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The Star
19-05-2025
- Health
- The Star
Made-in-Singapore antibody test for multiple viruses now used worldwide
SINGAPORE: A test developed by local researchers to help tackle the next pandemic is now in use in more than 90 countries. Known as the multiplex surrogate virus neutralisation test (sVNT), it can detect if a person has antibodies capable of neutralising multiple viruses to prevent disease. Such antibodies offer protection against a variety of highly pathogenic viruses, including variants of Sars-CoV-2 – the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The test can also be used for other pathogens such as Ebola and henipaviruses, a group of zoonotic viruses such as Nipah. Experts have warned that zoonotic viruses – transmitted from animals to humans, and vice versa – could spark future pandemics. The test was developed by a team led by Dr Tan Chee Wah of the microbiology and immunology department at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) and Professor Wang Linfa of the emerging infectious diseases programme at Duke-NUS Medical School. It has a number of benefits, Prof Wang noted, especially its ability to measure neutralising antibodies. 'Neutralising antibodies are a functional measure of your immunity. So if you have a high level (of them), you will most likely be protected against future infection,' he said. This ability to measure an individual's immunity can in turn be used to determine the efficacy of new vaccines, he added. Such insights could then be used to make future vaccines more effective by broadening their coverage to include a variety of different, but related, viruses, said Prof Wang. The test can also support contact tracing in future epidemics by enabling the authorities to identify individuals who were previously infected and developed antibodies, thereby uncovering the chains of transmission. It can be used on animals as well, Prof Wang added, noting its use in tracing the spread of Sars-CoV-2 from humans to white-tailed deer in a US study published in the journal Nature Communications in 2023. This is important as future pandemics are likely to be the result of zoonotic diseases, as was the case for Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and Covid-19, said Professor Paul Tambyah from NUS Medicine. Dr Tan noted that another advantage is that the test does not require the use of a live virus – which carries a risk of infection – to determine the presence of neutralising antibodies. Instead, it requires only a spike protein from the virus – the component that the virus relies on to invade human cells, which is relatively harmless on its own. The multiplex sVNT was developed under the Integrated Innovations in Infectious Diseases (I3D) large collaborative grant, funded by the National Medical Research Council. Established under the Ministry of Health in 1994, the council oversees the development and advancement of medical research in Singapore. The test kit is based on cPass, the first commercial tool to detect whether someone has antibodies that neutralise Sars-CoV-2. Developed in 2020, cPass was created by a team led by Prof Wang, in collaboration with biotech firm GenScript and A*Star's Diagnostics Development Hub. The US Food and Drug Administration granted cPass emergency use approval in November 2020. However, cPass was limited in its ability to detect the different variants of Covid-19 that emerged as the virus evolved, noted Prof Tambyah, who is also lead principal investigator of I3D. This underscored the need for an enhanced test, he said. The multiplex sVNT is now being used in more than 90 countries, Prof Wang noted. This includes at institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Indonesia and the University of Melbourne. The team is now trying to build a test that can be used for all the pathogens on the World Health Organisation's global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Dr Tan said. Prof Wang added: 'The challenge now, and also our excitement, is trying to build up a really multi-family, multi-class surrogate virus neutralisation test, so that we're ready for any disease X'. The term 'disease X' refers to an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious global pandemic. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Singapore has been ramping up its pandemic preparedness efforts. In 2022, the Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response, headed by Prof Wang, was launched. With funding of $100 million over five years, it aims to bring together experts from various fields to respond to future infectious disease outbreaks. And in April 2025, a new statutory board – the Communicable Diseases Agency – was launched. It consolidates public health functions that detect and control infectious diseases, enabling a faster response to disease outbreaks. - The Straits Times/ANN
Straits Times
18-05-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
Made-in-Singapore antibody test for multiple viruses now used worldwide
