News In Brief: January 2024

 NTU climbs to 4th in Asia University Rankings
In November 2023, it was announced that Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) climbed one spot to be placed fourth in the list by the Britain-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) 2024 ranking of Asia’s universities. NTU also gained a perfect score in international faculty ratio.

Family Medicine and Primary Care Bags Best Research Paper 2022
LKCMedicine’s Family Medicine and Primary Care’s (FMPC) research paper titled, ‘Improving Prescribing: A feasibility study of pharmacogenetic testing with clinical decision support in the Primary Health Care in Singapore’ was awarded the Best Paper 2022 at the 51st North American Primary Care Research Group Annual Meeting on 3 November 2023.

LKCMedicine Faculty part of prestigious Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2023
LKCMedicine Dean Professor Joseph Sung, Associate Professor Sunny Wong, Professor Laurent Renia, Professor David Lye, Associate Professor Barnaby Young, Professor Chen Xiaodong, Professor Chen Peng, Professor Pu Kanyi and Professor Leo Yee Sin have been identified as the world’s most influential scientists for their impact on the research community.

S’pore research team gets $10m grant to fight drug-resistant superbugs
A team of researchers in Singapore has been granted $10 million for a five-year project to find ways to fight superbugs or drug-resistant bacteria, which cause infections that are difficult to treat with existing antibiotics. The team members are from Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NUS’ Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Genome Institute of Singapore, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, SGH, Singapore Clinical Research Institute and NUH, and also include expert collaborators from top regional institutions.

Symposiums by LKCMedicine
NCID–ICL–LKCMedicine Infectious Disease Symposium
LKCMedicine, Imperial College London, and NCID hosted their fifth collaborative symposium on 8 November 2023, focusing on malaria and bacterial infections. Dean Professor Joseph Sung delivered the opening speech, highlighting the School’s successful educational and research partnerships. The virtual symposium featured presentations by LKCMedicine researchers The event garnered over 170 registrants.

Neuroscience of Dementia Symposium
LKCMedicine welcomed approximately 100 attendees for the Neuroscience of Dementia symposium held on 30 and 31 October 2023. This symposium was the grand finale of the Tier 3 Dementia Research Programme, led by the Irene Tan Liang Kheng Chaired Professor of Neuroscience George Augustine. Speakers included Programme investigators and members of the Programme’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Delegation Visits to LKCMedicine
LKCMedicine hosted European and Asian delegations in the last quarter of 2023 and in January 2024 with meetings centred on discussing research themes and fostering collaborative synergies between the institutions. The delegations included the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC), University of Newcastle, Warwick University, and the School of Medicine Imperial College London from UK, Capital Medical University (CMU) and Zhejiang University School of Medicine from China, and the University of Health Sciences (UHS) from Cambodia.

Strengthening the LKCMedicine Faculty
LKCMedicine welcomed two new faculty members. Dr Torsten Wuestefeld was appointed Associate Professor of Molecular Metabolism at LKCMedicine on 1 December 2023, where his expertise lies in utilising advanced mouse disease models to produce impactful translational outcomes. Dr. Pablo Bifani joined LKCMedicine on 3 January 2024 as Professor (Practice), focusing on the molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), phage biology, genetics of drug resistance, and drug development. Professor Lionel Lee was conferred the Emeritus Professorship by NTU on 10 January 2024, following his roles of Professor and Executive Vice-Dean (Administration) at LKCMedicine. He continues to lend his expertise to the Dean Advancement Advisory Committee.