Ooi Eng Eong

Professor Ooi Eng Eong is a clinician-scientist by training and his research on dengue is positioned at the interface between clinical epidemiology, virology and immunology. His laboratory is interested in how antibodies either protect against or enhance dengue virus infection and what viral factors influence epidemic dengue activity.

Currently, he is the Deputy Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at DUKE-NUS Medical School and hold Professor appointments at the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore.

Education

FRCPath in Virology from the Royal College of Pathologists, UK (2013)
Ph.D. degree in Molecular Epidemiology, National University of Singapore (1998)
B.M.B.S., University of Nottingham (1993)

Awards

NMRC Clinician Scientist Award (Senior Investigator) 2019
NMRC Clinician Scientist Award (Senior Investigator) 2014
NMRC Clinician Scientist Award (Senior Investigator) 2010

Research

Antibody-mediated protection or enhancement of dengue virus infection

Epidemiological phenotypes and factors that determine the outcome of infection or transmissibility

Vaccine and therapeutics development

Clinical Translation

AMR IRG projects include the investigation of antibiotic effects on the microbiome in conjunction with the Alm Lab and the development of engineered antibodies with the mAbplatform group (MAPG).

Selected publications

Robinson LN, Tharakaraman K, Rowley KJ, Costa VV, Chan KR, Wong YH, Ong LC, Tan HC, Koch T, Cain D, Kirloskar R, Viswanathan K, Liew CW, Tissire H, Ramakrishnan R, Myette JR, Babcock GJ, Sasisekharan V, Alonso S, Chen J, Lescar J, Shriver Z, Ooi EE and Sasisekharan R (2015). Structure-guided design of an antibody against dengue virus directed to a non-immunodominant epitope. Cell, 162:493-504.

Manokaran G, Finol E, Wang C, Gunaratne J, Bahl J, Ong EZ, Tan HC, Sessions OM, Ward AM, Gubler DJ, Harris E, Garcia-Blanco M and Ooi EE (2015). Dengue subgenomic RNA binds TRIM25 to inhibit interferon expression for epidemiological fitness. Science, 350:217-21.

Chan KR, Wang X, Saron WA, Gan ES, Tan HC, Mok DL, Zhang SL, Lee YH, Liang C, Wijaya L, Ghosh S, Cheung YB, Tannenbaum SR, Abraham SN, St John AL, Low JG and Ooi EE (2016). Cross-reactive antibodies enhance live attenuated virus infection for increased immunogenicity. Nat Microbiol, 1:16164.

Wilder-Smith A, Ooi EE, Horstick O, Wills B (2019). Dengue. Lancet 393:350-63.

Chan KR, Gan ES, Chan CYY, Liang C, Low JZH, Zhang SL, Ong EZ, Bhatta A, Wijaya L, Lee YH, Low JG, Ooi EE (2019). Metabolic perturbations and cellular stress underpin susceptibility to symptomatic live attenuated yellow fever infection. Nat Med, 25;1218-1224.