News In Brief: August 2021

NTU has clinched the top position in the latest Times Higher Education Young University Rankings announced in June 2021, climbing 15 places since 2012. It is also the only Singapore university featured on the list. Previously, NTU was ranked second and third in 2019 and 2020 respectively, overtaking Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which had held the top spot since 2018. NTU said its strong showing was driven by its strengths in teaching and learning environment, international outlook, as well as research and industry interactions. 

LKCMedicine and Imperial College London jointly held a workshop on 22 June on the consequences of air pollution, attended by about 100 participants from organisations that included the National Environment Agency and the National Healthcare Group. The workshop invited experts from the fields of medicine, computing, and geography to discuss the consequences and mitigation strategies of air pollution. 

LKCMedicine Medical Society, the National University of Singapore Medical Society and the Duke-NUS Student Council have banded together to form the TriMedSoc Alliance, a first of-its-kind collaboration between the student bodies of Singapore’s three medical schools. The alliance recognises the unique strengths and resources of students from each medical school and aims to unify the voice of local medical students, and advance and synergise student advocacy and community engagement efforts.  The alliance aims to create an ideal environment for the holistic development of future doctors, through closer collaboration in the areas of community service and engagement, student representation and advocacy efforts by local medical students. 

In a recent scientific paper published in the June’s issue of Lab on a Chip journal, a team led by NTU President Professor Subra Suresh and School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering & LKCMedicine Assistant Professor Hou Han Wei, with contribution from Senior Consultant, Department of Endocrinology, Tan Tock Seng Hospital & LKCMedicine Associate Professor Rinkoo Dalan, has developed a simple method of extracting tiny biological particles from a person’s blood and using them as biomarkers to assess the health of blood vessels. The method involves using a small lab-on-a-chip device to extract biomarkers and identify diabetes patients who may have significantly higher inflammation of their blood vessels and thus have an increased risk of developing vascular complications. Developed in Singapore, this new method could open new ways of categorising the potential risk for diabetes patients early, so that clinical intervention can be made before significant damage is done to the arteries.