
Overview
Background
Dr. Kelvin Tuong is a Senior Research Fellow/Group Leader at the Ian Frazer Centre for Children’s Immunotherapy Research (IFCCIR), Child Health Research Centre. He is interested in single-cell analysis of immune cells and harnessing adaptive immune receptors for understanding immune cell development and function in health and in cancer.
Dr. Tuong was born and raised in Singapore and moved to Brisbane, Australia, after completing national service in Singapore and obtaining a Diploma in Biomedical Laboratory Technology (Ngee Ann Polytechnic).
Dr. Tuong was originally trained as a molecular cell biologist and gradually transitioned into bioinformatics during his post-doctoral training. He has been very prolific for an early career researcher, having published >50 articles since 2013, with nearly a third of them as first/co-first or last author and has a stellar track record of pushing out highly collaborative work in prestigious journals including Nature, Cell, Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology J Exp Med etc. He has the rare combination of having excellent laboratory and bioinformatics skill sets which provide him a strong command of both fundamental immunology and computational approaches.
Dr. Tuong completed his undergraduate Bachelor's degree in Biomedical science with Class I Honours, followed by his PhD in macrophage cell biology and endocrinology at UQ (Prof. Jenny Stow lab and Emiritus Prof. George Muscat lab, IMB, UQ). He then went on to a post-doc position with Emiritus Prof. Ian Frazer (co-inventor of the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine, UQ Frazer Institute, Translational Research Institute) where he worked on HPV immunology, cervical cancer and skin cancer. In his time in the Frazer lab, he developed an interest in bioinformatics analyses as a means to tackle and understanding immunology problems in health and disease. He then moved to the UK and joined Prof. Menna Clatworthy's lab at the University of Cambridge and Dr. Sarah Teichmann's lab at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He has focused his interests on single-cell analyses of tissue immune cells, including T and B cells and their specific receptors (TCR/BCR). He has developed bespoke bioinformatics software, including one tailored for single-cell B Cell Receptor sequencing analysis, Dandelion, which he used in one of the largest combined single-cell transcriptomic, surface proteomic and TCR/BCR sequencing dataset in the world, published in Nature Medicine, and more recently in Nature Biotechnology where we introduced a TCR-based pseudotime trajectory analysis method.
Dr. Tuong is now leading the Computational Immunology group at the IFCCIR and his lab is focused on investigating how pediatric immunity is perturbed during cancer at the cellular level and how this information can be used for creating novel warning systems for children with cancer. For potential students/post-docs/trainees interested in joining the team, please contact Dr. Tuong at z.tuong@uq.edu.au.
Availability
- Dr Kelvin Tuong is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Single-cell analysis of immune repertoires
Specialized immune cells known as T-cells and B-cells use specific receptors to recognize tumor antigens and fight cancerous cells. My vision is to harness these cells and their receptors to enable early cancer detection and disease monitoring. These specific adaptive immune receptors are essential for all aspects of the T- and B-cell’s life cycle, serving as natural ‘time-keepers’ of the immune response against cancer progression. My research team will explore the properties that define how effective these immune cells are in childhood cancer by performing high resolution gene expression profiling at the single-cell level. To achieve this, we will develop critical software and algorithms for analyzing these immune cells and their receptors. We will develop highly advanced computer models that can be used to detect adaptive immune receptors that are targeted towards cancer. These models will learn and identify cancer-specific patterns and we will apply it onto predicting and monitoring response to therapy in children with blood cancer. This will allow for a highly precise mechanism that could be deployed early for initial cancer detection and monitoring of childhood cancer progression.
