Assoc Prof Tam Wai Leong

Dr Tam is a leading cancer biologist whose pioneering work has advanced our understanding of tumour biology and metastasis. Currently Deputy CEO (Research) at NCCS and the Programme Director of Cancer and Stem Cell Biology (CSCB) Signature Research Programme, Duke-NUS, he also heads the Laboratory of Translational Cancer Biology. Dr Tam obtained his PhD in Stem Cell Biology from the National University of Singapore and completed his post-doctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr Tam’s leadership in research has received numerous honours, including the National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship (2015) and the NRF Investigatorship (2023).

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research / Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
• Ph.D., Stem Cell Biology, Genome Institute of Singapore / National University of Singapore, 2008
• B.Sc. with First Class Honors, Biology, National University of Singapore, 2003
• University Scholars Programme, Faculty of Science, and Special Programme in Science, National University of Singapore

• English

• Programme Director, Signature Research Program in Cancer and Stem Cell Biology, Duke-NUS Medical School 
• Deputy CEO (Research), National Cancer Centre Singapore
• Academic Vice-Chair (Research), Oncology Academic Clinical Program, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre
• Deputy Executive Director, Genome Institute of Singapore, A*STAR 
• Associate Investigator, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, NUS

• 2023 – present A*STAR Fellow (Elected) 
• 2023 – present Singapore NRF Investigator, National Research Foundation, Singapore 
• 2015 – 2020 Singapore NRF Fellow, National Research Foundation, Singapore 
• 2003 – 2007 A*STAR Graduate Scholarship, A*STAR 
• 2003 – 2006 President’s Graduate Fellowship, NUS 
• 2003 Vice-Chancellor’s List, NUS 
• 2003 Joanna Wong Gold Medal Award, University Scholars Programme, NUS 
• 2002 – 2003 Frazer & Neave Book Prize, Faculty of Science, NUS 
• 2001 – 2003 Raffles Prize, Faculty of Science, NUS 
• 2000 – 2003 Dean’s List (every year), NUS

• Cancer Stem Cells 
• Cancer Cell State Plasticity 
• Cancer Metabolism 
• Tumour Niche Biology

