What is Precision Medicine?

For bioethics researcher Tamra Lysaght, proactive responses to public concerns about precision medicine could help encourage acceptance and participation in national programmes.   Imagine you are inside a runaway trolley that is barrelling towards five people tied to the tracks ahead. Thankfully, you notice a lever which, if pulled, can divert the trolley to another […]

A sociological study finds that HELIOS, Singapore’s most comprehensive and clinically-oriented biobank, lays the groundwork for using precision medicine to tackle diseases of ageing.   Singapore is a rapidly ageing nation. Half of the population is over 42 years old, and in the next eight years, nearly a quarter of Singaporeans will be at least […]

  Engaging large and diverse groups of the public in discussions related to bioethics will ensure that biomedical research and related policies continue to benefit humanity.   Did you know that moral practices in medicine date back to antiquity? One the first known documented examples, the Hippocratic Oath, describes the ethical responsibilities physicians have to […]

Rare genetic mutations could contribute more strongly to telomere length and cancer-related risk than more common variants in the Singaporean-Chinese population.   Thanks in large part to advances in modern medicine, humans are living longer than ever before. However, this extended lifespan has brought with it new health challenges—most prominently a rise in chronic diseases […]

   Ethnic underrepresentation in genomic research leads to suboptimal healthcare for minority communities. What can be done to improve diversity in this field?   In April 2003, the scientists working on the Human Genome Project published for the first time ever the full sequence of the human genome—a complete and detailed map of the entire […]

  The women pushing frontiers in precision medicine: (left to right) top row: Claire Bellis, Foo Jia Nee, Li Jingmei; second row: Marie Loh, Neerja Karnani, Sonia Davila, Yasmin Bylstra. In celebration of International Women’s Month, meet seven women who are advancing precision medicine in Singapore.   Across social, economic and political spheres, diversity and […]

Precision medicine is elevating preventative healthcare by offering a nuanced understanding of individual disease risk and opening the door to novel methods of screening.   In 2018, a person diagnosed with breast cancer in Singapore had a 60% greater likelihood of surviving than a person diagnosed 40 years earlier. Despite the number of breast cancer […]

  Diseases with a unique genetic basis in Asian populations reveal opportunities for precision public health approaches in the region.   Our genetic makeup, environmental conditions and lifestyle habits are responsible for the myriad of differences that make us individuals. These differences include even our susceptibility to disease: some illnesses, for example, are more likely […]

  From early insights into regional variations in drug response to an ambitious transnational project to consolidate genomic data, 2021 saw advances in precision medicine across the board.    Nearly twenty years after the human genome was first sequenced, advances in genomics research have grown by leaps and bounds. Aided in part by the shrinking […]

  A quick guide on Asia’s renowned large-scale population genomics studies that push frontiers for precision medicine approaches to improve population health.