Assoc Prof Tan Nguan Soon
Associate Professor, Metabolic Disorders, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Metabolic Disorders
Email: nstan@ntu.edu.sg
Office: Mandalay CSB 11 01
1994-1997	Doctor of Philosophy, National University of Singapore
1992-1993	Bachelor of Science (Hons), National University of Singapore
1989-1991	Bachelor of Science, National University of Singapore
2019-present	Associate Professor (tenured), LKCmedicine (70%)
Associate Professor (tenured), School of Biological Sciences, NTU (30%)
2016-2018 Associate Professor (tenured), LKCmedicine (30%)
2014-2018	Associate Chair (Student), School of Biological Sciences, NTU
2014-2018	Associate Professor (tenured), School of Biological Sciences, NTU (70%)
2013-2014	Visiting Scientist, Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital
2012-2016 Joint-PI IMCB, A*STAR
2011-present	Editorial Board member of PPAR Research.
2005-2014 Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences, NTU
2006-2008	Assistant Chair (Undergraduate Affairs)
2000-2004	Research Fellow, Center for Integrative Genomics, Switzerland
1997-1999	Postdoc., National University of Singapore, Singapore
2014	The Commendation Medal (Prime Minister's Office)
2013	Nanyang Education Award (College)
2012	Nanyang Award for Research Excellence
2011	College of Science Collaborative Research Award
2007	Nanyang Education Award (School)
2002-2003	Agency for Science, Technology and Research International Fellowship.
2016-present	Board member, Skin Research Society (Singapore)
2014-present Active member, American Association for Cancer Research
2014-present	Active member, American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy.
2013-present Fellows of the Teaching Excellence Academy, NTU
Poor healing wounds represent a silent epidemic that affects a large fraction of the world population and carries a heavy socioeconomic burden. Despite the enormous impact of these poor-healing wounds, effective therapies remain lacking. Effective management of these problems will require better understanding of the healing process to allow the creation of a salubrious environment conducive to healing. Our lab has worked extensively to understand the transcriptional regulation of skin wound healing and particularly the interplay among different cell types during wound healing. We identified angiopoietin-like 4 protein (ANGPTL4) as a novel matricellular protein that is essential for proper wound healing. Wound healing in ANGPTL4-knockout mice are delayed and share many characteristics of poor healing wounds, including increased/prolonged inflammation, impaired wound-related angiogenesis and ruined extracellular matrix. Hyperproliferative wound keratinocytes secrete high amount of ANGPTL4 which plays a major role in cell-cell communication, and cell-matrix interactions in many aspects of wound healing including re-epithelialization, angiogenesis and scar formation. A cardinal feature of poor healing wounds is a persistent inflammatory response at the wound site. Thus, our current studies is to investigate the role of immune-associated reactive oxygen species on wound healing.
TARGETING METASTASIS
Metastasis accounts for more than 90% of cancer mortality. Once metastasis occurs, surgical excision of the primary tumor no longer guarantees disease free survival and the probability of cancer relapse in distal organs increases significantly. Although most cancer deaths are the result of metastases, cancer research has mainly focused on the primary tumor. Our interest on how cancer cells survived in the circulation led to our discovery of an ANGPTL4-Nox1-ROS axis responsible for conferring anoikis resistance. Our findings have established several paradigms in oxidative stress-driven metastasis. Tumor cells become migratory and invasive via epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). My lab has actively interrogated the molecular changes in cancer cells during EMT. We showed that EMT is an energy-demanding process and that metabolic changes during EMT are critical to sustain an elevated adenylate energy charge needed to fuel various biological processes, such as invasion and chemoresistance. We identified ANGPTL4:YWHAG signalling axis coordinates cancer cell metabolic activities with EMT. Our current interest aims to decipher the mechanisms that regulate and coordinate the different networks during EMT which will provide much-needed insight into the process of metastasis. Deliberate disruption of these mechanisms is expected to yield important clinical information regarding etiology, prognosis and response to therapy.
