A team led by Professor Dean Ho (Head, Biomedical Engineering) has been presented with two engineering achievement awards at recent conferences.
The awards recognise their collaborative work to validate IDentif.AI, an AI-based platform that rapidly prioritises drugs and drug combinations for pandemic preparedness.
At the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES) Annual Dinner in Singapore, held in early November in conjunction with the World Engineering Summit, the team was presented with the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award.
Additionally, at the CAFEO 41 conference held in Bali on November 23, the team was presented with the ASEAN Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award.
Both awards recognise outstanding engineering achievements that have made significant contributions to engineering progress and quality of life in Singapore and ASEAN.
In addition to heading the Dept of Biomedical Engineeering at CDE, Prof Ho is Director of the Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Director of the N.1 Institute for Health.
Pioneered at Biomedical Engineering and WisDM, IDentif.AI was first developed immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to pinpoint the right drugs to combine against a broad array of infectious diseases.
It has since been validated in the Wildtype, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants of the COVID-19 virus, and is currently being expanded towards other variants.
It is also being used to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a major issue where infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and other pathogens are resistant to nearly all forms of treatment, causing exceedingly high patient death rates. According to the United Nations, by 2050 it is estimated that AMR will account for the same number of global deaths annually as cancer.
Since its development, international partners have received clearance to initiate clinical trials based on IDentif.AI recommendations.
In addition, IDentif.AI was recently featured as one of only two real-world AI use cases in the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidance on Regulatory Considerations of AI for Health. Research studies with IDentif.AI have been published in journals such as NPJ Digital Medicine (Nature Partner Journal), ACS Nano, and others.
The team behind IDentif.AI brings together members from National University Hospital, DSO National Laboratories, and National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
The team includes: Associate Professor Edward Kai-Hua Chow; Dr Agata Blasiak; Dr Shirley G.K. Seah; Dr Gek-Yen G. Tan; Anh T.L. Truong; Peter Wang; Lissa Hooi; Dr De Hoe Chye; Shi-Bei Tan; Kui You; Dr Alexandria Remus; Associate Professor David Michael Allen; Associate Professor Louis Yi Ann Chai; Dr Conrad E.Z. Chan; and Professor David C.B. Lye.
