We caught up with Kar Perng Low to talk about advancements in genomics for cancer research and his work at Dr Melvin Chua's lab. He shared about how genomics and Photodynamic therapy (PDT) help to improve cancer treatment outcome.
Kar Perng Low
Senior Research Officer / Lab Manager
Tan Chin Tuan Laboratory of Optical Imaging, Photodynamic & Proton Therapy
National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS)
What is your research focus driven at Dr. Melvin’s lab at the National Cancer Centre Singapore and how were you involved?
The lab's focus centres around two dominant cancers in Singapore: prostate (3rd most common among males), head and neck cancers (7th most common among males), and nasopharyngeal cancers. We aim to characterise the molecular landscape of these cancers treated with radiotherapy and develop prognostic biomarkers to improve therapy.
Being both a senior research officer and lab manager of clinical research division, I am responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the lab, from processing patient's sample to proper documentation and storage of these samples. I am also involved in the lab preparation work, involving protocol optimisation and validation of downstream applications of these samples.
What fuelled your interest in working on these clinical studies?
My experience in PDT and the introduction of genomics have kept me excited about combining them and further investigate how genomic improve radiation therapy. With guidance from Dr Melvin and his passion towards patients in the clinic, and his dedication to clinical genomic research, our team is driven to grow and achieve more.
Knowing that our work have brought in positive impacts to the patients in our clinic, it further motivates us to drive our research in hopes to improve patient care . To date, most of our works are globally recognized, and we have multiple collaborations from all corners of the world.
What do you think is the prospect for future genomics research?
Genomic research has become fast-growing in recent years due to the drastic drop in sequencing cost and improvements made in data resolution. Hence, we are moving into the era of genomics-based healthcare.
As more individuals become aware of the use of genomics information and potential impact in driving healthcare decisions, researchers like us would be able to bridge the gaps in existing healthcare systems. We would need to leverage on more bioinformatic tools and engage with experimental biologists to make greater contributions in the genomics space. It would be exciting to see our new generation of biologists who are well-equipped with both experimental skills with bioinformatic knowledge.
Do you envision long reads data will contribute to the study of cancer pathogenesis and the potential benefits of long reads sequencing for precision oncology?
Both short read and long read data are equally important in the field of precision oncology. While long-read sequencing data will improve the shortfalls of short-read sequencing data, it has more read coverage, and structural variant detection with less read accuracy.
The cost per sample for long-read sequencing is still considerably high for a large sample size cohort, considering the cost and experimental consistency. However, I do expect long-read sequencing to replace short reads sequencing in the future when the cost per sample is right.
The latest scientific publication of Kar Perng Low's:
Abstract 2258: Germline variants associated with poorer disease prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Cancer Res July 1 2021 (81) (13 Supplement) 2258
Chua M.L., Low K.P. & et.al.
DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2021-2258
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