Scientific Committee
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Kenes MP Asia Pte Ltd
Kenes MP Asia Pte Ltd
Jon Emery
Jon Emery is the Herman Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Primary Care Research and Education Lead. He is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow, and Director of the Cancer Australia Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4) and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge.
Following his medical training at Cambridge and Oxford, he has had a successful career in academic primary care, initially at Oxford, where he obtained his DPhil on cancer risk assessment tools, then as a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist at Cambridge before taking up a Chair at the University of Western Australia.
His research focuses on the application of advances in genetic medicine, primary care oncology and the development and evaluation of complex interventions including computer decision support systems, and new cancer diagnostic and screening technologies. He is currently leading several trials related to risk-based cancer early detection in primary care.
In addition, he leads the VCCC Alliance Data Connect program, a data linkage initiative bringing together general practice data with multiple administrative datasets and clinical cancer registries to study the continuum of cancer care.
He will be moving to a new role in July 2025, focused on early cancer detection, at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Matthew Kalady
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Centre
Dr. Matthew Kalady is a Professor of Surgery at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. He serves as the Director of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery and holds the John L. Marakas Nationwide Insurance Enterprise Foundation Chair in Cancer Research. He is the Director of the Ohio State Colorectal Cancer Center and the Medical Director of the Clinical Cancer Genetics Program. Dr. Kalady graduated cum laude from Harvard College and received his medical doctorate from Duke University. He completed his general surgery training at Duke University Medical Center and subsequently completed a colorectal surgery fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, where he remained as faculty for 14 years. There he served as the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery; the Director of the Comprehensive Colorectal Cancer Program; and the Director of the Sanford R. Weiss, MD, Center for Hereditary Colorectal Neoplasia. He holds several prominent national positions including a seat on American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, and he is the Vice-Chair for the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery Research Foundation. He is on the editorial boards for Annals of Surgery, Diseases of the Colon and Rectum, and the British Journal of Surgery. Dr. Kalady is an international expert in colorectal cancer and hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes. He is a past President of the International Society of Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumors, and a past President of the Collaborative Group of the Americas for Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer. He is an NIH/NCI-funded basic science researcher focusing on colorectal cancer genetics and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles. His main clinical interests are colorectal cancer, hereditary syndromes, and minimally invasive surgery, and has been consistently named a Castle Connolly and US News and World Report Top Doctor. Dr. Kalady and his wife Skyler have 4 children and live in Powell, OH.
Brandie Leach
Exact Sciences
Brandie Heald Leach, MS, is the senior director of hereditary cancer medical affairs at Exact Sciences. She is a former clinical program manager at Invitae as well as clinical professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic where she practiced as a hereditary cancer genetic counselor. She coordinated the Cleveland Clinic Universal Lynch Syndrome Screening Program and conducted research on the hamartomatous polyposis syndromes and genetic counseling practice models. She has served in various leadership positions within the National Society of Genetic Counselors, was on the board for Hereditary Colon Cancer Takes Guts, and is a past president of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer Council. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Lynch Syndrome Screening Network and is the first genetic counselor to join the International Society of Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumors Council.
Ian Frayling
Cardiff University
Dr Ian M Frayling was a Consultant in Genetic Pathology, based at Cardiff & Vale University. He served on InSiGHT Council 2015-2024 and is a member of the Variant Interpretation Committee. He has a longstanding track record in all forms of hereditary GI and related Cancers. Dr Frayling was instrumental in introducing tumour testing into clinical practice, including the UK National External Quality Assessment Service for immunohistochemistry of MMR proteins. He led a major UK health-economic analysis and was Chief Investigator on an Australian MRC-funded project on systematic testing of cancers to find LS.
Allan Spigelman
University of New South Wales
Professor Allan Spigelman was a long-standing member of InSiGHT Council and has written and contributed to many clinical and research publications in the field of hereditary cancer. His career has spanned many years working in the UK and Australia and he directs a major Hereditary Cancer Service in his state in Australia.
Finlay Macrae
The Royal Melbourne Hospital
Prof Macrae’s seminal clinical studies on patterns of bleeding from colorectal cancers and adenomas provided essential validating evidence about screening for colorectal cancer through detection of occult bleeding. He has had continuous advisory roles to the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program He has been part of several relevant guideline development committees for the Australian Government and the Asia Pacific Society of Gastroenterology. Prof Macrae is the editor of two relevant chapters on adenomas and prevention of colorectal cancer in the widely used on line medical resource UptoDate. Prof Macrae is the lead gastroenterologist in the RMH Familial Cancer Clinic, providing advice supporting counsellors for families with syndromic and non-syndromic colorectal cancer. His Australian leadership of the CaPP randomized trials of aspirin in Lynch Syndrome, which demonstrated a 60% reduction in Lynch Syndrome associated cancers, has been important in determining the role of aspirin for colorectal cancer prevention for all Australians 50 to 70 years of age, and especially for those with Lynch Syndrome. The latest CaPP3 RCT is mid way in its journey testing three different doses of aspirin in Lynch Syndrome. Prof Macrae manages several InSiGHT ClinGen Variant Curation Expert Panels for the US National Institutes of Health ClinGen program, developing, with the assistance of an international committee of academic, commercial and clinical scientists, gene-specific modifications to the American College of Medical Genetics criteria for DNA interpretation, and applying these to the GI cancer predisposing genes (MMR genes, APC, MUTYH, STRK11, SMAD4, BMR1A, POLE and POLD1.
