics Review Board, Ministry of Health Drug Advisory Committee (DAC), DAC-Oncology Drug Subcommittee, Medical Oncology Specialist Training Committee, Chapter of Medical Oncology Executive Committee, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Communications Committee.
Singapore National University Cancer Institute Singapore
Scientific Steering Committee
A/Prof Chee Khoon Lee
Consultant Medical Oncologist
Director, Clinical Research Unit (Medical Oncology), St George Hospital
Clinical Lead Research Fellow, NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, The University of Sydney
Dr Daniel Tan is the current head of the Department of Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Sciences, National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), an Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, and a Senior Clinician-Scientist at Genome Institute of Singapore. His main area of interest is in thoracic, head and neck malignancies and drug development. He currently leads the Experimental Cancer Therapeutics Unit (ECRU) at NCCS, and has been instrumental to growing it to one of the largest Phase I units in Asia, running up to 30 – 40 trials at any one time. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Laboratory at NCCS focused on developing representative patient-derived preclinical models to gain insights to drug response and resistance, complementing his role as the principal investigator for multiple biomarker-driven early phase clinical trials including first-in-human studies. He is the principal investigator for the National Medical Research Council Lung Cancer Large Collaborative Grant (2019 – 2023), and Chairs the Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group, the latter set up as a platform to coordinate translational research and clinical trials in the region.

Dr. Tan’s research interests include rational application of “omics” technologies to unravel drug resistance in cancer therapeutics and accelerating the development of novel agents and biomarkers in the clinic. His research has been recognized through multiple local and international awards, including European Society of Medical Oncology Congress Travel Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Merit Awards, ASCO Young Investigator Award as well as most recently being awarded the IASLC Daniel C. Idhe Lectureship Award in 2019, the latter in recognition of his work in the field on medical oncology and extensive contributions to the lung cancer arena. Dr. Tan also holds a SingHealth GCEO Outstanding Clinician-Researcher Award and a National Medical Research Council Clinician-Scientists Award. He has published widely in journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology and Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Tan is the past Chair of the Education Committee of the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and has participated in the organizing scientific committees and faculty member for multiple international conferences including WCLC, ESMO and ASCO. In ESMO 2021, he is the track chair for translational research. He has been active in developing educational resources to enhance quality of lung cancer care globally and was involved in The Lancet Commission on Lung Cancer. He serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Thoracic Oncology and was the conference chair for the World Conference in Lung Cancer 2020, the flagship and largest interdisciplinary conference of the IASLC.
Australia St George Hospital
Scientific Steering Committee
A/Prof Thanyanan Baisamut (Reungwetwattana)
Assistant Professor
Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University
Dr. Thanyanan Baisamut (Reungwetwattana) is a consultant at Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand. She received her medical degree from the Thai Board of Internal Medicine and Thai Subspecialty Board in Medical Oncology at Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand. After that, she spent 3 years from August 2009 to June 2012 as a clinical research fellow in thoracic malignancies and also obtained a Master’s Degree of Biomedical Science (Clinical Research Training Program) at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Rochester, MN, USA. Subsequently, she extended her training as a Clinical Fellow in Advanced Medical Oncology focusing on Cancer Drug Development Program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, NY, USA from July 2012 to July 2013.

Dr. Reungwetwattana’s research interests are in lung cancer and drug development which involve both in clinical and translational settings. She recently received a 3-year grant from the Thai government for one of her lung cancer research projects. Furthermore, Dr. Reungwetwattana has served as an editorial board member and committee of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology from June 2013 to present. She also sits on the Communication committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) from 2015 to present
Thailand Ramathibodi Hospital