SBS Research Pillar Key Visual for Development, Disease and Target Discovery Mobile Version

Profile Photo of SBS Faculty Melissa Jane Fullwood

Assoc. Prof. Fullwood, Melissa

Associate Professor

Phone: (65) 6514 1006
Email: [email protected]
Personal Lab Webpage: https://fullwoodlab.com/

 

One in three people will get cancer in their lifetime. Precision cancer medicine relies on understanding the individual workings of each cancer and person in order to develop tailored therapies. The advent of next-generation sequencing, new experimental methods, big data analyses and artificial intelligence, have greatly accelerated progress towards precision medicine.

Our lab’s interests are:
1. Understanding and Therapeutically Targeting 3D genome organization, RNA Biology, and functional consequences in cancer
2. Artificial Intelligence in Epigenomics and RNA Biology

3. Development of new wet lab and dry lab methods to investigate Epigenomics and RNA Biology

Our main hypothesis is that the RNA regulated by aberrant 3D genome organization constitutes a key therapeutic vulnerability in cancer, which can be deciphered through novel wet and dry methods, as well as Artificial Intelligence, and targeted for the development of new therapeutic strategies for cancer.

Our hope is that through a better understanding of Cancer Epigenomics and RNA biology, we will be able to gain clues as to what could be new treatments for cancer in the future.

Research Areas

Cancer biology, 3D genome organization, RNA Biology, Artificial intelligence, Aging and metabolism

 

Profile Photo of Lab Member Benjamin Lebeau

Benjamin Lebeau
The Eric and Wendy Schmidt
AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow

Profile Photo of Lab Member Crystal Ling Chia Yin

Crystal Ling Chia Yin
Research Fellow

Profile Photo of Lab Member Dao Fuying

Dao Fuying
The Eric and Wendy Schmidt
AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow

Profile Photo of Lab Member Jes Kwek Hui Min

Jes Kwek Hui Min
PhD Student

Profile Photo of Lab Member Li Xinya

Li Xinya
PhD Student

Profile Photo of Lab Member Prachi Amuley
Prachi Amuley
PhD Student
Profile Photo of Lab Member Udhaya Vijayakumar
Udhaya Vijayakumar
Research Assistant
Profile Photo of Lab Member Winnie Fam
Winnie Fam
Research Assistant
  • Zhang Y*, Chen K*, Tang SC*, Cai Y*, Nambu A, See YX, Fu CY, Raju A, Lebeau B, Ling Z, Chan JJ, Tay Y, Mutwil M, Lakshmanan M, Tucker-Kellog G, Chng WJ, Tenen DG, Osato M, Tergaonkar V, Fullwood MJ. Super-silencer perturbation by EZH2 and REST inhibition leads to large loss of chromatin interactions and reduction in cancer growth. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2025 Jan;32(1):137-149. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01391-7
  • See YX, Chen KJ, Fullwood MJ. MYC overexpression leads to increased chromatin interactions at superenhancers and c-MYC binding sites. Genome Res. 2022 Apr;32(4):629-642. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.276313.121
  • Cao F*, Zhang Y*, Cai Y*, Animesh S, Zhang Y, Akincilar S, Loh YP, Chng WJ, Tergaonkar V, Kwoh CK, Fullwood MJ. Chromatin interaction Neural Network (ChINN): A machine learning-based method for predicting chromatin interactions from DNA sequences. Genome Biol. 2021 Aug 16;22(1):226. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-021-02453-5
  • Zhang Y*, Cai Y*, Roca X, Kwoh CK, Fullwood MJ. Chromatin loop anchors predict transcript and exon usage. Brief Bioinform. 2021 Nov 5;22(6):bbab254. https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbab254
  • Cai Y*, Zhang Y*, Loh YP, Tng JQ, Lim MC, Cao Z, Anandhkumar R, Shang L, Lakshmanan M, Tergaonkar V, Tucker-Kellogg G, Fullwood MJ. H3K27me3-rich regions can function as silencers to repress gene expression via chromatin interactions. Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 29;12(1):719. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20940-y