Sui-Seng Tee, PhD

2014 - 2018   Research Associate, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY

2012 - 2014   Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford University, CA

2007 - 2011   PhD Biochemistry, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, UK

2004 - 2007   BA (Hons) Natural Science, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, UK

My lab is interested in the intersection of signaling pathways and metabolism, with the ultimate aim to translate these findings for novel metabolic imaging applications.

Hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy (HP-MRS) is a unqiue metabolic imaging platform that enables real-time, non-invasive detection of metabolic flux in living cells and model organisms. I have pioneered the development of reporter genes for HP-MRS by genetically modifying cells to over-express bacterial and mammalian enzymes. Leveraging my expertise in molecular biology, I am now investigating growth factor signaling and metabolic pathways.

Specifically, I am interested in using targeted therapeutics to inhibit specific pathways mutated in cancers and metabolic disease and investigating the consequence of inhibition. Using this information, we will design novel metabolic imaging probes for both diagnosing/staging cancer and other diseases, as well as assessing treatment response and development of resistance.

Metabolism, Hyperpolarized, Magnetic resonance imaging, Magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Cancer, Gene reporter, Biochemistry, Fructose, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, NAFLD, steatosis, NASH, steatohepatitis, Hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC, liver cancer, ketohexokinase, fructokinase

a)    Patrick, P.S., Hammersley, J., Loizou, L., Kettunen, M.I., Rodrigues, T.B., Hu, D.E., Tee. S.S., Hesketh, R., Lyons, S.K., Soloviev, D., Lewis, D.Y., Aime, S., Fulton, S.M., Brindle, K.M., Dual-modality gene reporter for in vivo imaging, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (2014)

b)    Ye, D., Shuhendler, AJ., Cui, L., Tong, L., Tee, S.S., Tikhomirov, G., Felsher, D.W., Rao, J., Bioorthogonal cyclization-mediated in situ self-assembly of small-molecule probes for imaging caspase activity in vivo. Nat. Chem. (2014)

c)    Dzien, P.,* Tee, S.S., * Kettunen, M.I.,  Lyons, S.K., Larkin T., Hu, D.E., Rodrigues, T.B., Serrao, E., Marco-Rius, I., Mannion, E.,  D‘Santos, P., Kennedy, B.W., Brindle K.M., ¹³C magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements with hyperpolarized [1-13C] pyruvate can be used to detect the expression of transgenic pyruvate decarboxylase activity in vivo, Magn. Reson. Med. (2015)

d)    Digialleonardo, V., Tee, S.S., Aldeborgh, H.,  Eskandari, E., Jeong, S., Poot, A., Truong, S., Alvarez, J.A., Keshari, K.R., High-throughput indirect quantitation of ¹³C enriched metabolites using ¹H NMR, Anal. Chem. (2016)

e)    Tee, S.S., Digialleonardo, V., Eskandari, E., Jeong, S., Poot, A., Truong, S., Alvarez, J.A., Aldeborgh, H., Keshari, K.R., Sampling Hyperpolarized Molecules Utilizing a 1 Tesla Permanent Magnet. Sci. Rep. (2016)

f)    Tee, S.S., Park, J., Billingsley, K., Josan, S., Hurd, R., Spielman, D., 2-deoxyglucose sensitizes cancer cells to PKM2 activation, Oncotarget (2017)

g)    Tee, S.S., Suster, I., Truong, S., Digialleonardo, V., Eskandari, R., Jeong, S., Alvarez, J.A., Aldeborgh, H., Keshari, K.R., Targeted AKT inhibition in prostate cancer cells and spheroids reduces aerobic glycolysis and conversion of hyperpolarized [1-¹³C] pyruvate to [1-¹³C] lactate. Mol. Cancer Res. (2018)

h)    Granlund KL*, Tee SS*, Vargas HA, Lyashchenko SK, Reznik E, Fine S, Laudone V, Eastham JA, Touijer KA, Reuter VE, Gonen M, Sosa RE, Nicholson D, Guo YW, Chen AP, Tropp J, Robb F, Hricak H, Keshari KR. Hyperpolarized MRI of Human Prostate Cancer Reveals Increased Lactate with Tumor Grade Driven by Monocarboxylate Transporter 1. Cell Metab. (2019)

i)     Tee SS, Kim N, Cullen Q, Eskandari R, Mamakhanyan A, Srouji RM, Chirayil R, Jeong S, Shakiba M, Kastenhuber ER, Chen S, Sigel C, Lowe SW, Jarnagin WR, Thompson CB, Schietinger A, Keshari KR. Ketohexokinase-mediated fructose metabolism is lost in hepatocellular carcinoma and can be leveraged for metabolic imaging. Sci Adv. (2022)

j)     Elsaid S, Wu, X, Tee SS. Fructose vs. glucose: modulating stem cell growth and function through sugar supplementation. FEBS Open Bio. (2024)