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Prof Tong Louis

Prof Louis Tong

MBBS, FRCS(Ed), DM(Nott), FRCOphth, PhD (NUS)

Head, Research Training & Development, Singapore Eye Research Institute

Research Interest:

Inflammation, dry eye, and ocular surface disease
Biomarkers and medical devices
Translational drug development
Clinical trials
Health-service research

Research Appointments

Head, Research Training & Development, Singapore Eye Research Institute
Head, Ocular Surface Research Group, Singapore Eye Research Institute
Clinician Scientist, Singapore Eye Research Institute

Academic Appointments

Professor SingHealth Duke-NUS Ophthalmology ＆ Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Programme

Clinical Appointments

Senior Consultant SingHealth Duke-NUS Transplant Centre
Senior Consultant Corneal ＆ External Eye Disease Department Singapore National Eye Centre
Senior Consultant Cataract ＆ Comprehensive Ophthalmology Department Singapore National Eye Centre

Profile

Professor Louis Tong graduated in 1993 with basic medical degree from the National University of Singapore, registered as a medical practitioner in 1994 and achieved accreditation as an ophthalmologist by the Singapore Medical Council in November 2004. He completed training in ophthalmology at various centres in England (1996-2000) and in Singapore (2000-2004). He completed a 2 year overseas cornea research fellowship at the Ocular Surface Centre, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, as part of A*STAR national science scholarship.

Professor Tong holds a Professor appointment at the Duke-NUS Medical School and several appointments at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) including Principal Clinician Scientist and Head of Ocular Surface Research Group. He is represented in International expert panels like the international meibomian gland dysfunction workshop and Dry Eye Workshop II, is council member of Asia Dry Eye Society, ambassador of the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society and member of International Ocular Surface Society. He is a frequent invited speaker at industry events, has been awarded NMRC clinician-scientist award for senior investigator twice, and authored more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. He runs a dedicated dry eye clinic at Singapore National Eye Centre, performs pre-clinical translational research and clinical trials.

Professional Appointments and Committee Memberships

Adjunct Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Associate Editor, Current Eye Research (2017 - present)
Associate Editor, Acta Ophthalmologica (2017 - present)
Member, Management Committee, Singapore Eye Research Institute (2017 - present)
Member, Scientific Review, Research Committee, Singapore National Eye Centre (2017 - present)
Member, Editorial Board, World Journal of Ophthalmology, Baishideng Publishing Group, Beijing, China (2016 - 2017)
Member, Editorial Board, Case reports in Ophthalmological Medicine, Hindawi Publishing Corp., NY, USA (2015 - present)
Member, Editorial Board, American Journal of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Columbia International Publishing (CIP) (2014 - present)
Advisor, Editorial Board, Ophthalmology and Therapy, Springer Healthcare (Advisory Board Member) (2014 - present)
Member, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Education Institute (2014 - present)
Co-Chair, National Medical Research Council Scientific Review Panel (SRP) 1 for new investigator grants (CS-NIG) (2014 - 2016)
Member, Strategic Planning Committee, Singapore Eye Research Institute (2013 - 2016)
Member, Alcon-Novartis Advisory Board (2012 - present)
Consultant, Allergan Advisory Board (2012 - present)
Member, Medical and Scientific Advisory Board, Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) (2012 -2014)
Consultant/Advisory Board Member, Sanofi-Aventis HTA Council (2011)

Education

PhD (NUS) (2009)
FRCOphth (2004)
DM (Nott) (2002)
FRCS(Ed) (1998)
MBBS (1993)

Awards

Clinician Scientist Award (SI), National Medical Research Council (2017)
Clinician Scientist Award (SI), National Medical Research Council (2012)
Clinician Scientist Award (Inv), National Medical Research Council (2009)
Publish! Award (Medical Research), SingHealth (2014)
Outstanding Mentor Award, Wong Hock Boon Society - Singapore Medical Association (2013)
Mentorship Program Grant Award, SingHealth (2008)
Award for Clinicians, NUS-Exxon Mobil (2007)
Learning Award, SingHealth (2007)
Travel Award, The Association of Vision and Research in Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2006)
Travel Award, The Association of Vision and Research in Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2004)

