Download MEDIA RELEASE S$50 million Research Funding Awarded for

MEDIA RELEASE
S$50 million Research Funding Awarded for Research on Eye
Disease and Severe Psychotic Disorders
Two programmes have been awarded S$25 million each under the
Translational and Clinical Research (TCR) Flagship Programme to
conduct extensive research in major causes of blindness and schizophrenia &
related psychotic disorders.
The programmes, for research in eye disease and neuroscience, are two of
the five identified strategic disease areas of the TCR flagship programme
under Singapore’s Biomedical Sciences Initiative Phase II.
The TCR programme for eye disease is awarded to a team led by the
Singapore
Eye
Research
Institute
(SERI)
and
the
programme
for
neuroscience is awarded to a team led by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH).
Multi-centre collaborations
Both TCR programmes are multi-centre studies which involve collaborations
with teams of researchers, clinicians, clinician scientists from various
institutions within the healthcare clusters, research bodies as well as
international tertiary institutions, hospitals and disease centres. The extensive
network ensures that the teams tap on the respective expertise areas relevant
for the research.
"The TCR Flagship Programme provides the platform for researchers and
clinician scientists from various disciplines to pool their resources and
expertise, and collaborate to solve scientific problems and translate their
research into quality healthcare solutions to benefit patients. The eye disease
and neuroscience research projects by SERI and IMH respectively address
clinical problems that are of particular significance to Singaporeans and more
generally, to the wider community in the world. These two efforts, along with
the earlier one for Gastric Cancer, are fundamentally transforming how the
research and clinical community may collaborate across the entire community
with a clear focus on bringing about impactful outcomes for Singapore and
beyond. ," says Mr Lim Chuan Poh, A*STAR Chairman and Co-Chair of the
Biomedical Sciences Executive Committee.
Tackling the major causes of blindness
The TCR programme for eye disease - Translational Research Innovations in
Ocular Surgery (TRIOS) - is led by Professor Donald Tan, Director of SERI &
Medical Director of SNEC, aims to tackle the two major causes of blindness
globally – glaucoma and corneal disorders.
An estimated 1.5 million to 2 million new cases of blindness, as a result of
corneal diseases or glaucoma, is reported every year, mostly in Asia with the
elderly experiencing a higher prevalence.
SNEC alone attended to over 15,000 cases of corneal diseases and over
34,000 cases of glaucoma annually, making up 6.3% and 13.7% of total
cases respectively. In Singapore, approximately 3% of people over the age of
50 years have glaucoma. This percentage increases with age while it is about
2-3% among those 50-60 years of age, the prevalence increases to about 1012% for those over the age of 70 years.
Whilst both conditions are treatable at the initial stage with medical treatment,
many cases progress and ultimately require surgery (about 6.3% for corneal
diseases and 1.9% for glaucoma). The success of surgery, and hence
avoidance of blindness, depends largely on the appropriate amount of wound
healing.
Based on past studies, it is found that Asians have a high rate of scarring and
failure after surgery1. This highlights the need for better wound healing (antiscarring) therapy to improve outcome.
Working on this principle, the TRIOS programme aims to develop novel antiscarring or wound healing treatments as well as work on better and safer
alternatives in new drug approaches. These techniques will eventually
translate to better outcomes in corneal and glaucoma surgery and improve
care for our patients, reducing the incidence of blindness.
Getting to the bottom of Schizophrenia and related psychoses
The neuroscience programme led by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH)
focuses their study in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. This
group of common disorders are among the most disabling, with schizophrenia
listed as among the five leading causes of disability worldwide.
In Singapore, schizophrenia ranks ninth (together with breast cancer) among
all the various diseases in terms of the burden of disease. Psychotic disorders
create huge disease burden in both economic terms and human suffering in
patients and, perhaps more so, their families and friends. Unfortunately, more
often than not, there are often delays 2 in the detection and treatment of
schizophrenia and psychotic disorders in Singapore due to various factors
ranging from social stigma to a generally low awareness on the illnesses.
1
The recently completed Singapore 5-Fluorouracil trial (a randomised controlled trial) has provided
prospective data on long term outcomes after glaucoma surgery. After 3 years, 44% of normal glaucoma
surgeries had failed in terms of raised intraocular pressure. In the group in which an anti-scarring agent
(5-fluorouracil) was added, the failure rate was lower (34%). From hospital data, the failure rate with
mitomycin-C (another antiscarring agent) was better (about 20% after 3 years) but this is still not ideal.
In summary, the overall outcome of glaucoma surgery is not good enough with high rates of failure after
a few years.
2
Late detection refers to the relatively long lag time between the onset of the first psychotic symptoms
and diagnosis & first adequate treatment.
The team led by Associate Professor Chong Siow Ann, Vice Chairman,
Medical Board (Research) of IMH, aims to identify key genetic, biological,
cognitive and social risk factors for these disorders which will enable the very
early detection of those at imminent risk of developing psychosis and pave the
way for more effective interventions. The programme will also test the efficacy
of a neurocognitive enhancing agent3 for patients with schizophrenia. .
Keen competition for TCR grants
This is the second grant call for the TCR flagship programme and competition
has been keen. A total of 8 projects (4 for each disease areas) were received
by the TCR selection panel. After rounds of rigorous local and international
reviews, the selection panel awarded the grants to the two programmes
based on the strong scientific merits of their programmes and the potential
positive clinical outcomes from their research.
“The submissions by SERI and IMH demonstrated strong scientific and
clinical foundations in their research. The modules within each programme
are distinctive with clear objectives and yet interlinked. Given the complexity
of the disease areas, the teams demonstrated high level of insights with clear
directions on their research objectives,” said Professor Edward Holmes,
Executive Chairman of the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) and
Chairman for the TCR review committee.
The Translational & Clinical Research Flagship Programme
Funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and administered by the
NMRC, the TCR programme has a budget of S$125 million over 5 years. The
3
Patients with schizophrenia have a range of neurocognitive impairments including difficulty in
formulating plans, as well as difficulties with concentration and memory. This "neurocognitive enhancing
agent" is a chemical compound which has the potential of addressing these deficits.
aim of the TCR Flagship Programme is to establish Singapore as a leader in a
number of strategic disease orientated areas. It achieves this by building on
existing, local, highly competitive programmes and providing highly productive
platforms for collaboration with top overseas research institutions and industry.
The programme aims to help build up a critical mass of excellent researchers
in the five selected areas of i) cancer, ii) neurosciences, iii) eye diseases, iv)
cardiovascular / metabolic disorders and v), infectious diseases .
The TCR programmes will help to position Singapore as a leader in scientific
and medical research, in addition to improving the quality of clinical care.
Every TCR programme is for a period of five years. The first TCR grant was
awarded to the Singapore Gastric Consortium in 2007.
Permanent Secretary for Health and Co-Chair for the Biomedical Sciences
Executive Committee Ms Yong Ying-I concludes, “Since the launch of the
Biomedical Sciences Initiatives Phase II in 2006, we have made good
progress in harnessing our capabilities in translational and clinical research.
While there are many areas to be exploited, it is important to stay focused
given our limited resources. Positive research outcomes will also bring about
better evidence-based approaches to healthcare to eventually benefit our
patients in terms of quality healthcare delivery. Our TCR flagship programmes
aim to fulfill these objectives through directed research in the strategic
disease areas. ”
Ministry of Health and A*STAR
13 May 2008
Media Contact:
Yeo Wen Qing
Corporate Communications
Ministry of Health
M: +65 9642 4567
E: [email protected]