Education

Professional Experience

Biodata

Professor Barry Halliwell is Senior Advisor, Academic Appointments and Research Excellence, Office of the Provost.

Professor Halliwell graduated from the University of Oxford with BA (1st class) and D.Phil degrees. He holds a D.Sc degree from the University of London. He was a faculty member with the University of London, King’s College from 1974 to 2000 and held a prestigious Lister Institute Research fellowship. From 1995 to 1999, he was a Visiting Research Professor of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry with the University of California Davis, School of Medicine, Divisions of Cardiology and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine. Professor Halliwell was a Visiting Professor of Biochemistry to NUS from 1998 to 2000. He was Head of the University’s Department of Biochemistry from 2000 to 2007 and was Deputy Director, Office of Life Sciences from 2001 to 2003. From 2003 to September 2008, he was the founding Executive Director of the newly-formed NUS Graduate School of Integrative Sciences and Engineering. From Mar 2006 to May 2015, he was the Deputy President (Research and Technology) at NUS. From Jun 2015 to May 2018, he was the Senior Advisor to the President at the National University of Singapore.

An internationally-acclaimed biochemist, Professor Halliwell is known especially for his seminal work on the role of free radicals and antioxidants in biological systems. The Thomson Reuters lists Professor Halliwell as one of the world’s most highly-cited researchers in Biology and Biochemistry and his Hirsch Index is 169. (Based on Scopus, Nov 2023).

His lead-author book Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine published by Oxford University Press, and now in its fifth edition (cited more than 34580 times), is regarded worldwide as an authoritative text in the field. He has received numerous research awards, including Singapore President’s Science and Technology Medal (2013), the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine in the USA for overall sustained excellence in the field and the Ken Bowman Research Award for outstanding achievements in the field of cardiovascular research from the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (Canada). He was identified by Clarivate Analytics in 2021 as a Citation Laureate for an exceptional citation record within the Web of Science™ — one that demonstrates research influence comparable to that of Nobel Prize recipients. NUS honoured him with the University Outstanding Service Award in 2023 for his significant contributions.

His research focuses on the role of free radicals and antioxidants in human disease, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders. His interest in identifying the most important antioxidants in the human diet and in developing novel antioxidants has critical bearing on treating human diseases and understanding how diet might cause or prevent them.

Professor Halliwell is a member of several editorial boards including FEBS Letters, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications and Antioxidants and Redox Signaling. He is regularly invited as a lead speaker at major conferences and other prestigious events worldwide and is a member of several expert advisory panels to leading Universities, companies and government agencies.

Research Interests

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of cell injury and death in human disease (especially cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease) and in response to toxins. Antioxidants in nutrition, health and disease. Natural and synthetic antioxidants as therapeutic agents. Mechanism of ageing and age-related disease as studied using the Caenorhabditis elegans model and human ageing cohorts.

Current Projects:

1. The use of biomarkers of oxidative damage to lipids, DNA and proteins in the human body to identify important antioxidants, and their optimal intakes.
2. Molecular nutrition – the mechanisms by which diet affects the risk of disease development.
3. The role of transition metal ions as promoters of oxygen radical reactions in vitro and in vivo, with particular reference to inflammatory joint disease, leukaemia, hepatic failure, neurodegenerative diseases, reoxygenation injury, atherosclerosis and “metal overload” diseases such as Wilson’s disease and idiopathic haemochromatosis.
4. The design and testing of drugs that prevent oxidative damage and their use as potential therapeutic agents. Development of screening tests for antioxidant activity.
5. The chemical nature of the antioxidants present in vivo, especially ergothioneine.
6. Methods for the specific detection of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in vivo and their application to human disease, particularly stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.
7. Ageing in humans and in the nematode C. elegans

Selected Publications

1. Halliwell B and Gutteridge JMC. (2015) Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine. Clarendon Press, Oxford (fifth edition), UK.
2. Cheah IK, Halliwell B. (2021) Ergothioneine, recent developments. Redox Biol. 26, 101868.
3. Halliwell B, Adhikary A, Dingfelder M, Dizdaroglu M. (2021) Hydroxyl radical is a significant player in oxidative DNA damage in vivo. Chem Soc Rev.50, 8355-8360.
4. Halliwell B. (2023) Understanding mechanisms of antioxidant action in health and disease. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. (Online ahead of print)
5. Cheah IK, Tang RMY, Wang X, Sachaphibulkij K, Chong SY, Lim LHK, Wang JW, Halliwell B. (2023) Protection against Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity by Ergothioneine. Antioxidants 12, 320.