Kit S. Lam M.D., Ph.D. (Principal Investigator)

Distinguished Professor & Chairman Emeritus
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine
Professor of Hematology & Oncology
Sue Jane Leung Presidential Chair in Cancer Research
UC Davis NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of California Davis
Sacramento, CA95817
Email: kslam@ucdavis.edu

Biography

Dr. Kit S Lam was born and raised in Hong Kong. He is a physician-scientist and an expert in combinatorial chemistry, peptide chemistry, chemical biology, drug discovery and development, molecular imaging, nanotherapeutics, biomaterial and medical oncology. He obtained his B.A. in Microbiology in 1975 at the University of Texas at Austin, his Ph.D. in Oncology in 1980 from McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin, and his M.D. in 1984 from Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training and Medical Oncology Fellowship training at the University of Arizona. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.

Dr. Lam is recognized as one of the pioneers who started the field of synthetic combinatorial chemistry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He conceived the one-bead one-compound (OBOC) concept and invented the OBOC combinatorial library methods that have been used by many investigators around the world for basic research, drug discovery and material discovery. More recently, the OBOC concept has been successfully applied by the molecular biologists for the generation of DNA barcodes for single cell genomic analysis. Many advances in the chemical synthesis, encoding, screening and polymer support of the OBOC technology were developed in Dr. Lam's laboratory. He has used the technology to discover cancer targeting ligands for tumor imaging and therapy. Very recently, his team has successfully used OBOC technology to discover membrane active peptides, membrane fusion peptides and self-assembling peptides. Some of these peptides interact preferentially with liposomes mimicking fungal cell membranes. Some of them have potent anti-fungal activities. The OBOC combinatorial library method was first published in Nature in 1991. The article has since been cited over 2,500 times. He was one of the founding scientists of Selectide Corporation, which was later acquired by Sanofi. Selectide was one of the first start-up companies to specialize in combinatorial chemistry.

In the last 15 years, Dr. Lam has expanded his research program into nanomedicine. He has developed a novel class of telodendrimers that can self-assemble to form nanomicelles or nanodiscs. These nanoparticles can serve as efficient carriers for drug delivery. He is also an expert in the development of drug-polymer conjugates. Recently, he reported on the development of receptor-mediated transformable peptide nanoparticles for effective in vivo therapy of HER-2 positive tumors. Very recently, he reported a novel nano-immunoengager (NIE) platform that transforms into nanofibrils at the tumor sites, resulting in the conversion of an immunological "cold tumor" to "hot tumor". Mice treated with NIE in conjunction with anti-PD-1 antibody not only were cured but were also found to be able to mount an immune memory effect against implantation of new tumors.

Dr. Lam has published over 400 peer review articles and he is an inventor of over 37 issued US patents. In October 2022, his total citation is 26364, his h-index is 78, and his i10-index is 324.

He has been serving in the last 20 years as the co-director of the Cancer Therapeutic Program of the UC Davis NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also served on the NCI Board of Scientific Counsellor – Basic Sciences from November 2016 to July 2022. He is on the External Advisory Board of NCI-designated Purdue Cancer Center and UC Irvine Cancer Center. He was a Council member of the American Peptide Society from 2003-2009. He has been a Leukemia Scholar and Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America. He received the Cathay Award in 1998, the Combinatorial Science Award in 2007, and the American Peptide Society's Vincent du Vigneaud Award in 2013. In addition to contributing to the development of the field of combinatorial chemistry, he was active in disseminating the technology in its early days. He was the Conference and Program Chairman of the First and Second International Conferences on Combinatorial Library Methods for Basic Research and Drug Discovery in 1995 and 1999, both in Tucson, with over 250 participants from all over the world.

Dr. Kit Lam was honored December 21, 2018 as the inaugural holder of the Sue Jane Leung Presidential Chair in Cancer Research. Read more about this exciting news »