Zeng Lab
PRL-3 Phosphatase & Cancer Therapy
Professor Zeng Qi
Principle Investigator
Email:
Lab location:
#03-02, Proteos
About Me
Prof. Zeng Qi graduated from Xiamen University (Fujian, China), and studied her Ph.D in Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI, USA) and IMCB (Singapore). She obtained her Ph.D in 1993 from the National University of Singapore (NUS). She is currently Research Director at Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Founder of Intra-immuSG (IISG), an A*STAR spun-off Biotech company. As part of her graduate work, she genetically engineered the first transgenic rat in asia for a San Diego biotech firm to study human diabetes, and her success story appeared in Fortune Magazine (USA, Oct. 1991). She has continued using animal models to study human diseases since then. Her team demonstrated that PRL-1 and PRL-3 monoclonal antibodies can specifically inhibit metastatic tumors expressing their respective antigens. In 2009, Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd (ETPL, A*STAR) awarded her group a flagship grant of $3.1 million for anticancer therapy in mice. In 2011, she proposed a new concept of targeting intracellular oncoproteins with antibody therapy or vaccination to treat cancer, which was published in Science Translational Medicine. She is a pioneer in PRL3 cancer research and the use of an unconventional immunotherapy approach to target intracellular oncoproteins. In 2014, Prof. Zeng was awarded $1.5 million of GAP funding for further pre-clinical work needed to bring PRL3-zumab to clinical trials.