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Professor Khoo, Ui Soon 邱瑋璇

Title:
Clinical Professor
Ada M.F. Chan Professor in Oncological Pathology

Also Cited As:
Khoo, Ui-soon
Khoo, US
邱瑋璇

Short Biography:

Professor KHOO, Ui-Soon is Ada MF Chan Professor in Oncological Pathology at the Department of Pathology, The University of Hong Kong and Honorary Consultant Pathologist at Queen Mary Hospital.

She obtained her medical degree from the University College Galway, Ireland before joining The University of Hong Kong where she did her postgraduate pathology specialist training. She trained in breast pathology under world renowned specialists, Professors Christopher Elston and Ian Ellis, at the University of Nottingham, UK, and received further training in genetic screening for breast cancer at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. She obtained her higher doctorate in research in 2002, pioneering the study of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in breast and ovarian cancer in Chinese.

Her studies include the functional variants of the BRCA and Estrogen Receptor gene, genome-wide association studies for breast cancer in Chinese as part of the Asian Breast Consortium, identification of alternatively spliced variants in Chinese breast cancer, and FOXO transcription factors in hormone refractory breast cancer. Professor Khoo is a reviewer of several external competitive Research Grants and served as Consultancy for Novartis Oncology. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers including high impact journals such as Nature Genetics, PNAS, Oncogene, JNCI and Cancer Research and is recipient of the Croucher Senior Medical Fellowship award 2015-16.

Her research work currently focuses investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms contributing towards drug resistance in the treatment of breast cancer. Through her pioneering research, her team identified a novel splice variant to the NCOR2 gene associated with tamoxifen resistance and raised a monoclonal antibody targeting the epitope unique to this variant, which has been shown to be a robust biomarker to predict tamoxifen resistance.

Her team has developed a multidisciplinary platform to test the novel use of Ivabradine, an FDA approved HCN (Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel) blocker used clinically to treat chronic angina, to effectively suppress breast cancer growth without the side-effects produced by conventional chemotherapeutic agents. In collaboration with clinician and scientists, Professor Khoo has developed breast cancer patient derived xenografts and established a large collection of breast cancer tissue microarray of Chinese breast cancer with clinical follow-up data for in vivo validation.

Professor Khoo has served as Executive Council Member of the International Academy of Cytology (2013-2016), President of the Hong Kong Society of Cytology (2008-2010), Chairman of the Hong Kong Pathology Society (1996-1998), and Chief Examiner in Anatomical Pathology for the Hong Kong College of Pathologists (2011-2017). She is the Academic Director Postgraduate Diploma in Molecular and Diagnostic Pathology course.

Professor KHOO, Ui-Soon is Ada MF Chan Professor in Oncological Pathology at the Department of Pathology, The University of Hong Kong and Honorary Consultant Pathologist at Queen Mary Hospital.

She obtained her medical degree from the University College Galway, Ireland before joining The University of Hong Kong where she did her postgraduate pathology specialist training. She trained in breast pathology under world renowned specialists, Professors Christopher Elston and Ian Ellis, at the University of Nottingham, UK, and received further training in genetic screening for breast cancer at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. She obtained her higher doctorate in research in 2002, pioneering the study of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in breast and ovarian cancer in Chinese.

Her studies include the functional variants of the BRCA and Estrogen Receptor gene, genome-wide association studies for breast cancer in Chinese as part of the Asian Breast Consortium, identification of alternatively spliced variants in Chinese breast cancer, and FOXO transcription factors in hormone refractory breast cancer. Professor Khoo is a reviewer of several external competitive Research Grants and served as Consultancy for Novartis Oncology. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers including high impact journals such as Nature Genetics, PNAS, Oncogene, JNCI and Cancer Research and is recipient of the Croucher Senior Medical Fellowship award 2015-16.

Her research work currently focuses investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms contributing towards drug resistance in the treatment of breast cancer. Through her pioneering research, her team identified a novel splice variant to the NCOR2 gene associated with tamoxifen resistance and raised a monoclonal antibody targeting the epitope unique to this variant, which has been shown to be a robust biomarker to predict tamoxifen resistance.

Her team has developed a multidisciplinary platform to test the novel use of Ivabradine, an FDA approved HCN (Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel) blocker used clinically to treat chronic angina, to effectively suppress breast cancer growth without the side-effects produced by conventional chemotherapeutic agents. In collaboration with clinician and scientists, Professor Khoo has developed breast cancer patient derived xenografts and established a large collection of breast cancer tissue microarray of Chinese breast cancer with clinical follow-up data for in vivo validation.

Professor Khoo has served as Executive Council Member of the International Academy of Cytology (2013-2016), President of the Hong Kong Society of Cytology (2008-2010), Chairman of the Hong Kong Pathology Society (1996-1998), and Chief Examiner in Anatomical Pathology for the Hong Kong College of Pathologists (2011-2017). She is the Academic Director Postgraduate Diploma in Molecular and Diagnostic Pathology course.

Professional Qualifications
Biography

Professor KHOO, Ui-Soon is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pathology, The University of Hong Kong, Deputy Director of the University Pathology Laboratory (Molecular Pathology) and Honorary Consultant Pathologist at Queen Mary Hospital.

She obtained her medical degree from the University College Galway, Ireland before joining The University of Hong Kong where she did her postgraduate pathology specialist training and her higher doctorate in research. Her research work currently focuses on the molecular genetics of breast cancer. She pioneered the study of breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 in Chinese breast and ovarian cancer patients. Her studies include the functional variants of the BRCA and Estrogen Receptor gene, genome-wide association studies for breast cancer in Chinese as part of the Asian Breast Consortium, identification of alternatively spliced variants in Chinese breast cancer, and FOXO transcription factors in hormone refractory breast cancer and has published widely in high impact journals.. Having recently identified a novel splice variant to the nuclear receptor co-repressor 2 (NCOR2) gene associated with tamoxifen resistance, work is on-going funded by an Innovation Technology Fund grant, to raise a monoclonal antibody targeting the epitope unique to this BQ variant, which will be used for functional and in vivo studies to confirm its role in the development of tamoxifen resistance.

She previously researched on host genetic-factors to SARS Co-V infection with publications in Nature Genetics, J. Exp Med, J Infectious Diseases etc, particularly that of  L-SIGN, a SARS-CoV binding receptor and and its tandem repeat polymorphisms and of Myxovirus resistance-A (MxA), an antiviral protein induced by interferon (IFN)-α/β, which can inhibit viral replication.

 
Honours, Awards & Prizes
Professional Societies
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