A/Prof Samuel Chong joined the Department of Paediatrics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS as a Senior Lecturer in 1989 and became Associate Professor in 2003. He is the Director of the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis Centre at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, NUH. He also serves as Scientific Advisor to the Molecular Diagnosis Centre and the Clinical Cytogenetics Service of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, NUH.
Dr Chong received his undergraduate education at NUS and graduated with a BSc degree with honours in 1986. That same year, he left Singapore to pursue a Master’s degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, under a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) scholarship. In 1989, he moved south to the United States of America to pursue further scientific training at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. While there, he stumbled upon and fell in love with the fascinating field of human and molecular genetics. He successfully defended his graduate thesis and was conferred the PhD degree in 1994.
He joined the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, as a Visiting Fellow in 1994. In 1995, he was concurrently appointed as Research Instructor at the Institute for Molecular and Human Genetics and Department of Paediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Centre, in Washington, D.C..
In 1997, Dr Chong moved to the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland to take up an appointment as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
At the turn of the century after more than a decade away in North America, Dr Chong returned to Singapore to re-join his undergraduate alma mater as a faculty member and he has been there ever since. His research interests are in finding innovative solutions to molecular diagnostic challenges.
His research interests revolve around developing innovative molecular toolkits for preimplantation, prenatal and postnatal diagnostic testing and screening of challenging genetic and genomic disorders. He has published more than 150 papers in local, regional, and international journals. He also teaches undergraduate life sciences students in human genetics and genomics.
Other Qualifications:
FACMG, American College of Medical Genetics, USA (2000)
DipABMG, American Board of Medical Genetics, USA (1999)
Grants:
As Principal Investigator
- 2005 – 2019: Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis
- 2016 – 2018: Highly Polymorphic Multiplex Marker Panel and Robust Mutation Detection Strategy Universally Applicable to Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis of Huntington Disease
- 2015 – 2018: A Unified Mutation Detection and Linked Haplotype Assay for Reliable and Accurate Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome
- 2014 – 2017: Regulation/Role of MAPKAPK3, an IRF6-Regulated Gene, in Epithelial/Skin Formation
- 2012 – 2015: Regulation and Role of CYR61, a Putative Downstream Target Gene of IRF6, in Gastrulation
- 2012 – 2015: Development of a Tool to Predict Response of Patients to Fluorouracil/Platinum Drugs
- Funding Agency: A*STAR - SERC
- 2009 – 2014: International Genetic Epidemiology of Oral Clefts (renewal)
- Funding Agency: NIDCR/NIH, USA
- 2007 – 2010: Development of a Homogeneous Assay Platform Generally Applicable to the Molecular Diagnosis of Dynamic Mutation Disorders
- 2007 – 2010: Genetic Epidemiology of Pre-Eclampsia: Maternal & Paternal Genetic Variation at the HLAG & KIR2DL4 Gene Loci & Susceptibility to Disease
- 2007 – 2010: Function and Regulatory Control of the Van Der Woude Syndrome Gene IRF6 in the Zebrafish Model
- 2004 – 2009: International Genetic Epidemiology of Oral Clefts
- Funding Agency: NIDCR/NIH, USA
- 2005 – 2008: Automated Mutation/SNP Lab-On-A-Chip Devices for Molecular Diagnostics and Genomic Research
- 2003 – 2008: Establishment and Validation of a Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis Program in Singapore
- 2004 – 2007: Genomic and In Situ Expression Analyses of the Zebrafish Homologs of TWIST, the Gene Mutated in Saethre-Chotzen Syndrome
- 2003 – 2006: Molecular Basis of Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay (NMD) in Beta-Thalassemia
- 2002 – 2005: Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the MDR1 Gene in the Three Ethnic Groups in Singapore – Correlating Polymorphisms/Haplotypes with Drug Transport in Search of Functional SNPs
- 2002 – 2005: Retroviral-Mediated Strategies for In Vivo Expression Reporting and Isolation of Novel Zebrafish Genes Important in Human Development and Disease
- 2000 – 2003: Simplified Molecular Diagnostic Testing for Fragile X Mental Retardation Syndrome
- 1999 – 2002: Development of Simplified and Highly Sensitive Molecular Diagnostic Testing for Alpha Thalassemia
Patents:
United States Patent No. US 9,365,892 .B2. Title: Screening Method for Trinucleotide Repeat Sequences. Awarded 14 Jun 2016.
International Patent Application No, PCT/SG2010/000396. Title: Screening Method for Trinucleotide Repeat Sequences. Filed on 15 Oct 2010.
US Provisional Patent Application No, 61/252,182. Title: Simplified Methylation-Specific PCR Analysis of FMR1 CGG Repeat Expansions. (09206N-US/PRV). Filed on 16 Oct 2009.
US Provisional Patent Application No, 61/107,376. Title: Identification of a Genetic Factor (HLA-G*0106) Associated with Increased Risk of Pre-Eclampsia. (CHONG SS 01-US/PRV). Filed on 22 Oct 2008.
Editorial Boards:
- Associate Editor, BMC Medical Genetics
- Review Editor, Frontiers in Applied Genetic Epidemiology