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About IDRI

The Formation of IDRI

The collaboration between SingHealth [Department of Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Laboratory at SGH, Department of Paediatrics KKH, SingHealth Polyclinics and SingHealth Investigational Medicine Unit (IMU)] and Duke-NUS Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Signature Research Programme (SRP) has matured over the last decade.


The long-standing partnership especially between the Department of Infectious Diseases in SGH and the EID Programme has already resulted in several investigator-initiated, bench-to-bedside, early phase safety or proof-of-concept clinical trials on vaccines and therapeutic compounds. Our partnership to date is one of the most experienced in Singapore in the full spectrum of translational clinical research particularly in the field of antivirals and viral vaccines.

The SingHealth Duke-NUS Infectious Diseases Research Institute (IDRI) is a joint institute between SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School under the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) matrix. The establishment of IDRI is in tune with the principles of the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC matrix concept and it will serve to align the values and strategic research direction in the AMC.

The establishment of IDRI is also in line with the national ID research ecosystem. The strategic areas of research focus will address national challenges in ID while the tactical focus will be to maximize the collaborative potential in the AMC for translational research.

The three disease focus areas MOH has identified for the next 5 years are:

1. Pandemic threats
2. Dengue
3. Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR)/ Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI)


In addition, MOH is also actively encouraging talent development in ID research. MOH strategic planning also includes the possibility of commissioned funding to answer critical questions and core funding's to support research capabilities. The establishment of IDRI thus is well poised to maximize research competitiveness at the national level through multi-disciplinary research collaboration in the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC.


Vision and Mission

SingHealth and Duke-NUS will be each other's committed partners for Infectious Diseases (ID) research in the AMC.

Vision

To emerge as a global leader in assimilating novelties and advances in Infectious Diseases.

 
Mission

To lead infectious disease research in SingHealth and Duke-NUS to facilitate basic bench and translational clinical research.


 

Our Team


The IDRI Core team comprises of the three Co-Directors, the IDRI Management Committee and the Administrative Manager.



Professor Gavin James Smith

Prof. Gavin Smith is the Programme Director in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore. His primary training was in ecology and evolution at The University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD from The University of Hong Kong, where he also undertook his post-doctoral training in the Department of Microbiology before joining Duke-NUS in 2010.

Prof. Smith’s research programme investigates the ecology and evolution of zoonotic viruses and the molecular epidemiology of human respiratory pathogens. Specifically, his work seeks to better understand viral disease ecosystems in Asia, particularly at the animal-human interface, to inform and enhance disease control and prevent pandemic emergence. Prof. Smith has been engaged in research on genetic changes in SARS-COV-2 and their potential implications for the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of his current projects include investigating the intra-host genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 to identify mutations that may be indicative of host adaptation, emerging drug resistance or vaccine escape.



​A/Prof Tan Thuan Tong

Adjunct Associate Professor Tan Thuan Tong received his basic medical degree from the National University of Singapore and continued his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine at the Singapore General Hospital. He obtained membership from the Royal College of Physicians (UK) in 2001. He qualified in the specialty of Infectious Disease in 2004 and earned a PhD in Microbiology from Lund University, Sweden in 2007.

He became the inaugural Program Director for SingHealth Infectious Disease program in 2012 and steered the program through its first site visit with no citation in 2013. The program is accredited with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME-International). He took on headship of the Department of Infectious Diseases in SGH in 2014. His clinical and research interest is in infections in immunocompromised hosts and transplantation. He has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been invited to give lectures in local and international conferences in those domains.


​Dr Sng Li-Hwei

Dr Sng Li-Hwei is a pathologist specializing in medical microbiology, a Senior Consultant, SGH since 2003. She graduated from the National University of Singapore, received microbiology training at the SGH Department of Pathology and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA; and Mycobacteriology specialist training at the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA.

She is actively involved in various workgroups for mycobacterial diagnosis and control, and laboratory biosafety. Her interests involve novel diagnostic methods and the integration of advanced technology and testing platforms in clinical diagnostic laboratories, antimicrobial resistance and epidemiological studies, especially mycobacteria. The CTBL serves as the national reference laboratory for tuberculosis (TB) and has collaboration with local and international scientists and researchers in developing TB diagnostics, fingerprinting assays, and studies involving whole genome sequencing and evolutionary biology.

 

Ms Simi Issac

Simi manages the overall operations and administration of IDRI.

She has set up the framework for this platform to reach out to the IDRI members to form research interest groups for collaborations and also to put in grant applications. She also manages and organizes retreats, seminar`s and other relevant events for IDRI.

Simi is a Biotech professional with more than 12 years of diverse and extensive experience in Research and Development both within academia and industry. She completed her Master`s in Biotechnology, Molecular Biology and Industrial Biotechnology from University of Hertfordshire, UK. She has a Bachelor's major in Biochemistry and Voc. Biotechnology, from St. Xavier`s College, Gujarat University, India.

She is skilled in operations planning and management, lab set up, process control and documentation, process development for GMP scale up of bioprocesses (microbial/viral/mammalian), downstream protein purification and recombinant DNA work.

Some of her core interests are within the fields of Infectious disease pathogenicity and epidemiology, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), protein biochemistry, signalling pathways, industrial microbiology and GMP operations and process.

 

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