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CDH2026
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STARLIGHT Initiative
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Welcome!

The Cancer Discovery Hub (CDH) is a one-stop pan-omics diagnostic and research core laboratory housed at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. We specialise in state-of-the-art research-grade technologies and provide expert support to investigators on all cancer related projects.

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Latest news

Key events and achievements

  • 11 Sep 2026 : Collaboration with Agilent Technologies

  • 06 Feb 2026 : Collaboration research agreement with Lucence and Dxd Hub 

  • 10 Nov 2025 : Collaborative research agreement with 10X Genomics

  • 08 Jul 2025 : Collaborative research agreement with Remission Biotech

  • 25 Apr 2025 : Poster Presentations, AACR Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA (Jing Yi Lee, Bavani Kannan)

  • 07 Dec 2024 : Poster Presentations, ASH Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA

  • 11 Oct 2024 : MOU signed with DxD Hub, A*STAR; Collaborative research agreement with PacBio and KITKOJI

  • 14 Jun 2024 : Poster Presentations, EHA Congress, Madrid, Spain (Boon Yee Lim) 

  • 10 Apr 2024 : Poster Presentations + Scholar-in-Training Award, AACR Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA (Jing Yi Lee, Tun Kiat Ko)

  • 02 Apr 2024 : Collaborative research agreement with Illumina

  • 01 Nov 2023 : Poster Presentation, CTOS Annual Meeting, Dublin (Elizabeth Lee)​​

  • 15 Sep 2023 : MOU and RCA signed with Agilent Technologies, BioSyngen, BGI Research and MGI Tech

  • 14 Jun 2023 : Poster Presentation, ICML Lugano, Switzerland​

  • 14 Apr 2023 : Poster Presentation, AACR Annual Meeting, Florida, USA (Bavani Kannan)​​​​​

  • 20 Mar 2023 : ESMO Merit Award, ESMO Sarcoma and Rare Cancers Congress, Lugano, Switzerland​

  • 18 Mar 2023 : Co-organizer, Singapore Lymphoma Scientific Symposium 2023

  • 12 Dec 2022 : Oral abstract, ASH Annual Meeting, New Orleans, USA​​

  • 09 Dec 2022 : Invited presentation, Stem Cell Society Singapore (SCSS) Symposium (Nimmi Baby)

  • 17 Nov 2022 : Oral paper, CTOS Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada (Jing Yi Lee)​

  • 19 Aug 2022 : Invited speech, 6th International BRCA Forum, Singapore​​

  • 19 Aug 2022 : Collaborative research agreement with Scinnohub Pharmaceutical

  • 19 Aug 2022 : Collaborative research agreement with MGI Tech

  • 04 Aug 2022 : Collaborative research agreement with Twist Bioscience

  • 16 Jun 2022 : Best Oral Presentation, International Congress of the Asian Oncology Society (AOS 2022), South Korea (Tun Kiat Ko)​

  • 12 Apr 2022 : Invited Oral Presentation at Major Symposium, AACR Annual Meeting, New Orleans, US

  • 22 Feb 2022 : Publication on circulating tumor DNA mutations in progressive gastrointestinal stromal tumors, Frontiers in Oncology

  • 17 Feb 2022 : Travel Award for Poster abstract at Japanese Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting, Japan (Elizabeth Lee)​​

  • ​​12 Jan 2022 : Commercial launch of the UNITED NGS Assay (Lucence) for Asian prevalent cancers at the NCCS

  • 21 Oct 2021 : Collaborative research agreement with STEMCELL Technologies

  • 01 Sep 2021 : Collaborative research agreement with SymBio Pharmaceuticals on EBV-positive lymphomas

  • 01 Sep 2021 : Official launch of Cancer Discovery Hub!

Featured Publications

Scientific publications supported by the Cancer Discovery Hub

Beyond MYD88-only testing: MYD88/CD79B profiling improves molecular detection and MCD genotyping in VRL and CNS lymphomas Exp Hematol Oncol. 2026

Oct, 2026

Diagnosing rare, aggressive immune-privileged (IP)-large B-cell lymphomas (LBCL), such as primary vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL) and primary central nervous system lymphoma (CNSL), remains challenging due to the fragility of lymphoma cells within the vitreous or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and paucicellular yields, which preclude definitive cytological diagnosis. Clinical MYD88L265P testing has therefore been incorporated into many haematology diagnostic workflows. These gel-based AS-PCRs are limited by DNA input and quality, are restricted to predefined hotspot variants, and cannot detect CD79B ITAM domain variants, which are seen in IP-LBCLs with MYD88/CD79B (MCD) genotype. To address these limitations, we developed a low-input multiplex MYD88/CD79B PCR and Sanger sequencing workflow that detects canonical MYD88 mutations and additional TIR-domain variants, along with CD79B ITAM-domain mutations, and evaluated its clinical performance in 42 vitreous specimens and 4 CSF specimens. Paired validation with clinical VRL and known inflammatory biopsies (N = 46) showed higher sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of 81.8%,100%, and 94.7%, respectively, over the current standard of care MYD88L265P laboratory-developed test (LDT) whilst reducing the minimum DNA input from 1ng to 0.016 ng and maintaining diagnostic concordance with LDT, clinical findings, and whole-exome sequencing (WES). Mixed wild-type and mutant Sanger sequencing peak patterns also provided insight into mutational burden and tumour heterogeneity. Although WES remains more comprehensive, multiplex MYD88/CD79B PCR with sequencing represents a practical intermediate molecular strategy for molecular characterization, identification of the MYD88/CD79B-associated (MCD) genotype, and support for therapeutic and prognostic assessment.

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