Dr Lysaght is Visiting Associate Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore. She has expertise in empirical bioethics and interdisciplinary research on the ethics, regulation, and governance of emerging biomedical research and health technologies. Her work focuses on the ethical, regulatory and policy issues surrounding clinical translation of stem cell research and regenerative medicine, and genomics and precision medicine, as well as data intensive research and the use of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare. She has secured and managed more than SGD $1.6m in competitive research grants from public funding agencies in Singapore as the lead or Principal Investigator and collaborated on over AUD $1.4m in competitive grants in Australia.
Research
Current and recent research grants
2021-24 Chief Investigator (E). “Improving decisions about access to stem cell interventions.” Medical Research Future Fund: Stem Cell Therapies Mission (APP2007623). Total Project Value: AUD $799,543
2020-25 Principal Investigator. “Future Health Technologies Module 4: Health Data Governance.” National Research Foundation CREATE. Total Project Value: SGD $767,250.
2018-21 Principal Investigator. “Health-Related Data Sharing: From Good Governance to Public Trust”. Singapore Social Science Research Council Thematic Grant. Total Project Value: SGD $581,256
2015-18 Partner Investigator. “Regulating Autologous Stem Cells in Australia“. Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant. Total Value: AUD $630,000
2015-17 Principal Investigator. “Capacity Building in Science Policy and Ethics”. Office of the Deputy President and NUS Medicine Start Up Grant. Total Value: SGD $200,000
2014-17 Principal Investigator. “One Health, Zoonotic Diseases and Pandemic Planning: Creating a Bioethics Framework in Singapore”. Singapore Ministry of Health Communicable Diseases Public Health Research Grant. Total Project Value: SGD $169,089
2014-16 Principal Investigator. “Cell Therapies with Adipose-derived Stem Cells: Ethical and Regulatory Guidance for Researchers and Clinicians in Singapore, Japan and Australia”. Ministry of Education and the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the Office of the Deputy President, National University of Singapore. Total Value: SGD $100,000
2012-13 Collaborator. “Asian Biopoleis: Biotechnology and Biomedicine as emergent Forms of Life and Practice”. Academic Research Fund Tier 2; Ministry of Education, Singapore (SGD $759,020), and the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the Office of the Deputy President, National University of Singapore (SGD $200,000).
Selected Publications
Ballantyne A, Lysaght T, Toh H J, Lau A, Ong S, Lau A, Schaefer G O, Xafis V, Tai ES, Newson AJ, Carter S, Degeling C, Braunack-Mayer A (2022). Sharing precision medicine data with private industry: Outcomes of a Citizens’ Jury in Singapore. Big Data & Society. forthcoming
Savulescu J, Labude M, Barcellona C, Huang Z, Leverentz MK, Xafis V, Lysaght T (2022). Two kinds of embryo research: four case examples. Journal of Medical Ethics. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2021-108038
Lysaght T, Schaefer G O, Voo TC, Wee HL, Joseph R (2022) Professional Oversight of Emergency-Use Interventions and Monitoring Systems: Ethical Guidance From the Singapore Experience of COVID-19. Apr 14;1-13. doi: 10.1007/s11673-022-10171-1.
Lysaght T (2021), “Anticipatory governance and foresight in regulating for uncertainty”, American Journal of Bioethics. 22(1):51-53.
Lysaght T, Ballantyne A, Toh H J, Lau A, Ong S, Schaefer O, et al. (2021) Trust and Trade-Offs in Sharing Data for Precision Medicine: A National Survey of Singapore. Journal of Personalized Medicine. 11(9):921. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/11/9/921
Zeps N, Lysaght T, Chadwick R, Erler A, Foo R, Giordano S, San Lai P, Schaefer GO, Xafis V, Chew WL (2021), “Ethics and regulatory considerations for the clinical translation of somatic cell human epigenetic editing.”, Stem Cell Reports, S2213-6711(21)00310-6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213671121003106.
Lipworth, W., Wiersma, M., Ghinea, N., Hendly, T., Kerridge, I., Lysaght, T., . . . Waldby, C. (2021). The Oversight of Clinical Innovation in a Medical Marketplace. In G. Laurie, E. Dove, A. Ganguli-Mitra, C. McMillan, E. Postan, N. Sethi, et al. (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Health Research Regulation. pp. 287-295). https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-health-research-regulation/oversight-of-clinical-innovation-in-a-medical-marketplace/9C219DA84EF2DC6025AC9ABCD12CEAFA
Lysaght T, Ballantyne A, Xafis V, Ong S, Schaefer GO, Ling J, Newson AJ, Khor IW, Tai ES (2020), ““Who is watching the watchdog?”: ethical perspectives of sharing health-related data for precision medicine in Singapore”, BMC Medical Ethics, 21, 118. https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-020-00561-8
Lysaght T, Lim HY, Xafis V, & Ngiam KY (2019), “AI-Assisted Decision-making in Healthcare”, Asian Bioethics Review Asian Bioethics Review. 11(3): 299-314. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41649-019-00096-0
Xafis, V., Schaefer, G.O., Labude, M.K., Brassington, I., Ballantyne, A., Lim, H.Y., Lipworth, W, Lysaght, T., Stewart, C., Sun, S., Laurie, G.T., Tai, E.S. (2019), “An Ethics Framework for Big Data in Health and Research”, Asian Bioethics Review. 11(3): 277-254. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs41649-019-00099-x
Lysaght T, Munsie, M, Castricum A, Hui, JHP, Okada K, Sato Y, Sawa Y, Stewart C, Tan LK, Tan LHY, Sugii S (2018), “A Roundtable on Responsible Innovation with Autologous Stem Cells in Australia, Japan and Singapore”, Cytotherapy. 9(20): 1103-9.
