S$1 million gift from Diana Koh Foundation empowers next generation of cancer researchers
Published: 06 Feb 2024
Up and coming young cancer researchers at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) and Duke-NUS Medical School will be able to draw on funding support for their work, thanks to a gift of S$500,000 to each school from the estate of the late Ms Diana Koh, a veteran in the accounting and advisory field in Singapore.
Most current funding opportunities are only available to faculty members or group leaders, with only a handful of grant calls accessible to postdoctoral fellows who have pre-determined projects with the Principal Investigators they work with.
To address this gap, this gift totalling S$1 million, managed by the Diana Koh Foundation through the Community Foundation of Singapore and Asia Community Foundation, will boost funding support for research fellows and junior clinicians and augments community engagement efforts to build greater awareness about the advances in cancer research.
Diana Koh Innovative Cancer Research Fund
At Duke-NUS, the Diana Koh Innovative Cancer Research Fund was established in July 2023, with the mandate of providing seed grants of up to S$50,000 to junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows and research scientists with new and innovative ideas for the treatment of cancer.
The fund’s inaugural grants were disbursed in December 2023 to seed projects focusing on sarcomas (bone or soft tissue cancers). The first project, led by Assistant Professor Tang Hong Wen from the Cancer & Stem Cell Biology (CSCB) Signature Research Programme at
Duke-NUS, engages in cross-species studies with pre-clinical models to examine the possible genetic causes of rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common paediatric soft-tissue sarcoma which accounts for four per cent of all cancers diagnosed in children in Singapore. The second project, by Senior Research Fellow Mr Alvin Guo from the CSCB Programme, explores the potential of new cancer drug combinations for boosting the immune system to effectively fight sarcomas.
Diana Koh Young Innovator Grant and Prize
At NUS Medicine, the Diana Koh Young Innovator Grant was established to provide seed funds for post-doctoral researchers and junior clinicians investigating key knowledge gaps in cancer biology and treatment, as well as to create opportunities for the cross-fertilisation of ideas. This Grant is projected to fund up to 26 grants in the next 10 years.
In parallel, the Diana Koh Young Innovator Prize will be awarded to post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers who have made significant findings in cancer research. The Prize aims to benefit more than 50 recipients over the next 20 years, with the aim of incentivising younger generation of researchers to continue building upon the existing contributions of cancer research.
Diana Koh Breakthroughs in Cancer Learning Series
In addition, the Diana Koh Breakthroughs in Cancer Learning Series, an annual learning seminar series jointly supported by NUS Medicine and the NUS Centre for Cancer Research (N2CR), will foster a culture of learning and collaboration by providing budding researchers with more mentorship opportunities with world leaders in cancer research.
Read more in the media release here.
