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Focus Areas & Addressing National Priorities

3 Focus Areas

Smart
Manufacturing


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A Seamless Automated Manufacturing Operation Process

Harnessing the benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies such as robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, manufacturing operations in smart factories relieve manpower shortage and improve manufacturing performance.  Automation & digitalisation will stimulate manufacturing transformation and help companies on their journey to drive sustainable processes, elevate competitiveness and enable resilience.

Diagnostic & Remote
Monitoring

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Bringing Healthcare To People

Point-of-care diagnostics can play a powerful role in patient care, enabling more rapid clinical decision-making in the process of diagnosis, treatment choice and monitoring, and prognosis. We work with innovative companies seeking to bring novel solutions in developing remote monitoring for chronic care and testing for infectious diseases. Together, our development efforts aim to achieve a future with high-quality patient care and lower costs.

Laboratory Automation & Robotics

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Empowering Global Health Through Impactful Innovation In Labs

We are dedicated to creating a future where handling of lab processes is automated with minimal touch points, and lab results are automatically traced from start to finish throughout the diagnostics processes in a connected lab environment. Our innovation concentrates on utilising state-of-the-art technology such as 5G, augmented reality, virtual reality, process robotisation and lab diagnostics sample handling automation to build a lab of the future.


Addressing National Priorities

Ageing-Related Healthcare

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Healthy Longevity

Characterised by chronic illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and cardiovascular diseases, ageing has evolved to become one of the greatest risk factors. As our elderly population advances in years, they have become more susceptible to these diseases. Long-term care for the elderly has become one of the most daunting healthcare challenges.

Ageing population is one of the key issues in Singapore. The median age of Singapore residents has increased from 34.0 in 2000 to 41.8 in 2021¹. To address this problem, Singapore has taken a multifaceted, integrated and holistic approach to meet the needs of the elderly population. The approach will focus on home and community-based care which is preferred by many elderly and will optimise resources in Singapore for other purposes.

Aligned with the approach, our innovation efforts focus on tackling these challenges by working with companies whose intention is to delay these age-related diseases, and researching homecare robotic and monitoring systems where the elderly can participate in self-care. We look to co-innovating with partners in mobility assistance, fall prevention, rehabilitation care and wearable diagnostics where the quality of life for our elderly in Singapore can be significantly improved. Through securing healthy longevity and preventing chronic age-related diseases, we strive to build a future where our elderly can age confidently and gracefully in Singapore.

¹ Source: Department of Statistics Singapore - Population Trends 2021

COVID-19 MedTech Innovations

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Catalysing Translational R&D to Combat the Pandemic

When COVID-19 hit Singapore in 2019, a strong team of multi-disciplinary researchers from A*STAR came together to collaborate with the Diagnostic Development Hub (DxD), National Environment Agency (NEA), Ministry of Health (MOH), as well as industry partners such as Ramatex, KA Industrial, Sankei Eagle, Advanced  MedTech and Sysmatic Global to support Singapore’s initiatives in battling the pandemic. Industry 4.0 technologies were mobilised to innovate and translate solutions to safeguard the health and well-being of our community as well as to assist our laboratory staff and healthcare workers in their work.

Solutions were developed:

Ramatex Masks

Reusable face masks which are washable up to thirty times, qualified by TÜV SÜD.

Rapid Automated Volume Enhancer (RAVE) & Bio Rapid Automated Valence Engine (BRAVE)

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  • A collaboration between SIMTech, ARTC, Diagnostic Development Hub (DxD) and industry partners (Rave – Sankei, Brave – KA industrial)
  • Automates some of the manual steps usually required in sample processing, such as uncapping of tubes and pipetting
  • Leverages on Industry 4.0 technologies such as the custom-built robotic and automation systems
  • December 2021: Deployed in 5 laboratories and achieved more than 2 million COVID-19 tests 
  • Minimises human error, reduces contamination and infection risks for laboratory staff
  • Accurate, reliable and high throughput testing processes within a safer environment

Social Impact

  • Supports the need to step up testing efforts in Singapore
  • Prevents infection risks and reduces fatigue in laboratory staff due to manual workload

Over the years, A*STAR has built deep capabilities in molecular biology, diagnostic testing, robotics, and smart sensing, that have enabled SDL to be set up.

Prof Patrick Tan, Founding Programme Director of SDL, and Executive Director of A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS)

AVID (Automated Vaccine Inoculation Dispenser)

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Automated Vaccine Inoculation Dispenser (AVID) system

  • A collaboration between SIMTech, ARTC and Sysmatic Global
  • An automated system to replace the manual step of extracting vaccines from vials to syringes
  • Addresses the labour-intensive steps of the vaccination process while reducing handling of sharp syringes
  • Reduces risks of cross-contamination and vaccine wastage due to safe handling by the machine
  • December 2021: Supported up to 200,000 vaccinations


Social Impact

  • Aiding Singapore’s efforts in supporting healthcare workers by reducing workload and fatigue levels of healthcare workers
  • Increases overall safety for healthcare workers

The A*STAR team was very helpful and provided us with a lot of information very quickly. These are the things that we learn from them as a small and medium-sized enterprise, something which we would not have been able to do by ourselves.

Mr Khoo Kiak Nee, Director of Sysmatic Global

Wastewater Automated Valence Engine (WAVE)

An automated liquid handling system for NEA’s diagnostic process to extract COVID-19 virus genetic signatures from wastewater samples.

Fast forward, Singapore has emerged stronger, more resilient and more ready to live with the virus in the midst. With plans to treat COVID-19 as an endemic, Singapore is seeking to pursue a strategy of “living with COVID-19”. Understanding that the journey will not be smooth and easy, Singapore will need to stay vigilant and adapt to any arising situation by preparing our healthcare system for more twists and turns or the emergence of a new disease. Disease X is not a matter of if, but when. Singapore will continue to stay nimble and learn as we strengthen our resilience against Disease X through the investment of R&D in science and technology. Our researchers remain committed to sustaining basic research and broadening research foundations with a key focus on biomedical science, health and human potential while collaborating with industry partners to co-innovate and co-translate these research into industrial solutions.

A*STAR celebrates International Women's Day

A*STAR Women In Science

From groundbreaking discoveries to cutting-edge research, our researchers are empowering the next generation of female science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) leaders.

Get inspired by our #WomeninSTEM