Overview
The global Coronavirus pandemic has put Singapore's research and development capability in the spotlight. Singapore's decades' old groundwork on nurturing the research, innovation and enterprise ecosystem, especially in the health and biomedical sciences,
has put Singapore in the unique position of being able to respond quickly to the health crisis with deep technology-driven solutions.
It is essential for Singapore to continue investing in building new deep tech capabilities in preparation for the next public health crisis. These deep tech capabilities could help and impact various dimensions of our society. This online panel discussion will feature a review of Singapore's contributions from research & technology towards helping to address the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss new ways forward to prepare for ourselves in a future public health crisis.
Date: 9 December 2020
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm (Singapore Time, UTC +8)
Agenda:
1:00pm - 1:05pm: Opening introduction by Dr Sidney Yee, CEO, DxD Hub
1:05pm - 1:15pm: Moderator to introduce panellists to introduce themselves
1:15pm - 2:00pm: Panel discussion, moderated by Dr Sidney Yee, CEO, DxD Hub
Panellists:
- Prof Dean Ho, Director, N.1 & WisDM, NUS
- Prof Damian O'Connell, CEO, EDDC, A*STAR
- Dr Yukti Choudhury, CTO, Lucence
- Dr Gurpreet Singh, Founder, Respiree
- Amrish Nair, Co-founder & CEO, Biorithm
- Dr Sidney Yee, CEO, DxD Hub [Moderator]
Moderator's Profile:
Dr Sidney Yee, CEO, DxD Hub[Moderator]
Sidney is CEO of Diagnostics Development Hub (DxD Hub), a national diagnostics platform of Singapore which is managed by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). DxD Hub is a product developer of diagnostics solutions, with expertise and capability to rapidly translate R&D output from public and private sectors, into deployable products in hospitals. To address the testing and management needs of COVID-19, DxD Hub developed and deployed several products, including conventional RT-PCR test Fortitude, serological test C-Pass, and direct PCR test RESOLUTE. Fortitude was the first diagnostic kit to be granted provisional authorisation by Singapore's Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and is now deployed in more than 40 countries globally. RESOLUTE is first-of-its-kind completely extraction-free RT-PCR based test that completes sample-to-result in an hour. A serial entrepreneur with experience in R&D, starting companies and investments before joining A*STAR, Sidney is passionate in helping entrepreneurs and enterprises navigate the challenges faced in the MedTech industry.
Speaker's Profiles:
Prof Dean Ho, Director, N.1 & WisDM, NUS
Using his CURATE.AI platform, Prof. Ho has led multiple pioneering clinical studies that have validated the promise of N-of-1 medicine, where only a patient's data is used to personalise their treatment for the entire duration of care. Multiple CURATE.AI-based clinical studies are ongoing or cleared to start in the four areas of solid cancer and blood cancer therapy, digital therapeutics/personalised learning, and post-organ transplant immunosuppression, among others.
Prof. Ho is an elected member of the US National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election to the NAI is the highest professional honour for academic inventors. He is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, as well as a Fulbright Scholar. He is also a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Award, and V Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar Award, among others. Prof. Ho was recently named to the Asia Tatler Gen.T List, which honours young leaders who are shaping the future of the region. Prof. Ho has appeared on the National Geographic Channel Program Known Universe to discuss his discoveries in drug delivery and imaging. His findings have been featured on CNN, The Economist, Forbes, Washington Post, NPR and other international news outlets. He has served as the President of the Board of Directors of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), a 26,000+ member global drug development organisation comprised of senior executives from the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, as well as academic thought leaders.
Prof Damian O'Connell, CEO, EDDC, A*STAR
Most recently, Prof Damian O'Connell was Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery - Global Head of Clinical Sciences, Bayer Pharma AG, Berlin - Germany. Clinical Sciences (CS) is a global function within Bayer (based in Germany, US, Japan, China) with responsibility for the first use of drug products in humans up to Proof of Concept, as well as all clinical pharmacological components of NDAs.
Prof O'Connell previously held senior positions within Pfizer Research & Development, Parke Davis, Elan Pharmaceuticals and Neurex. Prof O'Connell has both 5 MD & PhD degrees from the National University of Ireland. He has also been a Medical Faculty member of the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center as well as a member of the Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics Department at the University College Cork, Ireland where he was a Professor of Clinical Research. He started his career in the Industry in 1998.
Prof O'Connell is a Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine; Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine; Fellow of The Royal Academy of Medicine (Ireland); Member of the British Pharmacological Society; Member of the Drug Safety Executive Council (DSEC); Member American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; Member American College of Clinical Pharmacology; Member of American Society of Pharmacometrics; Member of the Irish Association of Pharmacologists; Member of the Irish Cardiac Society; and Member of the British Hypertension Society.
Dr Yukti Choudhury, CTO, Lucence
Yukti Choudhury is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Lucence. Yukti is principally responsible for the design and development of ultrasensitive assays based on high-throughput sequencing platforms and laboratory innovations for the detection of rare but significant genomic alterations. These assays have seen real-world clinical application in liquid biopsies for solid cancers, haematological malignancies and early cancer detection, including Lucence's flagship product LiquidHallmark®. Yukti has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and patent filings for novel molecular assays. And her research contributions have been recognized through awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Kidney Cancer Association where she was named a Promising Young Investigator. Leveraging on the molecular technology platforms at Lucence and a strong scientific and laboratory team, Yukti is actively adapting tools and resources to the demands for SARS CoV-2 testing, at scales previously unseen for molecular tests.
Dr Gurpreet Singh, Founder, Respiree
Dr Gurpreet Singh is a senior research fellow with the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. His research focuses on technological developments and clinical translation of digital health platforms. Gurpreet holds a PhD in electrical engineering, completed under an A*STAR scholarship, and a post-doctorate fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Singapore Management University. Gurpreet is also the founder of an A*STAR spin-off, Respiree Pte. Ltd. (www.respiree.com). Respiree combats chronic respiratory diseases and mental health disorders by using artificial-intelligence driven analytics to monitor and recognise abnormal changes in breathing and haemodynamic variability.
Amrish Nair, Co-founder & CEO, Biorithm
Born and raised in Singapore, Amrish Nair received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University. His research collaboration with TTSH cardiologist, Dr David FOO, and NTU supervisor Assoc. Prof. Pina Marziliano led him to spin-off BIORITHM, a MedTech startup providing cutting-edge signal processing solutions in the fields of remote monitoring and wearable technology.
