Biosketch
Dr Siok Tey graduated from the University of Queensland Medical School in 1996 with First Class Honours and a University Medal. She completed her training in clinical and laboratory haematology in Brisbane in 2005, then undertook a two-year research fellowship (2005 – 2007) at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA. She returned to Australia in 2007 and completed a PhD in viral T cell immunity (2007 – 11), followed by a post-doctorate in clinical and experimental bone marrow transplant immunology (2012 – 2016), both at QIMR Berghofer.
In 2014, Dr Tey opened the first clinical trial in Australia using a "safety switch" T cell engineering method that she helped develop while in the USA to make bone marrow transplantation safer. Dr Tey started her own laboratory in 2017, where she continues to focus on integrating and translating her expertise in immunology, cell therapy and clinical medicine into novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and immune complications arising from bone marrow transplantation. In 2021, she opened a phase I clinical trial in collaboration with the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital using on-site manufactured CAR T cells to improve access and turn around time, and reduce cost.
Dr Tey maintains active clinical practice as a senior staff specialist in clinical haematology and bone marrow transplantation at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital. She is Clinical Director of Genetically Modified Cellular Therapies in the department. She was recipient of an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship (2013 –2016) and 3 NHMRC CIA project grants. She has published in New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Nature Immunology, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, amongst others. Dr Tey has served on the editorial boards of Clinical and Translational Immunology and Blood Advances. She co-chairs the Stem Cell Transplant Working Party at the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group, and is Australia / New Zealand Regional Vice President Elect for the International Society of Cell and Gene Therapy.
Area of Interest
Dr Tey’s areas of research are bone marrow transplantation and cellular immunotherapy. Her research in bone marrow transplantation is focused on understanding the interplay between anti-tumour immunity, viral infection and graft-versus-host disease; and the means by which these can be modulated to improve patient outcome. She has a particular interest in developing novel cellular therapies in bone marrow transplantation and cancer treatment. Her group is currently strongly focused o the development of new Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies that are safer and more efficacious. She has established a bench-to-bedside translational pipeline in collaboration with the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital that has the capacity to make clinical grade CAR T cells in-house for early phase clinical trials.
Key Publications
Zhang P, Fleming P, Andoniou CE, Waltner OG, Bhise SS, Martins JP, McEnroe BA, Voigt V, Daly S, Kuns RD, Ekwe AP, Henden AS, Saldan A, Olver S, Varelias A, Smith C, Schmidt CR, Ensbey KS, LeggSRW, Sekiguchi T, Minnie SA, Passos Jm Gradwll M, Savitsky P, Wagenaar I, Clouston AD, Koyama M, Furlan SN, Kennedy GA, Ward ES, Degli-Esposti MA*, Hill GR*, Tey SK* (*equal contribution). IL-6-mediated endothelial injury impairs anti-viral humoral immunity. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2024;134(7):e174184. doi: 10.1172/JCI174184
Ekwe AP, Au R, Zhang P, McEnroe BA, Tan ML, Saldan A, Henden AS, Hutchins CJ, Henderson A, Mudie K, Kerr K, Fuery M, Kennedy GA, Hill GR, Tey SK. Clinical grade multiparametric cell sorting and gene-marking of regulatory T cells. Cytotherapy. 2024 Jul;26(7):719-728. doi: 10.1016/j.jcyt.2024.02.023. Epub 2024 Mar 5. PMID: 38530690.
Zhang P, Raju J, Ullah MA, Au R, Varelias A, Gartlan KH, Olver SD, Samson LD, Sturgeon E, Zomerdijk N, Avery J, Gargett T, Brown MP, Coin LJ, Ganesamoorthy D, Hutchins C, Pratt GR, Kennedy GA, Morton AJ, Curley CI, Hill GR, Tey SK. Phase I Trial of Inducible Caspase 9 T Cells in Adult Stem Cell Transplant Demonstrates Massive Clonotypic Proliferative Potential and Long-term Persistence of Transgenic T Cells. Clin Cancer Res. 2019 Mar 15;25(6):1749-1755. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-3069. Epub 2019 Feb 14.