Works
Search Professor Kelvin Tuong’s works on UQ eSpace
2025
Journal Article
CellPhoneDB v5: inferring cell–cell communication from single-cell multiomics data
Troulé, Kevin, Petryszak, Robert, Cakir, Batuhan, Cranley, James, Harasty, Alicia, Prete, Martin, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Teichmann, Sarah A., Garcia-Alonso, Luz and Vento-Tormo, Roser (2025). CellPhoneDB v5: inferring cell–cell communication from single-cell multiomics data. Nature Protocols 6619, 1-29. doi: 10.1038/s41596-024-01137-1
2025
Journal Article
Temporal profiling of human lymphoid tissues reveals coordinated defense against viral challenge
Coates, Matthew L., Richoz, Nathan, Tuong, Zewen K., Bowyer, Georgina S., Lee, Colin Y. C., Ferdinand, John R., Gillman, Eleanor, McClure, Mark, Dratva, Lisa, Teichmann, Sarah A., Jayne, David R., Di Marco Barros, Rafael, Stewart, Benjamin J. and Clatworthy, Menna R. (2025). Temporal profiling of human lymphoid tissues reveals coordinated defense against viral challenge. Nature Immunology, 26 (2) 838328, 215-229. doi: 10.1038/s41590-024-02064-9
2025
Journal Article
Enhancement of anti-sarcoma immunity by NK cells engineered with mRNA for expression of a EphA2-targeted CAR
Lam, Pui Yeng, Omer, Natacha, Wong, Josh K. M., Tu, Cui, Alim, Louisa, Rossi, Gustavo R., Victorova, Maria, Tompkins, Hannah, Lin, Cheng-Yu, Mehdi, Ahmed M., Choo, Amos, Elliott, Melissa R., Coleborn, Elaina, Sun, Jane, Mercer, Timothy, Vittorio, Orazio, Dobson, Lachlan J., Mclellan, Alexander D., Brooks, Andrew, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Cheetham, Seth W., Nicholls, Wayne and Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes, Fernando (2025). Enhancement of anti-sarcoma immunity by NK cells engineered with mRNA for expression of a EphA2-targeted CAR. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 15 (1) e70140, 1-21. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.70140
2024
Journal Article
An organotypic atlas of human vascular cells
Barnett, Sam N., Cujba, Ana-Maria, Yang, Lu, Maceiras, Ana Raquel, Li, Shuang, Kedlian, Veronika, Pett, J. Patrick, Polanski, Krzysztof, Miranda, Antonio M. A., Xu, Chuan, Cranley, James, Kanemaru, Kazumasa, Lee, Michael, Mach, Lukas, Perera, Shani, Tudor, Catherine, Joseph, Philomeena D., Pritchard, Sophie, Toscano-Rivalta, Rebecca, Tuong, Kelvin, Bolt, Liam, Petryszak, Robert, Prete, Martin, Cakir, Batuhan, Huseynov, Alik, Sarropoulos, Ioannis, Chowdhury, Rasheda A., Elmentaite, Rasa, Madissoon, Elo ... Teichmann, Sarah A. (2024). An organotypic atlas of human vascular cells. Nature Medicine, 30 (12), 1-1. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03376-x
2024
Conference Publication
Early human lung immune cell development and its role in epithelial cell fate
Barnes, Josephine, Yoshida, Masahiro, He, Peng, Worlock, Kaylee, Lindeboom, Rik, Suo, Chenqu, Pett, J. Patrick, Wilbrey-Clark, Anna, Dann, Emma, Mamanova, Lira, Richardson, Laura, Polanski, Krzysztof, Pennycuick, Adam, Allen-Hytinnen, Jessica, Herczeg, Iván, Arzili, Romina, Hynds, Robert, Teixeira, Vitor, Haniffa, Muzlifah, Lim, Kyungtae, Sun, Dawei, Rawlins, Emma, Oliver, Amanda, Lyons, Paul, Marioni, John, Ruhrberg, Christiana, Tuong, Zewen, Clatworthy, Menna, Reading, James ... Nikolić, Marko (2024). Early human lung immune cell development and its role in epithelial cell fate. SHEFFIELD: European Respiratory Society. doi: 10.1183/13993003.congress-2024.oa1893
2024
Conference Publication
Self or Bacteria-reactive Th17 Expand from Conventional and Regulatory T Cells in Parabacteroides Goldsteinii Gnotobiotic Arthritic SKG Mice, in Context of Interferon-driven Synovial Inflammatory Macrophages and Reduced Bacterial Immune Regulation
Cai, Benjamin, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Morrison, Mark, Bergot, Anne-Sophie and Thomas, Ranjeny (2024). Self or Bacteria-reactive Th17 Expand from Conventional and Regulatory T Cells in Parabacteroides Goldsteinii Gnotobiotic Arthritic SKG Mice, in Context of Interferon-driven Synovial Inflammatory Macrophages and Reduced Bacterial Immune Regulation. ACR Convergence 2024, Washington, DC United States, 15–19 November 2024. Hoboken, NJ United States: John Wiley & Sons.
