Medicine & Healthcare

The Global Young Scientists Summit 2020 in Singapore gathers new and returning eminent scientists and talented young researchers worldwide to convene in Singapore, to spark new ideas and innovations.

Inaugural Nipah virus Conference convenes leading experts to strengthen global collaboration, improve efforts to combat deadly virus.

Chika Kuroda (24 March 1884 – 8 November 1968) was a Japanese chemist whose research focussed on the structures of natural pigments.

Despite great investments, an effective drug-based treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia among the elderly, remains elusive. Scientists led by Duke-NUS Medical School, in collaboration with Monash University, have published an online atlas of gene expressions at single-cell level in Alzheimer’s disease brains, aiming to boost to efforts to identify gene targets for drug development.

New molecules that tag cellular components for removal could lead to drugs for a wide range of diseases.

Why some existing cancer treatments are ineffective in tackling the early-stage of lung cancer? Researchers investigated the ability of anti-cancer agents to affect early-stage lung metastatic tumors.

Husband and wife team, Kimishige (3 December 1925 – 6 July 2018) and Teruko Ishizaka (28 September 1926 – 4 June 2019) discovered the antibody class Immunoglobulin E (IgE) that triggers allergic reactions.

Umetaro Suzuki (7 April 1874 – 20 September 1943) was a Japanese scientist best remembered for his research on beriberi, a disease caused by vitamin B1 deficiency, characterized by limb stiffness, paralysis and pain.

Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (19 October 1897 – 14 April 1994) was an artist and chemist from Pakistan whose research focused on natural products from plants.

Survey of over 6,300 PhD students worldwide shows most to be satisfied with their PhD experience, but highlights issues affecting student well-being such as working hours, funding and bullying

Congratulations to all the winners of 11th Medical Undergraduates’ Annual Scientific Research Meeting 2019 in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Below is the list of winners according to the categories with respective research titles.

Foremost society of kidney specialists highlights Singapore-led global study to better understand diabetes complications and reduce their prevalence.

International collaboration is finding new ways to improve how scientists develop and test models to forecast dengue infection.

A scientific study of African populations discovers that the beta-amyloid gene is associated with an increased risk of the most common form of glaucoma.

Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Week in Singapore, from November 20-22, 2019, will explore the latest technology innovations and market opportunities in the agri-food supply chain across Southeast Asia, India and China.

The event will take place from 20-21 November 2019 at the International Convention Centre, Sydney, Australia. Organised by Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

A team of researchers from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Karolinska Institutet has recently developed a new protein which can help increase the targeting accuracy in the genome editing process. It is believed that it would be useful for future gene therapies in human which require high precision.

Four young researchers from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have been awarded China's Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2019. Each of them will receive a funding of RMB1.3 million to directly support their scientific research projects in Hong Kong to a maximum period of three years.

Antibodies against viruses from the same family as Ebola and Marburg have been detected in fruit bats and the human community hunting them, indicating cross-species virus transmission has occurred in the past, warns a global team of infectious disease scientists.

The Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) conducted the world’s first study to investigate the association between unrecognised obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and postoperative cardiovascular complications. Results showed that patients with unrecognised severe OSA have a two-fold increased risk of postoperative cardiovascular complications compared to those without the disorder. The study has recently been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), suggesting that preoperative OSA screening should be considered in clinical practice to lower the risk of postoperative cardiovascular events.

Development of novel agonist antibodies to treat cancer by collaboration between academia and industry

Drugs can be safely delivered to cancerous lymph nodes via the lymphatic system and then released inside the nodes using sound waves. Tohoku University researchers tested the treatment on mice with metastatic breast cancer and published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

A recent research led by a scientist at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has discovered an easily transmitted DNA piece that can make a new type of hyper-resistant and deadly superbug become hyper-virulent quickly, posing an unprecedented threat to human health.

Large-scale study to identify human adenovirus genotypes in Singapore leads to discovery of four new adenovirus strains and increase in strains linked to severe diseases. Researchers suggest use of antiviral therapies and adenovirus vaccines, and routine monitoring of adenovirus strains.

A research team from the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has successfully developed a novel aptamer, i.e. a single-stranded piece of DNA, for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. It is the first time a drug in Hong Kong has been granted orphan drug designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

There will be three breakout tracks at the summit: Data, Innovation and Empowering Patients.

A recent study conducted by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has validated the use of the UK Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) triple test for the prediction of preterm preeclampsia at 11-13 weeks’ gestation in a large Asian population. The findings have been published in the international journal American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

A compound effective in killing chemotherapy-resistant glioblastoma-initiating cells (GICs) has been identified, raising hopes of producing drugs capable of eradicating refractory tumors with low toxicity.

Comprehensive genomic information of largely understudied Asian populations will expand understanding on the biology of diseases.

Faulty signalling pathway causes the heart to develop unnaturally while in the embryo stage, according to Duke-NUS Medical School researchers.