Sugarman J, Barker R A, Kerridge I, Lysaght T, Pellegrini G, Sipp D, & Tanner C (2018), “Tackling Ethical Challenges of Premature Delivery of Stem Cell-Based Therapies: ISSCR2018 Annual Meeting Focus Session Report”, Stem Cell Reports. 11(5): 1021-5. https://www.cell.com/stem-cell-reports/fulltext/S2213-6711(18)30443-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2213671118304430%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
Lysaght, T. (2017) “Accelerating Regenerative Medicine: The Japanese Experiment in Ethics and Regulation”, Regenerative Medicine. 12(6):657-668.
Munsie M, Lysaght T, Hendl T, Tan L, Kerridge I, & Stewart C. (2017), “Open for Business: A Comparative Study of Websites Selling Autologous Stem Cells in Australia and Japan”, Regenerative Medicine. 12(7):777-790.
Lysaght, T. Lipworth, W. Hendl, T., Kerridge, I., Lee, T., Munsie, M., Waldby, C. & Stewart, C. (2017), “The Deadly Business of an Unregulated Global Stem Cell Industry”. Journal of Medical Ethics. 43(11):744-746. https://jme.bmj.com/content/43/11/744
Lysaght, T., Kerridge, I., Sipp, D., Porter, G., & Capps, B.J. (2017) “Ethical and Regulatory Challenges with Autologous Adult Stem Cells: A Comparative Review of International Regulations”, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. 14(2), 261-273
Lysaght T, Capps B.J., Bailey M., Bickford, D., Coker, R. Lederman Z., Watson S., Tambyah P.A. (2017) “Justice is the Missing Link in One Health: Results of a Mixed Methods Study in an Urban City State”. PLoS One. 12(1):e0170967. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0170967
Bylstra Y, Lysaght T, Thrivikraman J, Watson S, & Tan, P. (2017), “Ethical Frameworks for Obtaining Informed Consent in Tumor Profiling: An Evidence-Based Case for Singapore”, Human Genomics. 11(1):31. https://humgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40246-017-0127-1
Teaching and Supervision
Coordinating Roles (NUS)
School of Medicine Health Ethics, Law and Professionalism Program: Director of Phase III
School of Medicine Graduate Program: Module Coordinator for Bioethics: Core Philosophical and Empirical Approaches
Undergraduate (NUS)
- Health Ethics, Law and Professionalism: Lecturer and Tutor for Phases I – II;
- Health Ethics, Law and Professionalism: Lecturer and Tutor for Phase III and IV
- Health Ethics, Law and Professionalism: Tutor for Phase V
Graduate (NUS)
- MDG5230: Bioethics: Core Philosophical and Empirical Approaches (Lecturer: Evidence, values & conceptual analysis in bioethics; Literature reviews in bioethics: refining research questions; Qualitative methods; Quantitative methods; Mixed methods; Integrating empirical & normative analysis; Designing a bioethics research proposal)
- MDG5215: Applied Bioethics and Biolaw (Lecturer: Stem Cell Research and Innovative Cell Therapies: Beneficence and the Limits of Autonomy)
- MDG5231: Topics in Biomedical and Behavioural Research Ethics (Lecturer: Bodies in Research)
- MCI5005: Ethics and Regulation of Clinical Research (Lecturer: Ethics of Regenerative Medicine: Innovation between the Nexus of Research and Practice)
Current and recent graduate level supervision
Ms Serene Ong, “Opening Pandora’s Box: How individuals decide to undergo genetic testing”, Ph.D candidate. NUS Medicine. 2018-current.
Ms Weixin Niah, “Examining Students’ Attitudes towards ‘Saviour Siblings’: The Influence of Science in Context” Master of Science. Graduated in 2017
Committee Memberships, Editorial Board Memberships and Other Service Roles or Affiliations
Professional Memberships
2015- Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law
2009- International Bioethics Association
2009- Singapore Stem Cell Society
2004- International Society for Stem Cell Research
International Service
2016- Vice-Chair, Committee on Ethics, Law and Society, Human Genome Organisation
2017 Co-Leader, Empirical Bioethics Stream, Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law
2004-2006 Public Education Committee, International Society for Stem Cell Research
2020 Secretary, Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law
National Service
2018- Expert Panelist, AI and Data Ethics Advisory Council, Infocomm Media Development Authority
2018- Oversight Board, Singapore Network of Biorepositories
2018-19 Executive Committee, Stem Cell Society, Singapore
2006-2008 Education Committee, Australian Stem Cell Centre
2020-now Research Ethics and Compliance Council, SingHealth