The Scientist Whose Enemy Is Cancer!

Dr Li Jingmei is advocating for better understanding in identifying breast cancer, and isalso on a mission to bridge the generation, race and tech gaps when it comes to breast cancer research but shes going to need your data.

- Xin-Hui Helder-Eng

While most of us get a cursory “have a nice day” when we disembark from our taxis, Dr Li Jingmei gets a more direct proposition whenever she heads for the Genome Institute of Singapore at Biopolis, where she is a senior research scientist. Grab drivers invariably ask her: “So… have you cured cancer yet?”

She could cheekily answer: “Well, how much time have you got?” But instead, the scientist sees it as an opportunity to share the strides she’s made and looking to make in her field. “It’s a moving target,” she says, and shares her conviction that prevention is as important as treatment, and lifestyle choices play a big part. “Hopefully, by the time I alight, I’ll have managed to inspire a fellow human being to live healthy and live well.”

Future Tech

While it is technology that drives Dr Li to work, tech is also something the 36-year-old scientist draws on to integrate with traditional cancer research. She cites our ubiquitous usage of apps to track our fitness, diets, and sleep cycles, and says that “when used properly, Fitbits will not lie about how many steps one takes a day, yet, many cancer research studies are still collecting data in the form of questionnaires where subjects are asked to recall and quantify diet and exercise”.