The Health for Life in Singapore (HELIOS) Study: Delivering Precision Medicine Research for Asian Populations
13 January 2026
Main Applicant – Prof John Chambers, Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Asian people are under-represented in population-based, clinical, and genomic research. To address this gap, we have initiated the HELIOS longitudinal cohort study, comprising comprehensive behavioural, physiological, and molecular profiling from >40,000 Asian men and women of Chinese, Indian or Malay background.
Health characterisations have been carried out using validated approaches, that are internationally interoperable. Health record linkage will enrich both baseline characterization and evaluation of prospective disease outcomes, and is crucial in understanding disease causality.
Combined with the integrated multi-omics profiling (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and metagenomics), the electronic health record linkage of the HELIOS research data will reveal biological interconnectivity between functional molecular layers, enabling biomedical researchers to understand the aetiology and pathogenesis of diverse disease outcomes in Asia, and to generate insights that have the potential to improve health outcomes for Asian populations globally.