The research arm of the Children's Cancer Foundation (CCF) Psychosocial Supportive Care Programme (PSCP) aims to explore and develop innovative interventions to address the psychosocial needs of children with cancer and their families in Singapore. Our ongoing research ensures that our support services are up-to-date with the best clinical practices, so that our patients and families receive the best possible care.
About the Principle Investigator (PI):
Dr Amos Loh is Chairman of the Division of Surgery and Senior Consultant at the Department of Paediatric Surgery, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, and Assistant Professor at the Duke NUS Medical School. He is also Principal Investigator of the VIVA-KKH Paediatric Solid Tumour Research Laboratory and Chairman of the VIVA-KKH Paediatric Brain and Solid Tumour Programme, and has a clinical practice and academic research focus in paediatric surgical oncology and childhood solid tumours.
Dr Loh obtained his medical degree from the National University of Singapore in 2002. He trained subsequently in general and paediatric surgery and was awarded the Academy of Medicine Singapore College of Surgeons Gold Medal in paediatric surgery. He pursued a paediatric surgical oncology fellowship and a research fellowship at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, for which he was awarded a National Medical Research Council research training award.
His academic interests are in clinical and translational research in paediatric solid tumours, in particular, patient-derived preclinical models of paediatric solid tumors, and novel biomarker discovery for prognostication and therapeutic stratification.
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About the BST Laboratory:
Translational research for childhood brain and solid tumours is critical in finding new and better ways to treat these diseases, while trying to minimize the harm caused by drugs, radiation or surgery. This requires an integrated approach and a high degree of collaboration between doctors and scientists. In this area, KKH, with its high volume of patients, works in cooperation with research centres within the SingHealth Duke-NUS cluster.
Using a translational research pipeline, we adopt a targeted approach to advance scientific findings from basic, to pre-clinical and early clinical development, and on to early phase clinical trials, for various paediatric brain and solid tumours. Given the wide variety of tumour types, the Programme has adopted a special focus on development of personalised medical management strategies through individualized molecular and phenotypic tests.
Current Initiatives:
Modeling, Analysis and Translational Therapeutics for Tumours of Childhood (MAT3CH)
This platform develops orthotopic patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and in vitro cell line models of paediatric brain and solid tumours, in order to facilitate molecular characterization and evaluation of novel therapies for these diseases. This programme facilitates the molecular characterization of paediatric solid tumours in Asian children for the identification of pathogenic molecular aberrations, comparisons of inter-population variations, and in-vivo evaluation of novel agents for translation into early-phase human trials.
BST programme achievements:
(a) Translational research
About the BMTCT Laboratory:
The KKH BMTCT research laboratory conducts basic science investigations and generates preclinical and correlative research which will be of immediate translational use in the clinics. Our laboratory is situated in the Discovery Tower at Academia, which houses SingHealth’s research laboratories and experimental animal facilities, within the vicinity of Duke-NUS Medical School. The vision is for a seamless circuit from innovation and discovery to animal in vivo studies and finally to the bedside, with robust correlative platforms and generating more areas of research. We aim to increase collaborations and exchanges with other centres to advance transplantation and cellular therapy in Singapore and beyond.
Some of the Programme's collaborations:
Laboratory Journals:
W Leung, TG Soh, YC Linn, JGH Low, JS Loh, M Chan, WJ Chng, LP Koh, ML Poon, KP Ng, CH Kuik, TT Tan, LK Tan, MS Seng. Rapid production of clinical-grade SARS CoV-2 specific T cells. Adv Cell Gene Ther. 2020 Oct; 3(4):e101. DOI:10.1002/acg2.101 PMID 32838213
For more information, visit our Blood and Marrow Tansplant and Cellular Therapy Centre via this Link
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