OUR LEADERS

Professor Johan Eriksson is the Executive Director and Programme Director for Human Development at A*STAR IHDP, and Director of the Human Potential Translational Research Programme at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. A specialist in internal medicine and general practice, Professor Eriksson was last full professor at the faculty of medicine, University of Helsinki, and chief physician at Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland. He holds clinical interests in diabetes and related metabolic diseases.

His research focuses on the early programming of health and disease, as well as on the prevention of type 2 diabetes and related metabolic outcomes by lifestyle interventions. He is in charge of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study, a unique birth cohort study with a follow-up of over 20,000 individuals from birth until the age of over 80 years. Furthermore, he has been involved in the gestational diabetes prevention study RADIEL, in which a lifestyle intervention was shown to successfully reduce gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM); and the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) – the first randomised study to show that lifestyle intervention is effective in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Professor Eriksson received his medical degree and specialist qualifications from the University of Helsinki.

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Sir Peter Gluckman is A*STAR IHDP’s Chief Scientific Officer and President of the International Science Council. He originally trained as a paediatrician with an interest in endocrinology, but very soon realised his calling in research – particularly in the fields of developmental endocrinology and neuroscience. Sir Peter previously served as Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister.

With a strong interest in children’s growth and development and understanding how a baby's environment between conception and birth influences its childhood development and lifelong health, Sir Peter’s research has made significant contributions to the fields of perinatal physiology and biology, developmental neuroscience and neuroprotection, and paediatric and experimental endocrinology. His work has been instrumental in translating biomedical research discoveries into improvements in long-term health outcomes.

In addition to holding honorary chairs at the University of Southampton, University College London and the National University of Singapore, Sir Peter has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bergen in Norway, for extraordinary accomplishments regarding science advice and science diplomacy. He has also been recognised as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA). Among his notable accolades are New Zealand’s prestigious Rutherford Medal in 2001, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) award in Science Diplomacy in 2016, and his appointment as a Knight of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009 for his contributions to medicine. 

Sir Peter received the prestigious President's Science and Technology Medal in 2021 and in 2024, he was invited by the New Zealand government to chair two new advisory groups – the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) and the University Advisory Group (UAG) – aimed at transforming New Zealand's science and university sectors. 

He received his MBChB from the University of Otago and his MMedSc from the University of Auckland.

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Professor Chong Yap Seng is the Chief Clinical Officer of A*STAR IHDP and the Founding Director of the A*STAR-NUS Singapore Centre for Nutritional Sciences, Metabolic Disease, and Human Development. He is also a Senior Consultant in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology with the National University Health System (NUHS), and the Dean of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in the National University of Singapore.

A clinician-scientist with special interest in foetal growth and early development, Professor Chong is the Lead Principal Investigator for Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) – a nationwide birth cohort study on pregnancies and early childhood development. Key discoveries on gestational diabetes and its impact on children has made systemic changes towards Singapore’s public health policy in a matter of months. Professor Chong was awarded the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award by the Ministry of Health in 2017.

Professor Chong received his MBBS, MMed (Obstetrics & Gynaecology) and MD from the National University of Singapore.

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Currently a practising senior consultant obstetrician at the National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore, Associate Professor Chan Shiao-Yng is also a Deputy Executive Director at A*STAR IHDP and a clinician-scientist at NUS. 

Before moving to Singapore in 2014, Associate Professor Chan was a consultant obstetrician in the UK with special interest in the management of pregnant women with medical disorders. After completing her PhD in 2004, she was subsequently awarded a prestigious five-year Health Foundation Clinician Scientist Fellowship and grant funding from the Medical Research Council (UK) and other research charities to establish a basic science research group at the University of Birmingham, UK. 

Her research work at NUS now focuses on endocrine and metabolic dysfunction in pregnancy and their impact on maternal and child outcomes as well as on placental development and function. She’s also extensively involved in world-class birth cohort studies like GUSTO and S-PRESTO, and is the Lead Principal Investigator in Singapore for the multinational NiPPeR (Nutritional Intervention Preconception and during Pregnancy to maintain healthy glucosE levels and offspRing health) trial.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Cambridge, received her PhD from the University of Birmingham, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK).

Besides serving as Programme Director for the Translational Neuroscience domain at A*STAR IHDP, Professor Michael Meaney is also Programme Director of the Brain-Body Initiative Strategic Research Programme at A*STAR; and James McGill Professor, Emeritus for Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. Renowned for his research on stress, maternal care and gene expression, his scientific work focuses on epigenetics and the mechanisms by which adversity in early life might alter neural development and render certain individuals at risk of mental illnesses and/or learning disabilities later in life.

One of the world’s most cited scientists, he has been invited to present his findings at research institutes, government health agencies, and scientific meetings globally. Through his work, he hopes to holistically depict what vulnerability to mental illnesses looks like, what constitutes resilience or risk, and what interventions can help stop these debilitating conditions before they take root in adolescence and early adulthood.

In 2014, Professor Meaney was awarded the prestigious Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize for his work on how parental behaviour affects children’s brain development and lifelong function. He was also elected to the Royal Society of Canada, named a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and awarded the Order of Canada. In 2024, he was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences in the class of Social and Behavioural Sciences (Psychological Sciences).

Professor Meaney graduated from Loyola College (Montreal), and received his PhD from Concordia University (Montreal) with post-doctoral training at The Rockefeller University in New York.