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Welcome!

The Cancer Discovery Hub (CDH) is a one-stop pan-omics diagnostic and research core laboratory housed at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. We specialise in state-of-the-art research-grade technologies and provide expert support to investigators on all cancer related projects.

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Latest news

Key events and achievements

  • 10 Nov 2025 : Collaborative research agreement with 10X Genomics

  • 08 July 2025 : Collaborative research agreement with Remission Biotech

  • 25 April 2025: Poster Presentations, AACR Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA (Jing Yi Lee, Bavani Kannan)

  • 07 Dec 2024: Poster Presentations, ASH Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA

  • 11 Oct 2024 : MOU signed with DxD Hub, A*STAR; Collaborative research agreement with PacBio and KITKOJI

  • 14 June 2024 : Poster Presentations, EHA Congress, Madrid, Spain (Boon Yee Lim) 

  • 10 April 2024 : Poster Presentations + Scholar-in-Training Award, AACR Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA (Jing Yi Lee, Tun Kiat Ko)

  • 02 April 2024 : Collaborative research agreement with Illumina

  • 01 Nov 2023: Poster Presentation, CTOS Annual Meeting, Dublin (Elizabeth Lee)​​

  • 15 Sep 2023 : MOU and RCA signed with Agilent Technologies, BioSyngen, BGI Research and MGI Tech

  • 14 June 2023 : Poster Presentation, ICML Lugano, Switzerland​

  • 14 April 2023 : Poster Presentation, AACR Annual Meeting, Florida, USA (Bavani Kannan)​​​​​

  • 20 Mar 2023 : ESMO Merit Award, ESMO Sarcoma and Rare Cancers Congress, Lugano, Switzerland​

  • 18 Mar 2023 : Co-organizer, Singapore Lymphoma Scientific Symposium 2023

  • 12 Dec 2022 : Oral abstract, ASH Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA​​

  • 09 Dec 2022 : Invited presentation, Stem Cell Society Singapore (SCSS) Symposium (Nimmi Baby)

  • 17 Nov 2022 : Oral paper, CTOS Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada (Jing Yi Lee)​

  • 19 Aug 2022 : Invited speech, 6th International BRCA Forum, Singapore​​

  • 19 Aug 2022 : Collaborative research agreement with Scinnohub Pharmaceutical

  • 19 Aug 2022 : Collaborative research agreement with MGI Tech

  • 04 Aug 2022 : Collaborative research agreement with Twist Bioscience

  • 16 Jun 2022 : Best Oral Presentation, International Congress of the Asian Oncology Society (AOS 2022), South Korea (Tun Kiat Ko)​

  • 12 Apr 2022 : Invited Oral Presentation at Major Symposium, AACR Annual Meeting, New Orleans, US

  • 22 Feb 2022 : Publication on circulating tumor DNA mutations in progressive gastrointestinal stromal tumors, Frontiers in Oncology

  • 17 Feb 2022 : Travel Award for Poster abstract at Japanese Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting, Japan (Elizabeth Lee)​​

  • ​​12 Jan 2022 : Commercial launch of the UNITED NGS Assay (Lucence) for Asian prevalent cancers at the NCCS

  • 21 Oct 2021 : Collaborative research agreement with STEMCELL Technologies

  • 01 Sep 2021 : Collaborative research agreement with SymBio Pharmaceuticals on EBV-positive lymphomas

  • 01 Sep 2021 : Official launch of Cancer Discovery Hub!

Featured Publications

Scientific publications supported by the Cancer Discovery Hub

Preclinical activity of brincidofovir in peripheral T-cell and NK/T-cell lymphoma BMC Medicine. 2026

Feb, 2026

Background: Brincidofovir (BCV) is a novel nucleoside phosphonate analogue with unique dual antiviral and anti-tumor properties.

Methods: The activity of BCV was evaluated in 44 cell-line models, including T/NK-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (T/NK-NHL, n = 25) and B-cell lymphoma (BCL, n = 19), and their respective NOD/SCID mice xenograft models. The potential immunogenic effects were examined in a syngeneic EL4-C57BL/6 murine lymphoma model.

Results: BCV demonstrated potent anti-tumor activity across the majority of cell lines regardless of EBV positivity, with IC50 values within clinically achievable human plasma concentrations (2 µg/ml) in 17 of 25 (68.0%) T/NK-NHL and in 13 of 19 (68.4%) BCL. In vivo treatment significantly inhibited tumor growth in all xenograft models compared to vehicle control. Notably, RNAseq analysis demonstrated BCV downregulated MYC-target pathways in T/NK-NHL models. BCV evoked S-phase cell cycle arrest, replication stress, DNA damage, and apoptosis while triggering STING pathway-mediated interferon responses, PD-L1 expression, and immunogenic cell death. In the EL4-C57BL/6 model, BCV in combination with anti-PD1 significantly inhibited tumor growth and triggered an immune reaction characterized by the highest scores for adaptive immune response, cytokines/chemokines and receptors, cytotoxic cells, dendritic cells, NK CD56dim cells, and neutrophils (NanoString Immunology Panel).

Conclusions: Taken together, these results demonstrate a novel role for BCV in lymphoma therapy and suggest potential for combination with checkpoint immunotherapy.

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