Collaborative Projects

The NUS Team in ATTRaCT:

Prof Roger Foo (Programme and Genetics Lead), Prof Arthur Mark Richards (Biomarkers & Immunology Theme Lead)

Scope:

The Asian neTwork for Translational Research and Cardiovascular Trials (ATTRaCT) is a programme funded by A*STAR BMRC to deepen our understanding of cardiovascular (CV) disease progression in heart failure (HF). Funded since 2014, the ATTRaCT platform was the first nation-wide CV platform that integrated top expertise in CV clinical and biomedical sciences across the nation, bringing together A*STAR research institutes (Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore Immunology Network, Institute of Molecular & Cell Biology) with the two national heart institutions (National Heart Centre, Singapore & National University Heart Centre, Singapore) as well as academic institutions (National University of Singapore, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School). ATTRaCT exploits data from the existing ASIAN-HF study which involves about 50 sites in 11 countries and more than 1,000 patients.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT

As the leader of the only investigator-led HF network across Asia (ASIAN-HF), Singapore has been uniquely placed to employ a “reverse translational” approach from human to animal models. Genetic, epigenetic, clinical and imaging data from ASIAN-HF patients will be used to guide “reverse translation” in rodents. This provides novel small animal models suitable for parallel advanced imaging in SBIC and immediately applicable to pre-clinical pharmaceutical studies.

The NUS Team in CADENCE:

Mark Chan, James Yip, Arthur Mark Richards, Roger Foo, Lim Shir Lynn, Doreen Tan, Sia Ching Hui

Scope

The Cardiovascular Disease National Collaborative Enterprise (CADENCE) National Clinical Translational Program (NCTP) aims to: (1) synergise effort across Singapore by establishing Joint Platforms to improve patient outcomes and establish Singapore as a global leader in CVD research, (2) overcome common barriers to research at the systems level, (3) drives commercialisation efforts and (4) demonstrate the power of these synergies through a series of practice-changing Use Cases. The 3 Joint Platforms are (1) Data, imaging, and tissue repository; (2) Early phase mechanistic multi-site clinical trials; and (3) Artificial intelligence, digital health, and human potential.

CADENCE NCTP leverages the unique multi-ethnic local Singaporean population comprising Chinese, Malays, and Indians, thereby making the findings from this national research effort applicable to the global Asian population of 4.3 billion people.

The data, imaging, and tissue repository joint platform, developed in partnership with the Bioinformatics Institute (A*STAR) and IHiS, integrates national Cardiovascular (CV) data, images and tissue samples and link them to patient outcomes in SingCLOUD and MOH TRUST.  Joint Platform 1 therefore serves as both a discovery and validation engine for Academic and Industry collaborators. The early phase mechanistic multi-site clinical trials joint platform, developed in partnership with the Consortium for Clinical Research and Innovation, Singapore (CRIS), will establish a National Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Network for undertaking multi-site early-phase mechanistic CV clinical trials driven by advanced imaging and biomarker endpoints. Joint Platform 2 supports first-in-human trials of new drugs and devices developed locally and also support early-phase testing of assets from the industry. The artificial intelligence, digital health and human potential joint platform will enhance locally developed digital health tools to better address CVD risk factor modification at the primary prevention level. Joint Platform 3 combines digital AI-enabled technological solutions with human coaching to deliver powerful personalised behavioural interventions throughout the healthcare journey. Underpinning these 3 Joint Platforms is a Business Intelligence & Development Unit (BIDU), led by A*STAR Biomedical Sciences Industry Partnership Office (BMS IPO), which serves as a single point of contact for industry engagement and commercial opportunities.

This award is part of the Industry Alignment Fund – Pre-positioning Programme (IAF-PP)

Team:

Roger Foo (Co-PI). Non-NUS: Derek Hausenloy (Lead PI), Chrishan Ramachandra (NHCS), Soh Boon Seng (ASTAR)

Scope:

New treatments are needed for patients with heart failure. The discovery of new and effective treatments relies on an understanding of the causes of heart failure, which can be challenging if we need to study cells or tissue from the patient’s heart. This project aims to generate heart cells and tissue ‘organoids’ by using the blood from patients and producing stem cells from these blood samples. This research platform is design to engage research collaborations from biotech and pharma wishing to develop new medicines for heart failure. PREVENT-HF IAF-PP brings together cardiovascular research capabilities and expertise across the National Heart Centre, Singapore (NHCS), IMCB A*STAR and NUSmed in the field of human stem cell and cardiac organoid biology, and multi-omics into a single one-stop integrated platform to facilitate collaborations with industry to identify and validate new treatment targets and test in-house tool compounds for heart failure, and evaluate cardiotoxicity of drugs in development. This should result in the identification of new treatments to improve patient outcomes and reduce the healthcare and economic burden of heart disease in Singapore.

TEAM

Christopher Chen

SCOPE

INTER-REACH is a Collaborative Centre Grant that brings together cross-disciplinary research in neurology (Memory, Ageing and Cognition Centre (MACC)-NUH, National Neuroscience Institute (NNI)), ophthalmology (Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI)) and cardiology (Cardiovascular Research Institute of Singapore (CVRI). The overall aim is to strengthen research capabilities and resources to coordinate research across disciplines to address medical needs.