(From right) Professor Wang Linfa and Dr Tan Chee Wah, who together led the team that developed the antibody test, with Professor Paul Tambyah. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY SINGAPORE – A test developed by local researchers to help tackle the next pandemic is now in use in more than 90 countries. Known as the multiplex surrogate virus neutralisation test (sVNT), it can detect if a person has antibodies capable of neutralising multiple viruses to prevent disease. Such antibodies offer protection against a variety of highly pathogenic viruses, including variants of Sars-CoV-2 – the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The test can also be used for other pathogens such as Ebola and henipaviruses, a group of zoonotic viruses such as Nipah. Experts have warned that zoonotic viruses – transmitted from animals to humans, and vice versa – could spark future pandemics. The test was developed by a team led by Dr Tan Chee Wah of the microbiology and immunology department at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) and Professor Wang Linfa of the emerging infectious diseases programme at Duke-NUS Medical School. It has a number of benefits, Prof Wang noted, especially its ability to measure neutralising antibodies. 'Neutralising antibodies are a functional measure of your immunity. So if you have a high level (of them), you will most likely be protected against future infection,' he said. This ability to measure an individual's immunity can in turn be used to determine the efficacy of new vaccines, he added. Such insights could then be used to make future vaccines more effective by broadening their coverage to include a variety of different, but related, viruses, said Prof Wang. The test can also support contact tracing in future epidemics by enabling the authorities to identify individuals who were previously infected and developed antibodies, thereby uncovering the chains of transmission. It can be used on animals as well, Prof Wang added, noting its use in tracing the spread of Sars-CoV-2 from humans to white-tailed deer in a US study published in the journal Nature Communications in 2023. This is important as future pandemics are likely to be the result of zoonotic diseases, as was the case for Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and Covid-19, said Professor Paul Tambyah from NUS Medicine. Dr Tan noted that another advantage is that the test does not require the use of a live virus – which carries a risk of infection – to determine the presence of neutralising antibodies. Instead, it requires only a spike protein from the virus – the component that the virus relies on to invade human cells, which is relatively harmless on its own. The multiplex sVNT was developed under the Integrated Innovations in Infectious Diseases (I3D) large collaborative grant, funded by the National Medical Research Council. Established under the Ministry of Health in 1994, the council oversees the development and advancement of medical research in Singapore. The test kit is based on cPass, the first commercial tool to detect whether someone has antibodies that neutralise Sars-CoV-2. Developed in 2020, cPass was created by a team led by Prof Wang, in collaboration with biotech firm GenScript and A*Star's Diagnostics Development Hub. The US Food and Drug Administration granted cPass emergency use approval in November 2020. However, cPass was limited in its ability to detect the different variants of Covid-19 that emerged as the virus evolved, noted Prof Tambyah, who is also lead principal investigator of I3D. This underscored the need for an enhanced test, he said. The multiplex sVNT is now being used in more than 90 countries, Prof Wang noted. This includes at institutions such as the University of Oxford, the University of Indonesia and the University of Melbourne. The team is now trying to build a test that can be used for all the pathogens on the World Health Organisation's global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Dr Tan said. Prof Wang added: 'The challenge now, and also our excitement, is trying to build up a really multi-family, multi-class surrogate virus neutralisation test, so that we're ready for any disease X'. The term 'disease X' refers to an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious global pandemic. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Singapore has been ramping up its pandemic preparedness efforts. In 2022, the Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response, headed by Prof Wang, was launched. With funding of $100 million over five years, it aims to bring together experts from various fields to respond to future infectious disease outbreaks. And in April 2025, a new statutory board – the Communicable Diseases Agency – was launched. It consolidates public health functions that detect and control infectious diseases, enabling a faster response to disease outbreaks. Zhaki Abdullah is a correspondent at The Straits Times. He is on the health beat, in addition to occasionally covering science, environmental, tech and Muslim affairs issues. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
The Irish Sun
21-04-2025
- Health
- The Irish Sun
‘Crossing time zones complicates this' – Why jet lag feels worse when travelling back to Ireland