• Wu Z, Wang Z, Ng SQ, Lidster JA, Schwerd-Kleine P, Phua ZJC, Peh KLE, Ho YY, Yuan J, Shathishwaran S, Yeo XH, Zhang Y, Chiu YHJ, Lau LYE, Lim TKH, Takano A, Tan EH, Skan-derup AJ, Tergaonkar V, Han W, Ho YS, Tan DSW, Tam WL. (2025) Induction of a metabolic switch from glucose to ketone metabolism programs ketogenic diet-induced therapeutic vulnerability in lung cancer. Cell Metabolism. Oct 24:S1550-4131(25)00435-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2025.10.001 
• Liang YY, Khalid K, Le HV, Teo HMV, Raitelaitis M, Gerault M-A, Lee JJH, Lyu J, Chan A, Jey-asekharan A, Tam WL#, Nordlund P#, Prabhu N#. (2025) MS-CETSA functional proteomics uncovers new DNA-repair programs leading to Gemcitabine resistance. Nature Communi-cations. May 7;16(1):4234 #Corresponding author 
• Tran TTT, Phung CD, Yeo BZJ, Prajogo RC, Jayasinghe MK, Yuan J, Trinh NM, Yeo EYM, Dahai L, Goh BC, Tam WL#, Le MTN#. (2024) Customized design of ASOs targeting EGFR driver mu-tants for personalized treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. EBioMedicine. Sep 19;108:105356. doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105356.. #Corresponding authors 
• Chen J#,*, Kaya NA*, Zhang Y*, Kendarsari RI, Sekar K, Lee Chong S, Seshachalam VP, Ling WH, Jin Phua CZ, Lai H, Yang H, Lu B, Lim JQ, Ma S, Chew SC, Chua KP, Santiago Alvarez JJ, Wu L, Ooi L, Yaw-Fui Chung A, Cheow PC, Kam JH, Wei-Chieh Kow A, Ganpathi IS, Bunchaliew C, Thammasiri J, Koh PS, Bee-Lan Ong D, Lim J, de Villa VH, Dela Cruz RD, Loh TJ, Wan WK, Leow WQ, Yang Y, Liu J, Skanderup AJ, Pang YH, Ting Soon GS, Madhavan K, Kiat-Hon Lim T, Bonney G, Goh BKP, Chew V, Dan YY, Toh HC, Sik-Yin Foo R, Tam WL#, Zhai W#, Kah-Hoe Chow P#. (2024) A multimodal atlas of hepatocellular carcinoma reveals con-vergent evolutionary paths and the ‘bad apple’ effect on clinical trajectory. Journal of Hepatology. doi:/10.1016/j.jhep.2024.05.017. #Corresponding authors 
• Alcolea MP, Alonso-Curbelo D, Ambrogio C, Bullman S, Correia AL, Ernst A, Halbrook CJ, Kelly GL, Lund AW, Quail DF, Ruscetti M, Shema E, Stromnes IM, Tam WL. (2024) Cancer Hallmarks: Piecing the Puzzle Together. Cancer Discovery. 2024 Apr 4;14(4):674-682. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-24-0097. 
• Lee YF, Phua CZJ, Yuan J, Zhang B, Lee MY, Kannan S, Chiu YHJ, Koh CWQ, Yap CK, Lim EKH, Chen J, Lim Y, Lee JJH, Skanderup AJ, Wang Z, Zhai W, Tan NS, Verma CS, Tay Y, Tan DSW, Tam WL. (2024) PARP4 regulates intronic splicing through hnRNPM in lung adenocar-cinoma. Genome Medicine. Jul 22;16(1):91. doi: 10.1186/s13073-024-01328-1. 
• Zhao S, Yang X, Zeng Z, Qian P, Zhao Z, Dai L, Prabhu N, Nordlund P, Tam WL. (2024) Deep learning based CETSA feature prediction cross multiple cell lines with latent space repre-sentation. Scientific Reports. Jan 22;14(1):1878. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-51193-6. 
• Lee YF, Chen L, Chew V, Chow EK, Deng LW, Hunziker W, Lee ASG, Leong G, Ngeow J, Per-vaiz S, Sabapathy K, Skanderup AJ, Sundar R, Tay Y, Virshup DM, Wong SH, Tergaonkar V, Tam WL. (2024) Pushing the Frontiers of Cancer Research: Highlights from the Frontiers in Cancer Science Conference 2023. Cancer Research. Apr 15;84(8):1195-1198. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-24-0721. 
• Lee MY, Tam WL. (2023) Multimodal metabolomics pinpoint new metabolic vulnerability in colorectal cancer. Nature Metabolism. Aug; 5(8):1255-1257. doi: 10.1038/s42255-023-00852-5 