Research Studies

International collaboration on Sjogren syndrome (2016 - 2017)
Conjunctival microbiome (2015 - 2017)
Lipids and eicosanoids (2013 - 2017)
Ocular surface inflammation and immunology (2010 – 2017)
Tear proteomics and cytokines (2010 - 2017)

Publications

Wolffsohn JS, Arita R, Chalmers R, Djalilian A, Dogru M, Dumbleton K, Gupta P, Karpecki P, Lazreg S, Pult H, Sullivan BD, Tomlinson A, Tong L, Villani E, Yoon KC, Jones L, Craig J. TFOS DEWS II Diagnostic Methodology Report. The ocular surface published online, 20 Jul 2017
Bose T, Hou AH, Lee R, Tong L, Chandy GS. Tissue resident memory T cells in the human conjunctiva and immune signatures in human dry eye disease. Scientific Reports. 2017. 7:45312
Bose T, Hou AH, Chandy GS, Tong L. A chronic autoimmune dry eye rat model with increase in effector T cells in eyeball tissue. J. Vis. Exp. (124), e55592, doi:10.3791/55592 (2017)
Lim A, Wenk MR, Tong L, CORIM. Lipid-based therapy for ocular surface inflammation and disease. Trends in Molecular Medicine. Volume 21, Issue 12, December 2015, 736–748
Yawata N, Selva KJ, Liu YC, Siak JK, Lan WW, Tong L, Yawata M, Mehta JS. Dynamic change in natural killer cell type in the human ocular mucosa in situ as means of immune evasion by adenovirus infection. Mucosal Immunol 2015 Jun 17. doi: 10.1038/mi.2015.47. [Epub ahead of print]
Lan WW, Chen SL, Tong L. MicroRNA-215 Regulates Fibroblast Function: Insights from a Human Fibrotic Disease. Cell Cycle. Cell Cycle. 2015 Jun 18;14(12):1973-84. doi: 10.1080/15384101.2014.998077
Lam SM, Tong L, Duan XR, Acharya UR, Tan JH, Petznick A, Wenk MR, Shui GH. Longitudinal changes in the levels of tear fluid lysophospholipids and O-acyl-omega-hydroxy fatty acids brought about by eyelid warming treatment in a cohort of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction patients. J Lipid Res. 2014. P051185
Tong L, Zhou XY, Jylha A, Aapola U, Liu DN, Koh SK, Tian D, Uusitalo H, Beuerman RW, Zhou L. Quantification of 47 Human Tear Proteins using High Resolution Multiple Reaction Monitoring (HR-MRM) Based-Mass Spectrometry. J Proteomics. 2015 Feb 6;115:36-48. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2014.12.002. Epub 2014 Dec 19
Tong L, Thumboo J, Tan YK, Wong TY, Albani S. The eye: A window of opportunity in rheumatoid arthritis? Nature Reviews Rheumato. 2014 Jun 10. doi: 10.1038/nrrheum.2014.85. [Epub ahead of print]
Gong L, Sun XH, Ma ZZ, et al, Tong L. A Randomized, Parallel-Group Comparison Study of Diquafosol Ophthalmic Solution in Patients with Dry Eye (Comparison with 0.1% sodium hyaluronate ophthalmic solution) in China and Singapore. Br J Ophthalmol. BJO Online published on January 28, 2015 as 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2014-306084
Tong L, Seow G, Tan J, Thumboo J. Dry eye. BMJ 2012;345:e7533
Tong L, Png E, Hou AH, Yong SS, Yeo HL, Riau A, Mendoz E, Chaurasia SS, Lim CT, Yiu TW, Lismaa SE. Molecular mechanism of transglutaminase-2 in corneal epithelial migration and adhesion. Biochim Biophys Acta 2013;1833:1304-1315 epub 25 Feb 2013
DA Schaumberg, JJ Nichols, EB Papas, L Tong, M Uchino, KK Nichols. The international workshop on meibomian gland dysfunction: Report of the subcommittee on the epidemiology of, and associated risk factors for, MGD. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2011, 52 (4): 1994-2005
Husain R, Tong L, Fong A, Cheng JF, How A, Chua WH, Gazzard G. Prevalence of cataract in rural Indonesia. Ophthalmology 2005: 122: 1255-1262