A Multimodal Imaging And Micro-Array Expression Profile Study To Unravel Possible Pathogenesis Of Melasma In Asian Population
A feasibility study of keratin as a tissue regeneration template for chronic wounds (Proj Code: ISG/11021)
A study to investigate the mechanism by which angiopoietin-like 4 modulates superoxide level in tumour for anoikis resistance- an anticancer therapeutic focused on the induction of redox-based apoptosis in tumors
Angiopoietin-like 4 as a Biomarker and Therapy Target for Acute Lung Damage in Influenza and Secondary Bacterial Infection
Bedside to bench and back again: evaluating Neisseria spp. as novel respiratory pathobionts using systems biology
Bedside to bench and back again: evaluating Neisseria spp. as novel respiratory pathobionts using systems biology (Andrew Tan)
Bioactive Stem Cells Secretome-Enriched Hydrogels for Chronic Wound Healing
Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts-Specific Nuclear Receptor Prognostic Signature
Characterization and Development of the potential diagnostic and therapeutic utilities of LYVE-1 expressing macrophages for vascular diseases
Cooper-Catalyzed Aerobic Molecular Transformation Directed Toward Drug Discovery
Development of Functionalized Phosphine Gold-Based Complexes for Breast Cancer Therapy
Development of a Photocrosslinkable Hair Keratin Based Hydrogel for Regenerating Vascularized Skin Grafts
Effect of Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields (PEMFs) on Breast Cancer Progression in Post-Menopausal Women
Effect of topical application of encapsulated PPARbeta/delta agonist GW501516 microparticles, with two release kinetics, on cutaneous wound healing in diabetic mice – a preclinical animal study
Employment of bio-mimetic culture system as tumor microenvironment surrogate to elucidate tumor-stroma interaction
Establishment of a 3D biologically relevant cancer cell niche for high-throughput cancer drug screening
Modulating mesenchymal stem cell differentiation by controlling cellular morphology and material surface topography
Multimodal treatment and chemosensitization of squamous cell carcinoma by targeting nuclear receptors in cancer-associated fibroblasts
Role of ANGPTL4 in regulating cellular bioenergetics for EMT in cancer cells
Role of PPAR in N6-methyladenosine mRNA methylation and Insulin Resistance
Role of angiopoietin-like 4 in cancer drug resistance during epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
Role of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of vitiligo
Role of tumor-derived angiopoetin-like protein 4 in cancer metastasis
Somatic missense mutations of ANGPTL4 and its biological consequence on oncogenic ROS production and metastasis
Targeting Brain Tumors: Improving Lives through Precision Medicine
Testing the efficacy of biologic wound dressing in accelerating wound healing in diabetic mice
The role angiopoitin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) in angiogenesis during wound healing and cancer growth
Therapeutic Improvement Of Scarring
Tissue engineering approach using hybrid scaffold with sustained delivery of matricellular protein for treating chronic wounds
Understanding The Role Of Angiopoietin-Like 4 In MacrophageM1/M2 Polarization During Wound Healing
Why is trans fat bad: Understanding the lipotoxic effect of trans fat
cANGPTL4 as a novel biomarker for rapid diagnosis and prediction of severity of acute pneumonia
Huang, R-L, Teo, Z.Q., Chong, H.C., Zhu, P.C., Tan, M.J., Tan, C.K., Lam, C.R.I., Sng, M.K., Leong D.W.T., Tan, S.M., Kersten, S., Ding, J.L., Li, H.Y. and Tan, N.S. (2011). ANGPTL4 modulates vascular junction integrity by integrin signaling and disruption of intercellular VE-cadherin and claudin-5 clusters. Blood, 118, 3990-4002.
Di-Poi, N., Ng, C.Y., Tan, N.S., Yang., Z., Hemmings, B.A., Desvergne, B., Michalik, L. and Wahli, W. (2005). Epithelium-mesenchyme interactions control the activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor beta/delta during hair follicle development. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 25(5), 1696-1712.
Tan, N.S., Michalik, L., Noy, N., Yasmin, R., Pacot, C., Heim, M., Fluhmann, B., Desvergne, B. and Wahli, W. (2001). Critical roles of PPARbeta/delta in keratinocytes response to inflammation. Genes & Development, 15(24), 3263-3277.