2024
Journal Article
Computational estimation of clonal diversity in autoimmunity
Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, van der Merwe, Rohan, Canete, Pablo F and Roco, Jonathan A (2024). Computational estimation of clonal diversity in autoimmunity. Immunology and Cell Biology, 102 (8), 692-701. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12801
2024
Journal Article
Embracing computational immunology
Cañete, Pablo F and Tuong, Zewen Kelvin (2024). Embracing computational immunology. Immunology & Cell Biology, 102 (8), 663-664. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12817
2024
Conference Publication
The effect of low-dose interleukin-2 on the T cell receptor landscape in patients with acute myocardial infarction
Case, Ayden, O'Brien, James, Sriranjan, Rochelle, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Cheriyan, Joseph, Clatworthy, Menna, Mallat, Ziad and Zhao, Tian (2024). The effect of low-dose interleukin-2 on the T cell receptor landscape in patients with acute myocardial infarction. EAS Congress 2024, Lyon, France, 26-29 May 2024. Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2024.118476
2024
Conference Publication
LOW DOSE INTERLEUKIN 2 EXPANDS PLASMABLASTS WITH A REGULATORY B CELL PHENOTYPE POST-MT
O'Brien, James, Case, Ayden, Sriranjan, Rochelle, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Cheriyan, Joseph, Clatworthy, Menna, Mallat, Ziad and Zhao, Tian (2024). LOW DOSE INTERLEUKIN 2 EXPANDS PLASMABLASTS WITH A REGULATORY B CELL PHENOTYPE POST-MT. 92nd Congress of the European-Atherosclerosis-Society (EAS), Lyon France, May 26-29, 2024. CLARE: ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD.
2024
Conference Publication
Low dose interleukin 2 expands plasmablasts with a regulatory b cell phenotype post-MI
O'Brien, James, Case, Ayden, Sriranjan, Rochelle, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Cheriyan, Joseph, Clatworthy, Menna, Mallat, Ziad and Zhao, Tian (2024). Low dose interleukin 2 expands plasmablasts with a regulatory b cell phenotype post-MI. EAS Congress 2024, Lyon, France, 26-29 May 2024. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2024.118287
2024
Journal Article
Measuring single-cell immune clonality to track haematological cancers
Choo, Amos and Tuong, Zewen Kelvin (2024). Measuring single-cell immune clonality to track haematological cancers. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 14 (8) e1780, e1780. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.1780
2024
Conference Publication
THE EFFECT OF LOW-DOSE INTERLEUKIN-2 ON THE T CELL RECEPTOR LANDSCAPE IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION
Case, Ayden, O'Brien, James, Sriranjan, Rochelle, Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Cheriyan, Joseph, Clatworthy, Menna, Mallat, Ziad and Zhao, Tian (2024). THE EFFECT OF LOW-DOSE INTERLEUKIN-2 ON THE T CELL RECEPTOR LANDSCAPE IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION. 92nd Congress of the European-Atherosclerosis-Society (EAS), Lyon France, May 26-29, 2024. CLARE: ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD.
