Dr. Leong research focus on investigating the mechanism of action of potent compounds toward developing new anticancer and antidiabetes drugs. His research adopts an in vitro approach using cell-based and enzymatic assays to identify the various cellular pathways modulated by a potent compound. The research outcome is to understand the mechanism of action of the compound, a prerequisite requirement in developing a new drug entity. In addition, he employs metabolomics to evaluate biomarkers in explaining the treatment outcomes or disease progression. International collaboration has geared his research towards cancer stem cells and utilizing zebrafish as an animal model for cancer. It is believed that cancer stem cells is a subset of cells in tumour that drives chemoresistance and relapse in cancer patients. Therefore, strategies to develop new chemotherapy against the subset of cells is of great interest to tackle the problem.