Daniel Buchanan
University og Melvourne’s Centree for Cancer Research
A/Prof Dan Buchanan is Head of the Colorectal Oncogenomics Group in the Department of Clinical Pathology at the University of Melbourne, residing within the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He leads a diverse, multi-disciplinary research program (>300 publications) aimed at improving the diagnosis of hereditary gastrointestinal cancer and polyposis syndromes and determining the aetiology of colorectal cancer and polyposis using integrative multi-omic and molecular pathology epidemiology approaches applied to world-leading studies. He holds an honorary appointment within the Genomic Medicine and Familial Cancer Centre, Royal Melbourne Hospital, contributing to a multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and risk management of hereditary cancer and colonic polyposis. He holds leadership roles as an InSiGHT council member, co-PI of the Colon Cancer Family Registry, and co-chair of the ClinGen-InSiGHT CRC-Polyposis Variant Curation Expert Panel for the POLE and POLD1 genes. He is a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Investigator Fellow and was awarded the Dean’s Research Excellence Award (Dame Kate Campbell Fellowship 2021-2025). He is committed to the translation of research to practice, evidenced by his role in the Australian eviQ Cancer Genetics Reference Committee tasked with providing national guidelines for testing and management of hereditary cancer syndromes. He is the PI of the Genetics of Colonic Polyposis Study, and PI of the ANGELS study investigating the aetiology of early-onset colorectal cancer.
Francesc Balaguer
Hospital Clinic of Barecelona
Dr. Francesc Balaguer currently serve as the Chief of the Gastroenterology Department at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, coordinator of the GI Cancer High-Risk Clinic, and and Professor at the University of Barcelona. His research focuses on: 1) enhancing the clinical and molecular characterization of high-risk forms of colorectal cancer, such as Lynch syndrome and serrated polyposis syndrome; 2) developing dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines for Lynch syndrome; and 3) creating non-invasive biomarkers for the early diagnosis and prevention of CRC. To date, Dr Balaguer has published over 300 articles and have an h-index of 42 (Web of Science). He previously served as Secretary General of the Spanish GI Association (2016–2020), contributed to the Research Committee of United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and the Research Group of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer (2021–2024), and is currently a member of the Council of the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours (InSiGHT).
Laura Valle Velasco
IDIBELL Hereditary Cancer Group
Dr. Laura Valle, PhD, is Principal Investigator at the Hereditary Cancer Program of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, IDIBELL (Barcelona, Spain). Her research is focused on hereditary colorectal cancer, contributing to the identification and characterization of new genes linked to colorectal cancer and gastrointestinal polyposis. She has been involved in developing guidelines for adenomatous polyposis syndromes, early-onset colorectal cancer, and gene-specific recommendations for the classification of variants in polyposis genes. She is an elected Council member for InSiGHT, and elected Board member for the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG).
Marc Greenblatt
The University of Vermont Medical Center
Dr Marc Greenblatt is a medical oncologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center and a Professor at the Larner College of Medicine at UVM in Burlington, Vermont. His primary research focus is interpreting genetic variants, and translating genetics advances to the clinic. He is Chair of the InSiGHT Hereditary Colorectal Cancer/Polyposis Variant Curation Expert Panel. He has been a member of the InSiGHT Mismatch Repair Variant Interpretation Committee since its origin. Dr Greenblatt sits on the InSiGHT Variants Databases Governance Committee, is Past President of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer, President of the Human Genome Variation Society and executive Board Member of the Human Genome Organization.
Kevin Monahan
Co-Director: The St Mark’s Centre for Familial Intestinal Cancer, Sub-Dean, Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Family Cancer Clinic and St Mark’s Endoscopy and Clinical Scientific Officer at St Mark’s Hospital. NHSE Lynch syndrome Programme Clinical Advisor
Dr. Monahan undertook his PhD at Cancer Research UK and at St Mark’s Hospital, and has spent 9 years working at West Middlesex University Hospital and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital where he still leads a cancer genetics clinic. He is also an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Imperial College London. Dr Monahan performs genetic testing, endoscopic and other screening for gastrointestinal cancer in susceptible populations, such as those people with a family history of cancer, and also has an interest in prevention and early detection of cancer. He has research interests in clinical and molecular aspects of gastrointestinal pathology, particularly in the field of endoscopy, colorectal, pancreatic and other gastrointestinal cancers.
