Dr. W.S. Fred Wong is the Head and Associate Professor of the Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health System. He is the Principal Investigator of the Immunology Program and of the Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE). Dr. Wong is the current and founding President of the Singapore Pharmacological Society. Dr. Wong’s research program is to discover and develop pharmacological strategies for the treatment of asthma, COPD and lung fibrosis. Dr. Wong’s laboratory was the first to report the protective effects of genistein, an isoflavone isolated from soy beans; and andrographolide, a labdane dieterpenoid isolated from the herb Andrographis paniculata, in experimental models of asthma and COPD. His laboratory has repositioned artesunate, an anti-malarial drug, as an anti-inflammatory agent for asthma and COPD. Dr. Wong has recently reported the direct DNA damaging effects of aeroallergens (e.g. house dust mite) on airway epithelium, proposing an additional pathological pathway for allergen-induced asthma. He is the author of more than 110 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
