Researcher

Wai Leong Tam is a leading cancer biologist whose pioneering work has advanced our understanding of tumour biology and metastasis. He heads the Laboratory of Translational Cancer Biology at A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS). Concurrently, he is Deputy CEO (Research) at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the Programme Director of Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Signature Research Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School.

With over 20 years of experience in biomedical research, 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. His laboratory uses functional genomics and metabolomics to investigate cancer stem cells, cell state plasticity, cancer metabolism, and tumour niche biology, with a particular focus on addressing therapeutic resistance. A holder of multiple international patents for novel cancer targets, he is deeply committed to translating fundamental biological discoveries into innovative, clinical-stage strategies for cancer intervention.