Kia Joo Puan

• Experience in human immunology with a focus on translational biomarkers for patient stratification • Lead design proof-of-concept experiments for novel molecular targets through the development of immune cell-based assays • Work closely with different functional teams to develop data analysis pipeline for high-dimensional data analysis • Design, optimize and validate antibody panels for discovery or deep immunophenotyping of human clinical samples • Initiate and design translational studies with clinical collaborators to identify biomarkers that correlate with clinical outcome • Establish, troubleshoot, optimize, and validate using antibody-based isolation of human regulatory T cells protocol suitable for the treatment of graft versus host disease in leukemia patients in a Phase I clinical trial • Technology transfer of the cell isolation procedure to the GMP Cell Therapy Facility at the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore • Knowledgeable with Multiplex Assays of plasma/serum/culture supernates using Luminex Technology and Single Molecule Counting Technology • Train scientists, research officers, and PhD students on experiment design, antibody panel design, optimization, and validation

•Establish SOPs for processing and biobanking of clinical samples including blood, tissues, PBMC, and plasma •Design, optimize, validate and standardize FACS panels for immunophenotyping of gammadelta T cells in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in blood and biopsy samples •Troubleshoot, optimize and validate cell-based assays (cytotoxicity assay, cytokine production, proliferation assay) for the measurement of gammadelta T cell functions in patients prior to and after standard radio/chemo therapy • Troubleshoot and optimized gammadelta T cell expansion protocol using healthy donors and NPC patients’ PBMC and QC for gammadelta T cell functionality •Perform data analysis to correlate gammadelta T cell phenotypes and functional responses (cytotoxicity, cytokine, proliferative responses) with tumor staging and clinical responses •Generate reports for scientific presentation to different internal or external stakeholders

Purification and isolation of nonpeptide antigens for human gamma-delta T cells using anion exchange HPLC and ion-pairing reversed phase HPLC Identification of metabolic genes involved in the biosynthesis of isoprenoid compounds in bacteria using transponson-mediated mutagenesis Develop the bacterial vaccines that stimulate human gamma-delta T cells Established the human SCID-beige mouse model for the expansion of gamma-delta T cells