Dr. Soo-Hwang Teo established, and is now Chief Executive of Cancer Research Malaysia, Malaysia’s first independent cancer research non-profit organization, which is funded, managed, and staffed by Malaysians and specifically focused on research of cancers prevalent in Malaysia. These include breast cancer, oral cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer. As Chief Executive, Dr. Teo establishes and implements Cancer Research Malaysia’s scientific programs and engages with academic, clinical, governmental and non-governmental organizations that conduct and support cancer research. Since its establishment in 2001, Cancer Research Malaysia has published more than 170 scientific publications, filed 4 patents, established new clinical services, and trained Malaysian cancer researchers.
Prof Teo is also the Principal Investigator of the Malaysian Breast Cancer Genetic Study (MyBrCa), the Malaysian Ovarian Cancer Genetic Study (MyOvCa) and the Malaysian Mammographic Density Study (MyMammo). In collaboration with the University of Cambridge (Prof Doug Easton), MyBrCa has been part of the Breast Cancer Association Consortium and this has led to the identification of more than 100 genetic loci associated with an increased risk to breast cancer. This is of particular importance because there are few cohorts in Asia and MyBrCa makes an important contribution as these studies are only possible through collaboration involving large numbers of patients. In addition, Prof Teo’s team builds models for risk assessment in the Asian population integrating lifestyle, genetic and mammographic images, and conducts community programmes to downstage breast cancer.
As of 23 May 2017, Prof Teo has published 141 research articles, which have been cited more than 5,000 times, with an average of 30 citations per article on WebOfScience. Prof Teo’s H-index is 38 (Google scholar) and i10-index is 83. Prof Teo was appointed an Adjunct Professor of University Malaya in 2008, an Eisenhower Fellow in 2010, a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences on 2014 and won to Top Research Scientist Award in 2014.