Dr Raymond Najjar

Dr Raymond Najjar is an Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS. He also holds honorary positions as a Research Scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and as an Assistant Professor at Duke-NUS School of Medicine. Dr Najjar received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Lyon, France, followed by a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, USA, before joining the Singapore Eye Research Institute in 2015 as a senior research fellow. He was promoted to Junior Principal Investigator in 2018. Throughout his training, Dr Najjar acquired in-depth knowledge in the fields of circadian and sleep biology, ophthalmology, visual neurosciences and photobiology, and a broad set of expertise that includes electroencephalography, ophthalmic examination in humans and animal models, visual electrophysiology and psychophysics, pupillometry, sleep scoring, eye tracking, artificial intelligence, and hormonal immuno-assay. He received numerous awards including five competitive scholarships, and his research was published in distinguished journals and presented at more than 53 scientific meetings. Dr Najjar has also assumed various teaching responsibilities as a lecturer in sleep and circadian biology, anatomy of the visual system, visual electrophysiology, and genetics of ocular pathologies, in France (University of Lyon), the United States (Stanford University), and Lebanon (Lebanese University). To date, Dr Najjar’s research focused not only on understanding the non-visual impact of light on physiology and behaviour in humans but also on technical applications related to this matter. Within that framework, he contributed to the contemporary understanding of the non-image-forming impacts of light detected by the retina, and led studies at the Concordia Polar Station, Stanford, and France, to successfully implement spectrally and temporally modified lighting regimens, to treat chronobiological and sleep disorders, and associated health decrements. He also developed and patented two novel devices: 1/ to objectively quantify the transmittance of the aging ocular lens in vivo (INSERM/France and replicated in Montreal University/Canada and Kyushu University/Japan) and 2/ to evaluate ocular integrity and screen for ocular diseases using handheld chromatic pupillometry (SERI/Singapore). In the past 5 years, Dr Najjar published 38 papers (four as the first author in major clinical journals: The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Investigations, Annals of Neurology and Ophthalmology), 4 book chapters, filed 2 patents, mentored 18 students, and obtained over 5.8 million SGD of research funds including 4.1 million SGD as PI. Dr Najjar’s team is currently constituted of 2 research fellows, 2 research officers, and 1 clinical research coordinator. Dr Najjar’s ongoing research revolves around the development and implementation of original strategies using artificial intelligence and light-delivering handheld devices for screening and diagnosing sight- and life-threatening conditions such as glaucoma, intracranial hypertension, retinal dystrophies, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. Three of his current projects also aim to elucidate the neurobiology behind the impact of environmental light on myopia prevention, and ocular growth and remodeling in animal models of myopia.