Opening Address by Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of A*STAR, at the launch of the 2017 Singapore Symposium on Metabolic Diseases, 16 November 2017, at Breakthrough Theatrette, Matrix, Biopolis

Distinguished Guests,
Friends and Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very good morning to all of you.

Welcome to the 2017 Singapore Symposium on Metabolic Diseases, and thank you for your participation in this 9th edition of the forum which brings together international experts in diabetes, obesity and other metabolic diseases from many parts of the world.

Let me extend a special welcome to those who have travelled some distances to be here and to those who have attended previous editions of the Symposium.

Many of this year's international speakers have shared their research findings at previous editions of the symposium and I appreciate your continued participation.

Let me also acknowledge the efforts of A*STAR’s Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) and the Duke-NUS Medical School in jointly organising this event, and to A*STAR’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) and Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), as well as NTU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine for supporting the event.

Metabolic diseases in Singapore and the region

The Ministry of Health Singapore has identified five disease focus areas in its healthcare research strategy as part of Singapore’s RIE 2020 plan.

Metabolic diseases like diabetes is one of these priority areas, and significant investments have been allocated to clinically focused studies to tackle these diseases and their complications.

One example is DYNAMO, the Diabetes studY in Nephropathy And other Microvascular cOmplication.

Dynamo is a programme that strives to reduce diabetic kidney disease in Singapore by 30 percent within the next five years.

This multi-institution programme is led by Professor Tom Coffman from the Duke-NUS Medical School and A*STAR is a partner in this program launched just this year.

Another example is ATTRaCT, or the Asian neT work for Translational Research and Cardiovascular Trials.

This is an A*STAR-led initiative that represents the first island-wide effort to deepen our understanding of cardiovascular disease progression in heart failure.

Heart disease is one of Singapore’s biggest killers, responsible for about 30% of all deaths.

The ATTRaCT studies have yielded promising results.

Just a couple of months ago, a team of ATTRaCT researchers led by Associate Professor Roger Foo from A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore, NUHS' Cardiovascular Research Institute, and the National University Heart Centre Singapore, discovered a novel RNA named “Singheart” that may yield the key to triggering the regeneration and repair of damaged heart cells.

This will help to advance research in the treatment of heart diseases.

Tackling diabetes in Asian populations

Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases in Singapore and has gained increasing public awareness lately.

Today, more than 11% of adults and 30% of the elderly in Singapore have diabetes.

Recognising the significant health and economic impact of diabetes on our country's healthcare, we are tackling this problem head-on, especially by shedding light on diabetes in the Asian context.

Recent research breakthroughs have helped us to understand that genetically, Asians are more susceptible to diabetes as compared to Caucasians and early findings suggest that this may be because Asians are unable to produce enough insulin.

In multi-ethnic Asian cohort studies such as GUSTO (Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes), researchers found that deficiencies, such as lack of sleep, increased pregnant women’s risks of getting GDM; the findings revealed that pregnant women who sleep less than six hours a night are almost twice as likely to get GDM as compared to their counterparts who sleep for seven to eight hours.

Such findings could enable scientists to advance prevention and intervention strategies specific to the Asian phenotype.

Building a talent pipeline for metabolic research 

Notwithstanding the significant achievements so far within the local community, it is not possible for the Singapore research community to tackle the challenge of Diabetes all by ourselves nor is it sensible to attempt to do so.

This is why we have always adopted an Open Innovation approach to work with partners with similar aims and vision in mutually beneficial and productive ways.

For the same reason, we have also adopted an open talent strategy to build a thriving environment for R&D and innovation.

This is one key reason for SBIC’s research excellence when they persuaded Prof Tom Südhof, a 2013 Nobel laureate in Medicine, to also do part of his research here.

Tom has been instrumental in establishing a joint neurometabolic programme at SBIC that focuses on the central regulation of feeding and energy homeostasis.

This programme is part of a larger research vision that builds on existing research programme in SBIC to study the biological basis of metabolic diseases.

The joint neurometabolic programme will establish a training ground for researchers and scientific talent and nurture them to become future leaders in this research area.

Unfortunately, Tom is unable to join us today due to health reasons.

Britton Chance Memorial Award

In line with recognising promising research talent, this year, we want to acknowledge the efforts of a particular scientist for his contributions to the field of metabolic diseases.

I am pleased to share that the Britton Chance Memorial Award this year is presented to Professor Tamas Horvath for his research in understanding how the brain controls energy metabolism.

We will have the opportunity to hear more about his work during the upcoming lecture about how hunger promoting neurons in the hypothalamus control brain development and other functions.

I am certainly looking forward to this presentation.

Closing remarks

In closing, I would like to thank the outstanding line-up of speakers we have this year to cover various aspects of research on metabolic diseases from diabetes to heart failure.

Your sharing will not only serve to deepen our understanding of the diseases, but will, I hope, serve to spark partnerships among the participants here and also many who cannot be here.

On this note, let me wish all of you an inspiring and fruitful symposium.

Thank you.