2024
Journal Article
TGF-β signalling limits effector function capacity of NK cell anti-tumour immunity in human bladder cancer
Wong, Joshua K. M., McCulloch, Timothy R., Alim, Louisa, Omer, Natacha, Mehdi, Ahmed M., Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Bonfim-Melo, Alexis, Chung, Eric, Nicol, Alice, Simpson, Fiona, Rhee, Handoo, Rossi, Gustavo Rodrigues and Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes, Fernando (2024). TGF-β signalling limits effector function capacity of NK cell anti-tumour immunity in human bladder cancer. EBioMedicine, 104 105176. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105176
2024
Conference Publication
Early Human Lung Immune Cell Development and Its Role in Epithelial Cell Fate
Nikolic, M., Barnes, J. L., Yoshida, M., He, P., Worlock, K. B., Lindeboom, R. G. H., Suo, C., Pett, J. P., Wilbrey-Clark, A., Dann, E., Mamanova, L., Richardson, L., Polanski, K., Pennycuick, A., Allen-Hyttinen, J., Herczeg, I., Arzili, R., Hynds, R. E., Teixeira, V. H., Haniffa, M., Lim, K., Sun, D., Rawlins, E. L., Oliver, A., Lyons, P. A., Marioni, J. C., Ruhrberg, C., Tuong, Z. K., Clatworthy, M. R. ... Meyer, K. B. (2024). Early Human Lung Immune Cell Development and Its Role in Epithelial Cell Fate. International Conference of the American-Thoracic-Society (ATS), San Diego Ca, May 17-22, 2024. NEW YORK: AMER THORACIC SOC.
2024
Conference Publication
Early Human Lung Immune Cell Development and Its Role in Epithelial Cell Fate
Nikolic, M., Barnes, J.L., Yoshida, M., He, P., Worlock, K.B., Lindeboom, R.G.H., Suo, C., Pett, J.P., Wilbrey-Clark, A., Dann, E., Mamanova, L., Richardson, L., Polanski, K., Pennycuick, A., Allen-Hyttinen, J., Herczeg, I., Arzili, R., Hynds, R.E., Teixeira, V.H., Haniffa, M., Lim, K., Sun, D., Rawlins, E.L., Oliver, A., Lyons, P.A., Marioni, J.C., Ruhrberg, C., Tuong, Z.K., Clatworthy, M.R. ... Meyer, K.B. (2024). Early Human Lung Immune Cell Development and Its Role in Epithelial Cell Fate. American Thoracic Society 2024 International Conference, San Diego, CA United States, 17-22 May 2024. New York, NY United States: American Thoracic Society. doi: 10.1164/ajrccm-conference.2024.209.1_meetingabstracts.a7456
2024
Journal Article
Single-cell immune repertoire analysis
Irac, Sergio E., Soon, Megan Sioe Fei, Borcherding, Nicholas and Tuong, Zewen Kelvin (2024). Single-cell immune repertoire analysis. Nature Methods, 21 (5), 777-792. doi: 10.1038/s41592-024-02243-4
2024
Journal Article
Venous-plexus-associated lymphoid hubs support meningeal humoral immunity
Fitzpatrick, Zachary, Ghabdan Zanluqui, Nagela, Rosenblum, Jared S., Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Lee, Colin Y. C., Chandrashekhar, Vikram, Negro-Demontel, Maria Luciana, Stewart, Andrew P., Posner, David A., Buckley, Monica, Allinson, Kieren S. J., Mastorakos, Panagiotis, Chittiboina, Prashant, Maric, Dragan, Donahue, Danielle, Helmy, Adel, Tajsic, Tamara, Ferdinand, John R., Portet, Anais, Peñalver, Ana, Gillman, Eleanor, Zhuang, Zhengping, Clatworthy, Menna R. and McGavern, Dorian B. (2024). Venous-plexus-associated lymphoid hubs support meningeal humoral immunity. Nature, 628 (8008) s41586-024-07202-9, 612-619. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07202-9
2024
Journal Article
Rapid functional impairment of natural killer cells following tumor entry limits anti-tumor immunity
Dean, Isaac, Lee, Colin Y. C., Tuong, Zewen K., Li, Zhi, Tibbitt, Christopher A., Willis, Claire, Gaspal, Fabrina, Kennedy, Bethany C., Matei-Rascu, Veronika, Fiancette, Rémi, Nordenvall, Caroline, Lindforss, Ulrik, Baker, Syed Murtuza, Stockmann, Christian, Sexl, Veronika, Hammond, Scott A., Dovedi, Simon J., Mjösberg, Jenny, Hepworth, Matthew R., Carlesso, Gianluca, Clatworthy, Menna R. and Withers, David R. (2024). Rapid functional impairment of natural killer cells following tumor entry limits anti-tumor immunity. Nature Communications, 15 (1) 683, 1-18. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-44789-z
