NUS Prof. Too Heng-Phon receives President’s Technology Award

Associate Professor Too Heng-Phon from the Department of Biochemistry and National University of Singapore (NUS) Centre for Cancer Research at NUS Medicine has been conferred the President’s Technology Award 2021 for his groundbreaking work in developing a method for accurate, versatile detection of microRNA disease biomarkers, leading to the clinical implementation of blood tests for early detection of diseases such as cancer. Prof. Too is also the Co-founder, Chief Scientific Advisor and Nonexecutive Chairman of MiRXES, a leading Singapore-headquartered biotechnology company started in 2014, which has licensed and commercialised his miRNA detection technology. For more than 10 years, Prof. Too has been developing methods and assays for the accurate detection of miRNA biomarkers, the smallest pieces of genetic material. In 2010, he patented and published his work on the development of a miRNA qPCR assay platform technology which was subsequently commercialised and applied to the discovery of biomarkers for the early detection of cancers and other diseases. Notably, the technology has enabled the development of GASTROClear, the world’s first molecular blood test for the early detection of gastric cancer, which received the CE mark in 2017 and regulatory approval from Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority in 2019.