How Professor Dr Cheong Sok Ching put Malaysia on the map for cancer research globally

From submitting the vaccine to various global regulatory bodies like the US Food and Drug Administration to fulfilling the necessary animal tests and safety experiments needed to proceed to clinical trials, the route to realising the fruits of this labour-intensive journey is lengthy and extremely costly, Cheong says. 

“It’s meaningful because we made the discovery here in Malaysia for a cancer that is very common among Asians. We have patients here who will benefit from it, if it’s successful,” she says. “Of course, most of these projects [hinge on] our ability to secure funding from overseas. And we compete with scientists from all over the world to secure grants given by foreign funding bodies. The message is clear. The talent is here in Malaysia. We just need the funds to get the work done.” 

See also: If we can beat Covid, there’s no reason why we can’t beat cancer’: Mirxes’ Zhou Lihan on the science and tech behind saving lives

To understand it all better, I spoke to Cheong on the hurdles that scientists face and why they are nonetheless poised to excel and make a tangible difference in the highly competitive medical research sector globally.  

What positive changes do you wish to see in Malaysia that will help scientists and researchers thrive? 

Firstly, good training is important. Then it’s the opportunities, better salary, the infrastructure needed to do the work that we do. Are the opportunities here for them to realise their dreams? If I’m a young scientist and I discover a vaccine that Malaysia is not ready for, why would I do it here in Malaysia? The ecosystem of science here is vast. One of the ways to address it is to ensure that we have a vision for science in the country and that all the ministries are aligned to that vision along with the private sector. That vision has to be sustainable, and not change as governments or political parties change.

If, as a scientist, you want to be able to come up with new knowledge and you want to impact cancer patients’ lives, this actually requires the ability to translate that into the clinic. So we need an ecosystem that is ready to do that. We need people who can do clinical trials, clinicians who are ready and forward-thinking. We need legal people who can draft strong IP protection for the work we do. 

What do you appreciate most about working with a Malaysian team in cancer research? 

Because we are in a low-resource setting, we always have to be creative. Previously, I had an American post-doctorate student who spent a year here (his wife is Malaysian). He said, “I’ve never planned this much in my entire life. In the US, if you decide to do an experiment, you can order the things and tomorrow they will be at your desk.” For us in Malaysia, it can take up to six to eight weeks to arrive, especially the specialty items that we have to import from the US. Despite all the setbacks, the fact that we can be competitive on a global stage is amazing. The incredible people that we work with in Malaysia—our team at Cancer Research Malaysia, they really bend backwards to plan ahead and get things done.     

Is there any other Malaysian in your space you think deserves a mention?

There are a lot of Malaysians who are extremely smart who are doing a lot in our field. We have a collaborator, Professor Tan Aik Choon, who is the director of The Bioinformatics Centre at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and senior director of data science at Huntsman Cancer Institute. He was at The Johns Hopkins University when he got recruited to be director. 

Don’t miss: Meet Dr Premitha Damodaran, the Pioneering Ob-Gyn Challenging Barriers to Women’s Menopausal Health in Malaysia

What’s the main message you want to share with the public about supporting the work that Cancer Research Malaysia does? 

Firstly, we are able to compete in the world stage and to get the grants. Which means Malaysia has the talent, the brains and the ideas. Case in point, we’re able to take research into clinical trials. We have at least three clinical trials running based on the research that Cancer Research Malaysia has done. So it’s actually getting to the patients at this point. Can you imagine? We are a small organisation, with 50 over scientists. We are small and yet we have several proof points–competing in the world stage, getting into clinic. We work with many partners, including the Ministry of Health and many universities in Malaysia and across the world.   

Can you imagine what we could do if we had more support? We have a vision: ‘Free of the fear of cancer’. This vision should be a Malaysian vision, because every one of us has loved ones touched by cancer, whether we like it or not. If you are passionate and want better ways of preventing, detecting and treating cancer, then I encourage you to get in touch with us, and see how you can fund our research so we can do more.

NOW READ

‘The world needs science, and science needs women’: 3 award-winning scientists on their pioneering work in STEM

Wellness entrepreneur Diane Chia gets candid about her egg freezing experience

Ask an endocrinologist: What you didn’t know about Diabetes care today