31 July 2007

Fighting infectious diseases the SMART way

The "SMART" way to fight infectious diseases is to join forces from different parts of the world, with an interdisciplinary team offering different perceptions to the problems.

The Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre at NUS is the first research centre within the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE). On 31 July, the Centre jumpstarted its programmes through an inaugural workshop on infectious diseases which is the focus of its first interdisciplinary research group. This set in motion the group's aim to develop an integrated programme for leading edge research in globally prevalent infectious diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis and malaria.

SMART INAUGURATION: Prof Chen Jianzhu opening SMART's inaugural workshop. Inset: NRF's Dr Francis Yeoh giving his opening address.

CREATE, a billion dollar investment by the National Research Foundation (NRF), brings top researchers from some of the world's best universities to work in Singapore alongside Singapore collaborators, crossing disciplines and institutions.

Some 30 researchers from MIT, NUS, Nanyang Technological University as well as research institutes in Singapore came together for the first time at the three-day workshop. Opening the workshop, NRF's Chief Operating Officer, Dr Francis Yeoh said that the institutions involved -- MIT, NRF and NUS are fully committed to SMART. It is the biggest venture for MIT and its overseas partners, as well as for Singapore, he said. This is something that Singapore and MIT are proud of.

Immunology expert, Prof Chen Jianzhu from MIT's Center for Cancer Research who chairs the workshop, said this was the first time they were all in the same room and that the inaugural workshop is the best way to get things started. Sharing with participants the work of his lab, he talked about how they have developed a system to model T cells response. Using a humanised mouse model, researchers are able to monitor these T cells fighting infection. His lab is also in the midst of developing an anti-viral to combat the influenza virus.

LIPIDOMICS: NUS' Dr Markus Wenk sharing with audience, his lab's work on lipids.

Ex-Yale researcher Dr Markus Wenk who joined NUS in 2004 to pioneer his work on lipidomics, also shares his experience in this field. Lipidomics is the new frontier in biomolecular structural studies, and Dr Wenk has made significant progress in this area. He and his team discovered that tuberculosis bacteria can invade the body and cause the disease by "copying" the structure of human cell lipids which act as "gatekeepers" to diseases. They send out signals that that would determine whether bacteria could enter the cells to cause infection.

Other researchers contributing to the discussion on infectious diseases also include the "malaria" team: NUS Centennial Professor Subra Suresh of MIT, Assoc Prof Lim Chwee Teck and Dr Kevin Tan of NUS. The team has also made significant progress in shedding light on how red blood cells are affected by malaria parasites.