Suan Sin (Jolin) Foo, PhD
Assistant Staff
Email: [email protected]
Location: Cleveland Clinic Main Campus
Research
Pregnancy is a nine-month biological process involving the complex network of immune rewiring, rendering it vulnerable to infectious diseases. As much as infection during pregnancy alters maternal immunity, long-term repercussion in the offspring immunity and development can occur through the process of fetal programming.
Dr. Foo’s research focuses on viral infection during pregnancy, specifically viral pathogenesis and maternal-fetal immunology. The primary research in the Foo lab focuses on elucidating the long-term immune repercussion in mother and child during prenatal infection by emerging pathogens including Zika virus and high-risk pathogen SARS-CoV-2. To address this, Dr. Foo’s lab will employ a “bench-bedside-bench” strategy, which includes a blend of molecular and immunological approaches using: (1) in vitro models – reverse genetic and whole blood infection system, (2) pre-clinical models – prenatal infections in immunocompetent models, and (3) clinical models – using patients’ specimens from retrospective and prospective mother-infant dyads cohorts in collaborative efforts with an international team of infectious diseases clinician-researchers from Cleveland Clinic and other international institutions.
Biography
Dr. Foo’s long-term research interest revolves around arthropod-borne virus-induced pathogenesis and immune dysregulation during pregnancy. During her honors research year and predoctoral training at University of Western Australia and Griffith University, Australia, she studied the innate immune responses elicited during mosquito-transmitted alphaviruses including Chikungunya virus and Ross River virus, which she successfully completed under 3.5 years of her PhD candidature.
Her predoctoral research has resulted in several first and co-authored publications in international peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), Nature Microbiology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and PLoS Pathogens, and she has received several travel awards and research fellowships.
In October 2015, Dr. Foo received a 2-year early career postdoctoral fellowship from Griffith University, Australia, which she declined and embarked on her postdoctoral training in the United States at the University of Southern California and subsequently at Cleveland Clinic for the next 5 years. Dr. Foo’s postdoctoral training in US subsequently shaped her interest for pregnancy infectious disease research which gave rise to several more publications in reputable clinical microbiology journals including Cell Report Medicine, Nature Microbiology, eBioMedicine, JCI Insights, and more.
With a focus on pregnancy infectious diseases, Dr. Foo’s lab studies the (i) long-term repercussions of prenatal viral infection on the maternal and fetal immune landscape, and (ii) identifying host and viral determinants responsible for the altered maternal-fetal immunity. Her research places an emphasis on mosquito-borne alphaviruses as well as SARS-CoV-2. Currently, Dr. Foo is an Assistant Staff at the Infection Biology Program, Lerner Research Institute and an Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM), Case Western Reserve University (CWRU).
Education & Professional Highlights
Research Associate – Cleveland Clinic, Lerner Research Institute, Department of Cancer Biology (June 2020 to Jan 2022)
Postdoctoral Scholar – University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (Mar 2016 to May 2020)
Doctor of Philosophy (Medical Science) - Griffith University (Oct 2011 to Nov 2015)
Bachelor of Science (Microbiology), 2nd class Honours (Division A) - University of Western Australia (Jul 2010 to Jul 2011)
Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science) - University of Western Australia (Sep 2007 to Apr 2010)
Research
Overview
Dr. Foo’s research focuses on viral infection during pregnancy, specifically viral pathogenesis and maternal-fetal immunology. The primary research in the Foo lab focuses on elucidating the long-term immune repercussion in mother and child during prenatal infection by emerging pathogens including Zika virus and high-risk pathogen SARS-CoV-2. To address this, Dr. Foo’s lab will employ a “bench-bedside-bench” strategy, which includes a blend of molecular and immunological approaches using: (1) in vitro models – reverse genetic and whole blood infection system, (2) pre-clinical models – prenatal infections in immunocompetent mouse models, and (3) clinical models – using patients’ specimens from retrospective and prospective mother-infant dyads cohorts in collaborative efforts with an international team of infectious diseases clinician-researchers from Cleveland Clinic and other international institutions.
Our Team
Selected Publications
- Azamor T, Familiar-Macedo D, Onwubueke C, Caetano CCDS, Meyer NM, Bian L, Vasconcelos Z, Nielsen-Saines K, Wu X, Jung JU, Lin F, Goje O, Chien E, Gordon S, and Foster CB, Aly H, Farrell RM, Chen W, Foo SS. Transplacental SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 binds to complement C1q to trigger fetal inflammation. EMBO Journal. 2024, in press.
