Welcome to the NUS Centre for Cancer Research (N2CR) website!

The N2CR was established in 2020 as one of ten new Translational Research Programmes (TRPs) in the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. We are the largest of these Programmes, with over 100 faculty members spanning the basic, translational and clinical sciences.

The N2CR brings together researchers from different disciplines in order to better understand the biology of cancer, and use this knowledge in innovative approaches to detect, treat or prevent cancer in the clinic. We work very closely with two core partners – the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and the National Cancer Institute of Singapore (NCIS) in the National University Health System (NUHS). Each of these three partners has distinct but convergent aims. Our shared overall goal is to accelerate the pace and global impact of basic, translational and clinical cancer research across NUS and NUHS. Beyond this core partnership, the N2CR actively coordinates and promotes partnerships with a range of academic and industrial collaborators across Singapore and beyond.

A key objective of the N2CR is to harness the interdisciplinary strengths of NUS and NUHS researchers to tackle gaps in our understanding of cancer biology, and to translate this knowledge to address major clinical challenges. The N2CR’s hallmark are its three cross-cutting themes – Tissue-Specific Carcinogenesis, Precision Cancer Medicine and Early Cancer Intervention – that pull together basic and clinical researchers into synergistic initiatives. Each Theme supports research seminars from local and international thought-leaders, seed funding to spark new collaborations, and thematic activities to enhance research networks. The N2CR also supports site-specific resources, ranging from patient sample collections to core capabilities for the acquisition or analysis of data from these samples, to underpin the basic, translational and clinical research in each theme.

A second major objective of the N2CR is to train the next generation of cancer researchers for Singapore. We not only support PhD studentships amongst our membership, but also through new joint initiatives with the NUS Clinician Scientist Development Unit and the Clinician Scientist Academy, support young clinical researchers.

Singapore, like other countries, faces an increasing economic and social burden from the rising incidence of cancer amongst our aging population. Another objective of the N2CR is therefore to engage with the lay community to increase awareness of how our research is helping to tackle this national challenge.

Although the N2CR is newly established, our leadership and members have kick-started our activities! As you will see from the website, we have already initiated our PhD programme, thematic seminars and organize regular seed funding opportunities for collaborative research. Many more initiatives are in the pipeline, so do visit our website frequently, and follow us on social media for updates on training, career, educational and scientific opportunities!