Teo Kee Keong Adrian
| Dr. Teo Kee Keong Adrian | |
|---|---|
| Born | Singapore |
| 🏫 Education | Raffles Junior College
National University of Singapore King’s College, University of Cambridge |
| 💼 Occupation | Principal Investigator, IMCB
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry, Medicine, National University of Singapore |
| Notable work | Stem cell and diabetes |
| 🏅 Awards | Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of Singapore Honoree Award 2019 - Medical Innovation |
| 🌐 Website | www.adrianteolab.com |
Dr. Adrian Teo leads the Adrian Teo Laboratory (AT lab) as the Principal Investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR. He is also an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore. His primary research area is stem cell and diabetes.
Adrian was awarded the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of Singapore Honoree Award 2019 under the Medical Innovation category.
Early Education[edit]
Adrian is an alumni of Catholic High School and Raffles Junior College. He obtained his B.Sc. (1st Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore in February 2007. He then started to work on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) with Ray Dunn, Ph.D., and Alan Colman, Ph.D., at ES Cell International Pte. Ltd., before joining the Institute of Medical Biology (IMB), A*STAR, Singapore, for an internship as a Research Officer in the laboratory of Ray Dunn, Ph.D.. In April 2008, he joined the laboratory of Ludovic Vallier, Ph.D., at the King’s College, University of Cambridge to pursue his Ph.D. under the A*STAR Graduate Scholarship (Overseas). Concurrently, he was also an Honorary Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar. His thesis described how pluripotency factors regulate endoderm specification via key regulator EOMESODERMIN. In two and half years, he has successfully completed his Ph.D. and joined the laboratory of Ray Dunn, Ph.D., at IMB as a postdoctoral fellow before heading to the laboratory of Rohit Kulkarni, M.D. Ph.D., at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School in September 2011. During his fellowship at Joslin, he obtained two Harvard Stem Cell Institute seed grants and a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) fellowship to pursue his research interests in using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for in vitro disease modelling of diabetes. He is a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Singapore, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and Stem Cell Society Singapore.
Research Interest[edit]
The AT Lab seeks to leverage on human cell models such human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived cells, human islets and human β cells to study diabetes disease mechanisms, develop therapeutics for diabetes and use them as a cell source for cell therapy in diabetes.
The three main thrusts of the lab are:
1) MODELLING AND STUDYING HUMAN DIABETES DISEASE MECHANISMS[edit]
hPSCs that comprise of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) derived from patients with monogenic, gestational, type 1 or type 2 diabetes patients will be differentiated into human pancreatic cells or cell types affected in diabetic complications to dissect the pathology of diabetes and its complications (Figure 1). This effort will also contribute directly to the understanding of human potential and development.
The process of differentiating hPSCs into pancreatic β-like cells will be used to study human β cell development, maturation and function. This will identify critical steps, key pathways and mechanisms which guide human β cell development and maturation (Figure 2).
Differentiating hiPSCs that harbour diabetes risk alleles will pinpoint mechanisms of β cell demise at the earliest stage(s) and functionalise the gene variants associated with diabetes (Figure 3). This is otherwise not possible given that clinical manifestation of overt diabetes in humans takes decades to occur and patient material is inaccessible.
Differentiating hiPSCs from diabetic patients with and without complications, such as diabetic nephropathy, will elucidate genetic and epigenetic perturbations which occur in cells/tissues/organs constantly exposed to hyperglycaemia.
2) DEVELOPING NEW THERAPEUTICS TO IMPROVE PANCREATIC Β CELL FUNCTION[edit]
Patient-specific hiPSCs with clinical deficiencies in insulin secretion, such as that of MODY1 and MODY3 (Figure 4), will be used to identify new targets and pathways relating to insulin secretion mechanisms.
Novel biological and natural products will also be tested on human islets and human β cells with the goal of identifying new molecules or signalling pathways that can regulate β cell insulin secretion capacity.
3) DEVELOPING STEM CELL-BASED THERAPIES FOR THE TREATMENT OF DIABETES[edit]
Human stem cells are highly renewable and non-xenogenic. Therefore, they can be appropriately positioned for cell therapy in diabetes patients. Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) hPSC-derived β cells can potentially be used for islet cell replacement therapy in diabetes patients. Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) can also be used to confer beneficial immunomodulatory properties upon transplanted human islets or β cells to improve the long-term success of cell replacement therapy. Last but not least, bioengineering efforts including the development of encapsulation devices or the use of scaffolds will complement these stem cell-based development efforts. Together, it is envisioned that the production of sufficient mature and functional human β cells from hPSCs for cell replacement therapy will achieve physiological control of blood glucose levels, to provide a better life for diabetes patients.
Scientific Career[edit]
Awards and Recognitions[edit]
Publications[edit]
References[edit]
http://www.adrianteolab.com/home.html
https://bch.nus.edu.sg/adrianteo.htm
https://publons.com/researcher/1420145/adrian-kee-keong-teo/
This article "Teo Kee Keong Adrian" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Teo Kee Keong Adrian. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