A NEW study has found why jet lag may feel worse on the way home to Ireland, compared to when departing. Scientists have determined that the reason for this is that jet lag is more severe when travelling eastwards. Advertisement In the largest study ever done of its kind, researchers from the Centre of Sleep and Cognition at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in Singapore found that jet lag has an even bigger impact than was believed. Other studies surrounding jet lag were previously conducted under controlled lab conditions, or involved specific groups like athletes or army workers - and the characteristics may not have reflected the general group of passengers. Scientists found that Although sleep duration can recover quickly, sleep timing can take "significantly longer" to get back on track. Advertisement READ MORE IN HEALTH This is more so the case when It is even more likely to happen when passengers travel east - as they are "losing" time. The body clock, called the This cycle usually lasts around 24.5 hours, but when travelling eastwards, it runs opposite to the body clock. Advertisement Most read in Health The study found that shorter trips of up to three time zones were severely impacted by jet lag. It was also found that young adults experience more negative sleep impacts on long flights than those in their 60s. GREAT TECH The study was carried out by analysing sleep patterns of passengers during 60,000 trips that spanned more than 965km, alongside the 1.5 million nights of anonymous data were collected from the Oura ring. Advertisement This smart device has been hugely successful in recent years, and is used to track sleep and physical And if you usually sleep on a long-haul flight, this could also negatively impact you as you may experience impaired performance and more sleepiness during the day. But in some good news, it was found that the impacts don't last too long as sleep duration usually goes back to normal within 2 days. PERSISTENT IMPACTS Though the impacts to sleep timing and structure, where you may find yourself waking up more during the night, can take over a week to settle down. Advertisement This is amplified by travelling east, and crossing through several timezones. The study's lead author and senior research fellow at NUS Medicine, Dr Adrian Willoughby said: 'We've known for some time that jet lag is a challenge for travellers, but this study provides data-driven evidence of just how persistent the impacts are, particularly when it comes to adjusting sleep timing to a new time zone. 'Crossing time zones complicates this recovery by disrupting the ability to fall asleep at the appropriate local time.' 1 The study found some new insights into jet lag Credit: Getty Images - Getty Advertisement
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Jet lag is worst when travelling east, study finds
Scientists have found that jet lag is more severe when travelling eastwards. In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that travel-related sleep disruption takes even longer to recover from than previously thought. Scientists at the Centre of Sleep and Cognition at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, in Singapore, found that while sleep duration recovers quickly, sleep timing can take 'significantly longer' to realign when travelling across time zones, particularly when headed east as one is in effect 'losing' time. The body's circadian rhythm, or body clock, is less confused when travelling westward because the direction 'prolongs' the body's experience of a normal day to night cycle (which is roughly 24.5 hours). Travelling eastward, on the other hand, runs in opposition to the circadian rhythm. Shorter trips of up to three time zones were severely impacted by jet lag, according to the study published in Sleep, the official journal of the Sleep Research Society. The researchers analysed sleep patterns during 60,000 trips of more than 600 miles with the help of Oura Health, a Finnish tech firm. The team used 1.5 million nights of de-identified data from the Oura ring, a smart device used to track sleep and physical activity, to provide the first large-scale, real-world study of jet lag recovery to date. The findings also showed that young adults feel the negative sleep effects on long flights more than people in their 60s. Previous jet lag studies have either been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions or involved specific groups, such as athletes or military personnel, whose characteristics may not reflect those of the general travelling public. Dr Adrian Willoughby, the study's lead author and a senior research fellow at NUS Medicine, said: 'We've known for some time that jet lag is a challenge for travellers, but this study provides data-driven evidence of just how persistent the impacts are, particularly when it comes to adjusting sleep timing to a new time zone. 'Crossing time zones complicates this recovery by disrupting the ability to fall asleep at the appropriate local time.' While jet lag plays a significant part in sleep disturbance, it is not the only factor. Travellers who wake up early to catch flights shorten their sleep the night before, which results in an early bedtime after the journey and causes the body to crave an extended recovery sleep the next night. Those who sleep during a long-haul flight are also negatively affected, experiencing impaired performance and increased daytime sleepiness. The study found that the sleep duration usually returns to normal within around two days. But changes in sleep timing and structure, such as more night time awakenings, can take more than a week, with eastward travel and crossing multiple time zones amplifying the disruption. The researchers found minimal differences between men and women in travel-related sleep disruption. Older travellers experienced slightly less impact, with a 20-year-old experiencing a 15-minute greater reduction in sleep compared to a 60-year-old over the initial post-travel days. Prof Michael Chee, the director of the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at NUS Medicine, said: 'Wearable devices like Oura ring that track health behaviours over time, are opening new doors for health data collection on a large scale. 