Released on: August 25, 2008, 6:36 pm

Press Release Author: Institute for Infocomm Research

Industry: Education

Press Release Summary: Dr Victor Tong Joo Chuan earns global recognition for his
ground-breaking research to design vaccines more effectively

Press Release Body: Singapore, 25 August 2008 - Dr Victor Tong Joo Chuan, a
researcher at A*STAR's Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), has been conferred the
"TR35 Award" for his research work on Personalized Vaccine Design. He is one of the
35 top innovators in science and technology under the age of 35 honoured by MIT's
Technology Review magazine this year.

Since 1999, the Technology Review has honoured young innovators in science and
technology; and today that collection is the TR35, a list of technologists and
scientists who had achieved success and made a difference with their inventions and
research into medicine, computing, communications, electronics, and nanotechnology
before they turn 35 years old.

Dr Tong leads a cross-disciplinary team focusing on developing algorithms that take
genetic variations into account to help select antigens that are most effective for
triggering immune response. This is especially relevant in optimizing effectiveness
of vaccines because each person's immune system is unique to the individual.
He is able to achieve this by creating 3-D models of human leukocyte antigen
(HLA)-antigen complexes, training machine-learning algorithms to account for
variations in immune recognition patterns and identifying important antigens that
have the best potential to be effective vaccines.
The target of Dr Tong's team is to create computational models for 120-150 HLA
molecules, which should cover not only the entire Singapore population but also 95%
of the global population. Together with A/P Ren Ee Chee, Principal Investigator at
Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Dr Tong's group is developing an integrated
pipeline from computational modeling to clinical testing for development of next
generation vaccines.

By matching possible antigens with the HLA variants most common in a population,
vaccines of the future may be tailored to specific groups or, with personal
screening, even to individuals. This development holds tremendous value for the
medical community as it leads to continuing research to target specific prevention
and vaccination for various infectious diseases and even cancer.

Professor Lye Kin Mun, Deputy Executive Director (Research) said, "I congratulate
Dr. Tong on this achievement! I2R is proud that Dr. Tong is receiving international
recognition for his outstanding research. This substantiates the quality of talent
we have working within Fusionopolis and the importance of cross-disciplinary
approaches to solving tough problems. We will continue to promote and support such
efforts in the future."

Dr. Tong and the other TR35 winners for 2008 will be featured in the September issue
of Technology Review magazine and honoured at the Emerging Technologies (EmTech)
Conference to be held on September 23-25, 2008 at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA.
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Web Site: http://www.i2r.a-star.edu.sg

Contact Details: Mr Andrew Yap
Acting Manager, Corporate Communications
Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R)
DID: (65) 6419 1143 Fax: (65) 6466 7716
Email: jtyap@i2r.a-star.edu.sg