Wee Joo Chng: Kicking Off NUS Medicine’s Inspire120 Professorial Lecture Series
Wee Joo Chng, Vice President of Biomedical Science Research at the National University of Singapore and Group Director of Research Office at the National University Health System of Singapore, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Last week, I had the honour of kicking off the Inspire120 Professorial Lecture series organised by NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
As the Yong Loo Lin Professor in Medical Oncology, I was proud to hold the professorship that has the same name as our school. This was the result of a transformational gift from the Yong Loo Lin Trust to the school that has made such a lasting impact.
I spoke about our work in myeloma and how, in 20 years, it went from a little-understood disease with an average survival time of 3-4 years for patients, to the current state where there are many effective drugs and survival exceeding 8-10 years. In fact, patients diagnosed today can probably expect a survival time closer to 20 years.
I highlighted why I think myeloma, despite being a relatively rare type of cancer, has been so successful in terms of therapeutic advancement and drug approvals over the last 2 decades. I think it is because the following 7 elements all exist:
- Understanding of biology and genomics
- Research agenda led by a clinician scientist – passionate about solving problems for patients
- Strong leadership
- Collaboration – ‘if you want to go far, go together’
- Critical role of philanthropy in buying into and supporting the research agenda
- Open sharing – benefiting the community
- Working closely with industry – accelerating progress
In many disease areas, some of these components may exist, but in myeloma, I think all elements come together beautifully. Perhaps there is a lesson in here.
For those interested to learn more about the lecture or actually listening to the talk and the subsequent fireside chat, you can do so through the following links:
Lecture.
Fireside chat.”
More posts featuring Wee Joo Chng.
-
Challenging the Status Quo in Colorectal Cancer 2024
December 6-8, 2024
-
ESMO 2024 Congress
September 13-17, 2024
-
ASCO Annual Meeting
May 30 - June 4, 2024
-
Yvonne Award 2024
May 31, 2024
-
OncoThon 2024, Online
Feb. 15, 2024
-
Global Summit on War & Cancer 2023, Online
Dec. 14-16, 2023