Collaborative Projects
In the Cardiovascular Metabolic Disease Translational Research Program (CVMD-TRP), our approach is inherently multidisciplinary. Collaboration plays a central role in facilitating our exchange of expertise, diverse knowledge, and valuable resources. Collectively, with our partners, we bring together innovative pathways to combat cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, especially contextualized to Singapore and Asia. These are our current 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.