Clinical Scientists
Professor Roger Foo
Head, Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), NUHS
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Professor of Medicine, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, (NUSmed)
Director, Cardiovascular Disease Translation Research Programme, NUSmed and NUHS
Senior Consultant Cardiologist, National University Heart Centre, Singapore
Vice Dean (Research), NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, (NUSmed)
Head, NUHS Clinician Scientist Academy
Senior Group Leader, Genome Institute of Singapore
BIO
Introduction:
Roger is the inaugural chair holder of the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Professorship of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Director of the NUHS Cardiovascular Disease Translational Research Programme, Senior Consultant at the National University Heart Centre Singapore (NUHCS) where he is Clinical Lead for the Cardiac Genetics Service, Deputy Director at the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), and Senior Group Leader at the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS). He is now also Assistant Dean (Research) at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
Upon graduation at NUS, Roger undertook his post-graduate clinical training at King College Hospital London and Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge. For his research training, he worked in the labs of the late Professor David de Bono (British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiology, Leicester), Professor Morris Brown (past president British Hypertension Society, and Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Cambridge), Professor Martin Bennett (BHF Chair of Cardiovascular Sciences, Cambridge) and Professor Rick Kitsis (The Dr. Gerald and Myra Dorros Chair in Cardiovascular Disease, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NYC), where he was continuously funded by both The Welcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation with fellowships and project grants.
Altogether, Roger trained and worked in Cambridge, UK, for over 20 years at the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine (University of Cambridge) and also at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital NHS Trust before moving his lab to Singapore in 2013. Here, he has come to establish Singapore’s first Cardiac Genetics clinical service, and has since been leading in the Cardiovascular Epigenomics and Molecular Epigenetics Themes for many of the largest Cardiovascular grant awards in the country. His clinical practice is based at the NUHS National University Heart Centre, and his labs are at the NUS MD6 Centre for Translational Medicine, and A*STAR Genome Institute.
Research in the lab makes use of genomic technology to study the cardiac epigenome and hunt for novel Heart Failure mechanisms. Roger enjoys reading scientific, historical and current affairs literature. He keeps as much as possible to a daily swimming regime, and uses WhatsApp and Instagram to keep up with the dizzy lives of his grown-up children who live abroad.
GROUP MEMBERS
RESEARCH AREAS
- Heart Failure Epigenomics, Molecular Epigenetic and Stress-Gene Response
Inherited Cardiac Conditions. Clinical Genomics for Rare Diseases. Low renin hypertension.
Google Scholar
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Zhu Y, Do VD, Richards AM, Foo R. What we know about cardiomyocyte dedifferentiation. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2020 Dec 1;152:80-91. doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2020.11.016.
- Feng L, Romero-Garcia R, Suckling J, Tan J, Larbi A, Cheah I, Wong G, Tsakok M, Lanskey B, Lim D, Li J, Yang J, Goh B, Teck TGC, Ho A, Wang X, Yu JT, Zhang C, Tan C, Chua M, Li J, Totman JJ, Wong C, Loh M, Foo R, Tan CH, Goh LG, Mahendran R, Kennedy BK, Kua EH. Effects of choral singing versus health education on cognitive decline and aging: a randomized controlled trial. Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Dec 18;12. doi: 10.18632/aging.202374.
- Sorokin V, Vickneson K, Kofidis T, Woo CC, Lin XY, Foo R, Shanahan CM. Role of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Plasticity and Interactions in Vessel Wall Inflammation. Front Immunol. 2020 Nov 26;11:599415. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.599415.
- Webster G, Aburawi EH, Chaix MA, Chandler S, Foo R, Islam AKMM, Kammeraad JAE, Rioux JD, Al-Gazali L, Sayeed MZ, Xiao T, Zhang H, Xie L, Hou C, Ing A, Yap KL, Wilde AAM, Bhuiyan ZA. Life-threatening arrhythmias with autosomal recessive TECRL variants. Europace. 2020 Dec 25:euaa376. doi: 10.1093/europace/euaa376.
- Yu R, Sun Y, Ye KX, Feng Q, Lim SL, Mahendran R, Cheah IK, Foo RSY, Chua RY, Gwee X, Loh M, Sarmugam R, Khine WWT, Chao YX, Larbi A, Lee YK, Kumar AP, Kennedy BK, Kua EH, Feng L. Cohort profile: the Diet and Healthy Aging (DaHA) study in Singapore. Aging (Albany NY). 2020 Nov 18;12(23):23889-23899. doi: 10.18632/aging.104051.
- Schaefer GO, Labude MK, Zhu Y, Foo RS, Xafis V. International Reporting Mechanism for Unethical Germline Gene Editing Experiments Is Needed. Trends Biotechnol. 2020 Nov 4:S0167-7799(20)30261-4. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.10.001.
- Karthikeyan G, Fung E, Foo RS. (2020) Alternative Hypothesis to Explain Disease Progression in Rheumatic Heart Disease. Circulation. 142(22):2091-2094. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.050955.
- Robinson EL, Anene-Nzelu CG, Rosa-Garrido M, Foo RSY. (2020) Cardiac Cardiac epigenetics: Driving signals to the cardiac epigenome in development and disease. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 21;151:88. doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2020.11.005.
- Schaefer GO, Labude MK, Zhu Y, Foo RS, Xafis V. International reporting mechanism for unethical germline gene editing experiments is needed. Trends Biotechnol. 2020 Nov 4:S0167-7799(20)30261-4. doi: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.10.001.
- Puar TH, Loh LM, Loh WJ, Lim DST, Zhang M, Tan PT, Lee L, Swee DS, Khoo J, Tay D, Tan SY, Zhu L, Gani L, King TF, Kek PC, Foo RS. Outcomes in unilateral primary aldosteronism after surgical or medical therapy. Clin Endocrinol. 2020 Oct 15. doi: 10.1111/cen.14351.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY GRIMSHAW-PARKINSONS TRUST Research Award, 1999
LONDON MEDICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY Oral Abstract Prize, 2001.
BRITISH CARDIAC SOCIETY Philip White Award, 2003.
Wellcome Trust Overseas Fellowship Award, 2003
British Heart Foundation Fellowship Award, 2006
NUS Yong Loo Ling School of Medicine Research Excellence Award 2017
Characterising the epigenome of human heart failure and functional validation for disease-relevant variants CIRG17may068 S$1.4M PI-NMRC-1/2018-1/2021
SUREkids: Singapore Undiagnosed Diseases Research BMRC-EDB IAF311019 S$3M PI-BMRC-8/2016-8/2019
Novel HF treatment with arylsulfatase B: targeting chondroitin sulfate GAGs in pathological cardiac remodelling CIRG15nov064 S$1.4M PI-NMRC-8/2016-8/2019
Dissecting regulatory pathways in dilated cardiomyopathy and experimental targeting for HF CIRG15may028 S$1.4M PI-NMRC-2/2016-2/2019
Cardiovascular epigenetics and genetics. Share of Cardiovascular SPF2014/004 S$30M Theme 2 PI-BMRC-1/2015-1/2018