'Travellers looking at this dataset can determine how much better or worse off they are than the population average given their existing sleep habits, trip parameters, and number of days after travel. People like to know where they stand compared to others, and this dataset provides a solid basis for assessing that.' The team said there was a need for future research to assess lifestyle factors contributing to slower or faster recovery from jet lag and whether efforts to time light exposure and melatonin ingestion help. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
20-04-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Jet lag is worst when travelling east, study finds
Scientists have found that jet lag is more severe when travelling eastwards. In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that travel-related sleep disruption takes even longer to recover from than previously thought. Scientists at the Centre of Sleep and Cognition at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, in Singapore, found that while sleep duration recovers quickly, sleep timing can take 'significantly longer' to realign when travelling across time zones, particularly when headed east as one is in effect 'losing' time. The body's circadian rhythm, or body clock, is less confused when travelling westward because the direction 'prolongs' the body's experience of a normal day to night cycle (which is roughly 24.5 hours). Travelling eastward, on the other hand, runs in opposition to the circadian rhythm. Shorter trips of up to three time zones were severely impacted by jet lag, according to the study published in Sleep, the official journal of the Sleep Research Society. The researchers analysed sleep patterns during 60,000 trips of more than 600 miles with the help of Oura Health, a Finnish tech firm. The team used 1.5 million nights of de-identified data from the Oura ring, a smart device used to track sleep and physical activity, to provide the first large-scale, real-world study of jet lag recovery to date. The findings also showed that young adults feel the negative sleep effects on long flights more than people in their 60s. Previous jet lag studies have either been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions or involved specific groups, such as athletes or military personnel, whose characteristics may not reflect those of the general travelling public. Dr Adrian Willoughby, the study's lead author and a senior research fellow at NUS Medicine, said: 'We've known for some time that jet lag is a challenge for travellers, but this study provides data-driven evidence of just how persistent the impacts are, particularly when it comes to adjusting sleep timing to a new time zone. 'Crossing time zones complicates this recovery by disrupting the ability to fall asleep at the appropriate local time.' Factors contributing to sleep disturbance While jet lag plays a significant part in sleep disturbance, it is not the only factor. Travellers who wake up early to catch flights shorten their sleep the night before, which results in an early bedtime after the journey and causes the body to crave an extended recovery sleep the next night. Those who sleep during a long-haul flight are also negatively affected, experiencing impaired performance and increased daytime sleepiness. The study found that the sleep duration usually returns to normal within around two days. But changes in sleep timing and structure, such as more night time awakenings, can take more than a week, with eastward travel and crossing multiple time zones amplifying the disruption. The researchers found minimal differences between men and women in travel-related sleep disruption. Older travellers experienced slightly less impact, with a 20-year-old experiencing a 15-minute greater reduction in sleep compared to a 60-year-old over the initial post-travel days. Prof Michael Chee, the director of the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at NUS Medicine, said: 'Wearable devices like Oura ring that track health behaviours over time, are opening new doors for health data collection on a large scale. 'Travellers looking at this dataset can determine how much better or worse off they are than the population average given their existing sleep habits, trip parameters, and number of days after travel. People like to know where they stand compared to others, and this dataset provides a solid basis for assessing that.' The team said there was a need for future research to assess lifestyle factors contributing to slower or faster recovery from jet lag and whether efforts to time light exposure and melatonin ingestion help.
