Dr Lim Zi Yi

Consultant, Department of Haematology-Oncology, National University Cancer Institute, Singapore

 

Dr Lim obtained his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and completed his internal medicine residency in Edinburgh. He subsequently underwent specialist training in haematology at Kings Cross Hospital, London, where he trained with Professor Ghulam Mufti, and developed an interest in myeloid malignancies as well as allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

He worked at Kings College Hospital for 9 years before recently returning to Singapore. During his time there, he helped develop the department into one of the largest allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant centres in Europe. He is a member of several international committees on haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and has delivered lectures on the subject at many UK and international conferences. To date, he has published more than 40 peer-review papers on myeloid cancers and transplantation, many in high-impact journals such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood, Leukemia and Haematologica. He also serves as a reviewer for journals such as JCO, Leukemia, British Journal of Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation. His present research interests are in translational clinical trials in myeloid malignancies (especially AML and MDS), using novel clinical agents and innovative transplant protocols with correlative studies to improve our understanding and treatment of these patients.

 

Education and Fellowships

MB ChB (Edinburgh), MRCP, FRCPath (UK)

 

Specialist Interests 

• Acute leukaemia
• Myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative disorders
• Aplastic anaemia and bone marrow failure syndromes
• Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (related and alternative donor)

• Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

 

Awards and Honours

• Tito Bastianello Award for Best Young Investigator, 2007
• 9th International Symposium on MDS, Florence, Italy, 2007
• South Thames Haematology (London) Travelling Fellowship Award – Runner up, 2006
• Elimination of Leukemia Fund Travelling Award (UK), 2006
• Ruben Mibishen Travelling Fellowship Award, Kings College Hospital, London, 2004

Professional Memberships

• MDS sub-committee of Chronic Leukemia Working Party for the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)
• Centre for International Blood and Marrow Research (CIBMTR) (Acute Leukemia and International Studies working groups)

 

Selected Publications (out of 42)

1. Marsh JC, Gupta V, Lim Z et al. Alemtuzumab with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide reduces chronic graft versus host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acquired aplastic anemia. Blood. 2011 Apr 25. 
2. Smith AE, Mohamedali AM, Kulasekararaj A, Lim Z et al. Next-generation sequencing of the TET2 gene in 355 MDS and CMML patients reveals low-abundance mutant clones with early origins, but indicates no definite prognostic value. Blood. 2010 Nov 11;116(19):3923-32. 
3. Matthews K, Lim Z, Pearce L et al. Rapid recovery of lymphocyte subsets is not associated with protection from relapse of myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukaemia after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a reduced intensity conditioning regimen and alemtuzumab. Br J Haematol. 2010 Jun;149(6):879-89. 
4. Lim Z, Brand R, Martino R, et al. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation for patients 50 years or older with myelodysplastic syndromes or secondary acute myeloid leukemia. J Clin Oncol. 2010 Jan 20;28(3):405-11. 
5. Matthews K, Lim Z, Afzali B, et al. Imbalance of effector and regulatory CD4 T cells is associated with graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a reduced intensity conditioning regimen and alemtuzumab. Haematologica. 2009 Jul;94(7):956-66. 
6. Lim ZY, Ingram W, Brand R, et al. Impact of pretransplant comorbidities on alemtuzumab-based reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic hematopoietic SCT for patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome and AML. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2010 Apr;45(4):633-9. 
7. Lim ZY, Pearce L, Ho AY, et al. Delayed attainment of full donor chimaerism following alemtuzumab-based reduced-intensity conditioning haematopoeitic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes is associated with improved outcomes. Br J Haematol. 2007 Aug;138(4):517-26. 
8. Lim ZY, Killick S, Germing U, et al. Low IPSS score and bone marrow hypocellularity in MDS patients predict hematological responses to antithymocyte globulin. Leukemia. 2007 Jul;21(7):1436-41. 
9. Lim ZY, Ho AY, Ingram W, et al. Outcomes of alemtuzumab-based reduced intensity conditioning stem cell transplantation using unrelated donors for myelodysplastic syndromes. Br J Haematol. 2006 Oct;135(2):201-9. 
10. Kröger N, Zabelina T, van Biezen A, Brand R, Niederwieser D, Martino R, Lim ZY, Onida F, Schmid C, Garderet L, Robin M, van Gelder M, Marks R, Symeonidis A, Kobbe G, de Witte T; MDS Subcommittee of the Chronic Leukemia Working Party (CLWP) of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT). Allogeneic stem cell transplantation for myelodysplastic syndromes with bone marrow fibrosis. Haematologica. 2011 Feb;96(2):291-7.