We welcome our next speaker in our series, Dr. Andy Tay from the National University of Singapore. Dr. Tay is an Assistant Professor and the Presidential Young Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Nanomedicine Against Cancer

Abstract: Nanomedicine holds enormous potential to treat cancer. Despite this promise, clinical translation of nanomedicine has been limited attributing to reasons such as complex cancer microenvironment, low throughput of screening models and poor nanoparticle infiltration into solid tumors. I will share how my lab is overcoming these challenges through (1) designing multifunctional lipid nanoparticles that interfere with multiple adenosinergic pathways for synergistic chemo-immunometabolism cancer therapy, (2) developing a library of DNA barcoded gold nanoparticles to screen up to 96 different nanomedicine formulations at one time and (3) creating a soft robotics system that provides mechanical ‘massage’ to transiently increase vasculature pressure to improve nanomedicine infiltration into solid tumors.

Bio: Andy Tay graduated in 2014 from NUS with a First-Class Honors in Biomedical Engineering. He later headed to the University of California, Los Angeles for his PhD studies and graduated in 2017 as the recipient of the Harry M Showman Commencement Award. Andy next received his postdoctoral training at Stanford University before heading to Imperial College London as an 1851 Royal Commission Brunel Research Fellow. He is currently a Presidential Young Professor in NUS. Andy is a recipient of international awards including the Interstellar Initiative Early-Career Faculty Award, Christopher Hewitt Outstanding Young Investigator Award, Terasaki Young Innovator Award. He is listed as a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 (US/Canada, Science), 2020 World Economic Forum Young Scientist and 2022/3 Top 2% Scientist in the World by Stanford University.