The Molecular Pathology Unit focuses on impactful cancer research in Malaysia, covering the aspects from cancer prevention, strategic screening, early detection, prognosis and personalized treatment. We work on major cancers such as breast and colorectal cancers, as well as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-linked cancers prevalent in Southeast Asia such as the nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Our efforts include improving screening strategies through polygenic risk scores for breast cancer and new methylation markers for colorectal cancer, understanding the molecular epidemiology of EBV-linked cancers especially the local EBV variants and host genetics for the development of cancer vaccines, developing prognostic tests, and cancer models to guide treatment and reduce disease burden.

Key breakthroughs include the characterization of EBV variants among the understudied groups and increased awareness to avoid health disparities in EBV vaccine development, prognostic gene panels to improve NPC patient management and call for development of therapeutics on newly identified targets in subgroup of NPC with worse prognosis for a more personalized care, as well as the establishment of four local NPC patient derived xenografts that could serve as models in drug development at the pre-clinical testing phase. With expertise in genomics, bioinformatics, and pre-clinical studies, we collaborate globally in hope to turn research into real-world solutions that save lives.