- Foo SS*, Chen W, Azamor T, Jung KL, Cambou MC, Familiar-Macedo D, Caetano CCDS, Meyer NM, Sim MS, Moreira ME, Brasil P, Vasconcelos Z, Nielsen-Saines K*, Jung JU*. Sustained chronic inflammation and altered childhood vaccine responses in children exposed to Zika virus. eBioMedicine. 2024, Volume 106, 105249. (*Co-corresponding author)
- Man OM, Azamor T, Cambou MC, Fuller TL, Kerin T, Paiola SG, Cranston JS, Mok T, Rao R, Chen W and Jung JU, Martinez VF, Foo SS, Nielsen-Saines K. Respiratory distress in SARS-CoV-2 exposed uninfected neonates followed in the COVID Outcomes in Mother-Infant Pairs (COMP) Study. Nature Communications. 2024, 15(1), p.399.
- Foo SS, Cambou MC, Wong T, Fajardo VM, Jung KL, Fuller T, Chen W, Kerin T, Mei J, Bhattacharya D, Choi Y, Wu X, Xia T, Shin WJ, Cranston J, Aldrovandi G, Tobin N, Contreras D, Ibarrondo FJ, Yang O, Yang S, Garner O, Cortado R, Bryson Y, Janzen C, Devaskar S, Asilnejad B, Moreira ME, Vasconcelos Z, Soni PR, Gibson LC, Brasil P, Comhair SAA, Arumugaswami V, Erzurum SC, Rao R, Jung JU, Nielsen-Saines K. The systemic inflammatory landscape of COVID-19 in pregnancy: Extensive serum proteomic profiling of mother-infant dyads with in utero SARS-CoV-2. Cell Reports Medicine. 2021, 16;2(11):100453.
- Foo SS, Chen W, Chan Y, Lee WS, Lee SA, Cheng G, Nielsen-Saines K, Brasil P, Jung JU. Biomarkers and immunoprofiles associated with fetal abnormalities of ZIKV-positive pregnancies. JCI Insight. 2018, 3(21).
- Foo SS, Chen W, Chan Y, Bowman JW, Chang LC, Choi Y, Yoo JS, Ge J, Cheng G, Bonnin A, Nielsen-Saines K, Brasil P, Jung JU. Asian Zika virus strains target CD14+ blood monocytes and induce M2-skewed immunosuppression during pregnancy. Nature Microbiology. 2017, 2(11): 1558-1570.
- Chen W*, Foo SS*, Zaid A, Teng TS, Herrero LJ, Wolf S, Tharmarajah K, Vu LD, van Vreden C, Taylor A, Freitas JR, Li RW, Woodruff TM, Gordon R, Ojcius DM, Nakaya HI, Kanneganti TD, O'Neill LAJ, Robertson AAB, King NJ, Suhrbier A, Cooper MA, Ng LFP, Mahalingam S. Specific inhibition of NLRP3 in chikungunya disease reveals a role for inflammasomes in alphavirus-induced inflammation. Nature Microbiology. 2017, 2(10): 1435-1445. (*Equal contribution)
- Foo SS, Chen W, Adam T, Sheng KC, Yu X, Teng TS, Reading PC, Blanchard H, Garlanda C, Mantovani A, Ng LF, Herrero LJ and Mahalingam S. Role of pentraxin 3 in shaping arthritogenic alphaviral disease: from enhanced viral replication to immunomodulation. PLOS Pathogens. 2015, 11(2): e1004649.
- Teng TS* and Foo SS*, Simamarta D, Lum FM, Teo TH, Lulla A, Yeo NK, Koh EG, Chow A, Leo YS, Merits A, Chin KC, Ng LF. Viperin restricts chikungunya virus replication and pathology. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2012, 122(12): 4447-60. (*Equal contribution)
Careers
Research News
A protein made by SARS-CoV-2 can pass through the placenta and cause serious inflammatory immune responses in the fetus for 66% of pregnancies.
These findings challenge the current diagnostic criteria for congenital Zika syndrome, expanding the definition beyond skull or brain abnormalities.
Dr. Javier Chen is spearheading groundbreaking research in infection biology, securing grants and publishing top-tier papers to pioneer proactive measures against future outbreaks.
Dr. Jung’s team studied blood samples collected from mothers with COVID-19 and their infant children who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 to understand how infection modulates the expression of different inflammatory molecules.