Foo-Lab

Roger did his postgraduate research training with the late Professor David de Bono (British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiology, Leicester, UK), Professor Morris Brown (Clinical Pharmacology, Cambridge, UK) and a postdoctoral Wellcome Trust Fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NYC with Professor Rick Kitsis. It was with Rick, where Roger delved deep into the molecular mechanisms of heart failure examining regulators of cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Upon returning to Cambridge, Roger started the Foo-Lab 1.0 at the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, funded by the British Heart Foundation and Wellcome Trust, exploring the mechanisms that regulate gene expression and cardiac epigenomics in Heart Failure. This led to the publication of the first epigenome (“DNA methylome") map of the human heart in the journal, Circulation 2021, among others. 

The Foo-Lab 2.0 was established in Singapore in 2013 at both NUS CVRI and the Genome Institute of Singapore. Since returning to his roots in Singapore, the lab has widened its exploration further into new molecular mechanisms of Heart Failure, adopting new technologies to explore gene expression control, cell states transitions and cardiac function. Using clinical samples, in vitro reprogrammed stem cells, and a variety of in vivo models, Foo Lab applies cutting edge advances in science to better understand cardiac biology and disease. Recently Roger has taken on several leadership roles at NUS and the lab has expanded into clinical and population health, driving “closer to the patient” in full concerted effort towards heart disease prevention and tackling the looming heart failure crisis in Southeast Asia.