Dr Kieron Lim
Dr Kieron Lim is a senior consultant specializing in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. His special interests include transplant hepatology, assessment and treatment of liver fibrosis & cirrhosis, viral hepatitis, fatty liver disease, and liver cancer.
Dr Lim graduated from St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London School of Medicine (UK), and worked at the liver unit at The Royal Free Hospital before returning to Singapore. He undertook his fellowship training in transplant hepatology at the Recanati / Miller Transplantation Institute, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, USA.
Prior to setting up his specialist clinic at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, Dr Lim was Head of the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, National University Hospital (NUH), and Medical Director for liver transplantation at the National University Centre for Organ Transplantation. He was assistant professor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. Dr Lim is currently a visiting consultant at NUH where he continues to be involved in postgraduate education and training of future specialists.
He has published multiple research studies in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and is an invited reviewer of peer-reviewed journals which include Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, World Journal of Gastroenterology, Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Diseases, Transplantation, Clinical Transplantation, Annals Academy of Medicine Singapore, Singapore Medical Journal. He is also an editorial board member of the European Medical Journal.
Dr Lim is the president-elect of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore (GESS), and Vice-Chair of the Chapter of Gastroenterology in the Academy of Medicine.
Adj Assoc Prof Surendra Kumar Mantoo
Adjunct Associate Professor Surendra Mantoo is currently the President of the Society of Colorectal Surgeons in Singapore and is active in several other professional organisations.
With experience spanning more than 20 years, he is currently a Senior Consultant in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital’s Colorectal Service. He is well-versed in laparoscopic and robotic colorectal procedures and has a special interest in managing pelvic floor and anorectal disorders. He is passionate about teaching and serves as an Education Lead for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme and Core Faculty Tutor for the Surgical Residency Programme, National Healthcare Group.
Adj Asst Prof Yeo Yen Ching
Adj Asst Prof Yeo Yen Ching is a Histopathologist and Cytologist with an interest in Gynecological Pathology, Gynecological Cytology and Non-Gynecological Cytopathology. She is a Senior Consultant and Head of Section in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She is also a Visiting Consultant in Sengkang General Hospital. She is passionate about education and is involved in the FRCPath Part 2 examination as well as Duke-NUS Medical School and SingHealth Pathology Residency Programme.
Associate Professor Sunny Wong
Dr Sunny Wong is a clinician-scientist and an Associate Professor at the Lee Kong Chian profSchool of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles and is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. His main research interest is on gut microbiome, investigating the host-microbe interaction in digestive and metabolic diseases, and exploring this for discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutics.
Professor Khay Guan Yeoh
Prof. Yeoh Khay-Guan is Senior Vice President (Health Affairs) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His concurrent appointments include the Irene Tan Liang Kheng Professor in Medicine and Oncology and Chief Executive of the National University Health System (NUHS). Prof Yeoh practises as a Senior Consultant at the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, National University Hospital (NUH). He has served as Dean of NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine from 2011 to 2018. His research interest is in enhancing the early detection of gastric and colorectal cancers. He is the Lead Principal Investigator of the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium, a national flagship research group, and chairs the National Colorectal Cancer Screening Committee of the Health Promotion Board, Ministry of Health.
Professor Patrick Tan
Prof. Patrick Tan is Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS). Concurrently, he is the Executive Director of Precision Health Research Singapore (PRECISE) coordinating Singapore’s National Precision Medicine programme, Chief Scientific Officer at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), Senior Scientific Advisor for Group Research at Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), Senior Principal Investigator at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC), a Board Member of the International Gastric Cancer Association, Board of Editors for Science and Cancer Discovery, and on advisory committees for Qatar Precision Health Institute and Riyadh Biotech City.
Professor Joseph Sung
Prof. Joseph Sung is a physician, gastroenterologist, and the current Dean of Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at the Nanyang Technological University. He also serves as the Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences) of NTU and was the 7th Vice-Chancellor and President of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a renowned scientist in gastroenterology, Prof Sung’s research interests include intestinal bleeding, Helicobacter Pylori, peptic ulcer, hepatitis B, colorectal cancer, and other cancers related to the digestive system. He led a group of experts from 15 Asia-Pacific countries to launch colorectal cancer screening research in 2004, and has laid down clear guidelines and promoted colorectal screenings in the region. In recognition of his contributions to the advancement of medical sciences and academic development, Prof Sung has received numerous local and international awards, including the Laurel Award in 2008, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Advancement Prize in 2011 and the Hong Kong Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award (HKSAR Government) in 2014.
Associate Professor Joanne Ngeow
Dr Joanne Ngeow is an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. She is also a Senior Consultant in Division of Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. She currently heads the NCCS Cancer Genetics Service with an academic interest in hereditary cancer syndromes and translational clinical cancer genomics. Her current clinical focus and research revolves around understanding cancer predisposition by studying cancers clustering in families, young adults and in families with multiple / rare cancer presentations.