Precision Medicine

NUS Precision Medicine TRP

Precision medicine is defined as an approach that combines molecular data at systems scale level (e.g. omics of genes, proteins, lipids, sugars, etc.) and environmental, lifestyle and healthcare data to optimise health and improve disease management of the population. Interest in this area is increasing rapidly with successful advances of technology platforms such as next generation sequencing which allows profiling of populations at scale and at a cost that is now affordable in many countries. Large studies have successfully identified hundreds of novel loci associated with numerous diseases providing a “MAP” of the locations in the genome that are relevant to various disease states and clinical contexts.

The goal of precision medicine is to identify novel therapeutic targets which can be modulated by novel strategies to treat or prevent disease. Human genetics has the potential to accelerate this process by providing a priori evidence that modulating a specific target is likely to be safe and efficacious, even before any therapeutic development begins.

The objectives of this strategic research program are:

1. From MAPS to MECHANISMS – to enable the move from MAPS to MECHANISMS by leveraging on the basic science capabilities. The team has developed a number of strategies that will allow the identification and validation of molecules that can serve as therapeutic targets for novel therapies.
2. Human models of disease – to understand the human physiological changes related to genetic variants of interest, to compare them against those derived from cell and animal-based models.
3. Modifying the natural history of disease – to translate the findings into novel therapies and therapeutic strategies to create impact on health and disease. To achieve this, the team will work closely with clinicians to develop therapeutic strategies based around novel therapies or novel diagnostics identified through the program.