• Wu Z, Tam WL. (2021) A new foe in folate metabolism. Nature Metabolism. 18 Nov 2021. 10.1038/s42255-021-00474-9 
• Loo SY, Toh LP, Xie WH, Pathak E, Tan W, Ma S, Lee MY, Shatishwaran S, JZZ Yeo, Yuan J, Ho YY, EKL Peh, Muniandy M, Torta F, Chan J, Tan T, Sim YR, Tan V, Tan B, Madhukumar M, Yong WS, Ong KW, Wong CY, Tan PH, Yap YS, Deng LW, Dent R, Foo R, Wenk MR, Lee SC, Ho YS, Lim EH#, Tam WL#. (2021) Fatty acid oxidation is a druggable gateway regulating cellular plasticity for driving metastasis in breast cancer. Science Advances. Oct 8. 7(41):eabh2443. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh2443. #Corresponding authors 
• Li Z, Wang Z, Lee MC, Zenkel M, Peh E, Ozaki M, Chan A, Chen S, Nakano S, Williams SEI, Orr A, Nakano M, Kobakhidze N, Zarnowski T, Popa-Cherecheanu A, Mizoguchi T, Manabe S, Hayashi K, Kazama S, Inoue K, Mori Y, Miyata K, Sugiyama K, Higashide T, Chihara E, Ideta R, Ishiko S, Yoshida A, Yanagi M, Kiuchi Y, Ohashi T, Sakurai T, Sugimoto T, Chuman H, Aihara M, Inatani M, Mori K, Ikeda Y, Ueno M, Gaston D, Bedard K, Greer WL, Chichua G, Tabagari S, Founti P, Sim KS, Chatzikyriakidou A, Pappas T, Anastasopoulos E, Lambropoulos A, Kosior-Jarecka E, Cheong A, Li A, Lukasik U, Nongpiur ME, Husain R, Wong TY, Perera SA, Álvarez L, García M, González-Iglesias H, Rodríguez-Calvo PP, Fernández-Vega L, Martinon-Torres F, Salas A, Oguz Ç, Tamcelik N, Atalay E, Batu B, Irkec M, Aktas D, Kasım B, Astakhov YS, Astakhov SY, Akopov EL, Emelyanov A, Vysochinskaya V, Uebe S, Krumbiegel M, Welge-Luessen U-C, Mardin C, Berner D, Hoja U, Kruse FE, , Reis A, Moebus S, Carmichael TR, Hauser M, Ramsay M, Mossböck G, Nilgun Y, Ta-shiro K, Konstas AGP, Coca-Prados M, Foo JN, Sotozono C, Kubota T, Dubina M, Topouzis F, Ritch R, Pasutto F, Wiggs J, Schloetzer-Schrehardt U#, Ho YS#, Aung T#, Tam WL#, Khor CC#. Asso-ciation of rare CYP39A1 variants with exfoliation syndrome involving the anterior chamber of the eye. (2021) Journal of the American Medical Association. 22 Feb. #Corresponding authors 
• Sun J, Prabhu N, Tang J, Yang F, Jia L, Guo J, Xiao K, Tam WL#, Nordlund P#, Dai L#. (2021) Recent advances in proteome-wide label-free target deconvolution for bioactive small molecules. Me-dicinal Research Reviews. 2021 Feb 3. doi: 10.1002/med.21788. #Corresponding authors 
• Tan, J.L., Li, F., Yeo, J.Z., Yong, K.J., Bassal, M.A., Ng, G.H., Lee, M.Y., Leong, C.Y., Tan, H.K., Wu, C.S., Liu, B.H., Chan, T.H., Tan, Z.H., Chan, Y.S., Wang, S., Lim, Z.H., Toh, T.B., Hooi, L., Low, K.N., Ma, S., Kong, N.R., Stein, A.J., Wu, Y., Thangavelu, M.T,, Suzuki, A., Periyasamy, G., Asara, J.M., Dan, Y.Y., Bonney, G.K., Chow, E.K., Lu, G.D., Ng, H.H., Kanagasundaram, Y., Ng, S.B., Tam, W.L.#, Tenen, D.G.#, and Chai, L.# (2019) New High-throughput Screen Identifies Compounds That Reduce Viability Specifically In Liver Cancer Cells That Express High Levels of SALL4 by In-hibiting Oxidative Phosphorylation. Gastroenterology. Aug 22. pii: S0016-5085(19)41242-0. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2019.08.022. #Corresponding authors 
• Wang, Z., Yip, L.Y., Lee, J.H.J., Wu, Z., Chew, H.Y., Chong, P.K.W., Teo, C.C., Ang, H.Y.K, Peh, K.L.E., Yuan, J., Choo, L.S.K., Basri, N., Jiang, X., Yu, Q., Hillmer, A., Lim, T.K.H, Takano, A., Tan, E.H., Tan, D.S.W., Ho, Y.S., Lim, B.#, and Tam, W.L.# (2019) Methionine is a metabolic depend-ency of tumor-initiating cells. Nature Medicine. 25(5):825-837. #Corresponding authors 

For complete publication list: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=tam+wl