Professor Singh's research has transformed understanding of brain tumour biology. During her PhD, her seminal work identified a novel population of cancer stem cells in the central nervous system, known as brain tumour-initiating cells (BTICs), which demonstrate a marked capacity for self-renewal and drive the formation of brain tumours. Her laboratory has since applied principles of stem cell biology and a neurobiology framework to investigate the mechanisms governing brain tumour initiation and self-renewal across glioblastoma, brain metastases and paediatric medulloblastoma. This has also included work to identify surface markers which can be used to identify BTICs. This work underpins the development of precision immunotherapies and molecular therapies which target BTICs and would result in more effective treatments.

More recently, her team has developed a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy for glioblastoma that treats the disease as coupled tumour–immune system. By targeting transmembrane glycoprotein non-metastatic melanoma protein B (GPNMB) on both glioblastoma cells and tumour-supportive macrophages, this approach aims to overcome key mechanisms of immune evasion and improve therapeutic efficacy.