2024
Journal Article
Tumour-retained activated CCR7+ dendritic cells are heterogeneous and regulate local anti-tumour cytolytic activity
Lee, Colin Y. C., Kennedy, Bethany C., Richoz, Nathan, Dean, Isaac, Tuong, Zewen K., Gaspal, Fabrina, Li, Zhi, Willis, Claire, Hasegawa, Tetsuo, Whiteside, Sarah K., Posner, David A., Carlesso, Gianluca, Hammond, Scott A., Dovedi, Simon J., Roychoudhuri, Rahul, Withers, David R. and Clatworthy, Menna R. (2024). Tumour-retained activated CCR7+ dendritic cells are heterogeneous and regulate local anti-tumour cytolytic activity. Nature Communications, 15 (1) 682, 1-18. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-44787-1
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Kelvin Tuong is:
- Available for supervision
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Available projects
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Developing single-cell analysis methods harnessing adaptive immune receptors
The direct linkage of adaptive immune receptor repertoire with cellular phenotypes from single-cell sequencing technology has proven to be a powerful tool in understanding lymphocyte development and function in healthy and disease contexts. Multi-omics analysis leverages data from different modalities e.g. transcriptomics, epigenetics, proteomics. Recent advances has successfully integrated the data modalities to study cellular biology at an unprecedented resolution. However, unlike the other data modalities, which are largely continuous data, single-cell adaptive immune receptor sequencing (scVDJ-seq) data are a mixture of categorical and continuous data which poses additional challenges for integration. It consists of annotations of variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) genes, which are selected and recombined during B/T-cell development. The technology to profile this at the single cell level with paired gene expression data is relatively new. I have led the development of Dandelion, a scVDJ-seq software framework which has been used to deeply profile single-cell lymphocyte biology and I aim to expand on the its capabilities for immunology research.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Advancing Paediatric Cancer Immunotherapy with Antigen Receptors and Artificial Intelligence
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Yang Yang
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Doctor Philosophy
A Comprehensive Paediatric Immune Cell Atlas for Children's Immunotherapy Innovation
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Quan Nguyen, Professor Di Yu
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Doctor Philosophy
Harnessing adaptive immune receptors to monitor paediatric immunity in cancer and enhance neoantigen vaccine pipeline
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Di Yu, Dr Jazmina Gonzalez Cruz
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Doctor Philosophy
Investigate T cell specificity and function in immune responses by systems immunology
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Yang Yang, Professor Di Yu
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Doctor Philosophy
Decipher interleukin-21 signaling and engineer next generation immunotherapies
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zhian Chen
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Doctor Philosophy
Development of novel vaccines for cancer immunotherapy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Maher Gandhi, Honorary Professor Kristen Radford
Completed supervision
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Understanding CD4+ T cell responses to HPV16 E7 antigen in a mouse model of precancerous skin
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ian Frazer, Dr Janin Chandra
Media
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