#EBW24 previews: State-of-the-art speakers for “One health: Epidemiological biobanking”
We are pleased to confirm the state-of-the-art speakers for the panel session: ‘One health: Epidemiological biobanking – cohorts as a show window for populations’. Dr. Seow Shih Wee from Precision Health Research, Singapore (PRECISE) and Assoc. Prof. Therese Nøst from University of Tromsø (UiT) will be leading this session and we profile their biographies here. The session takes place on Thursday 16 May 2024 as part of the EBW24 programme.
Dr. Seow Shih Wee’s abstract: Addressing the Asian Genomic Gap – the National Precision Medicine Programme
Asia is the largest and most populous continent with diverse ethnicities, yet Asian genomes remain highly underrepresented. Clinically, using incorrect population references can cause erroneous clinical diagnoses and inaccurate risk predictions. Singapore has several competitive advantages including our multi-ethnic Asian population in a single jurisdiction and our unique national identifier that facilitates integration of healthcare and research datasets across public healthcare systems and other government databases.
To realise the benefits of precision medicine, the Singapore government established the National Precision Medicine Programme (NPM).
We envisage the NPM will help address gaps in understanding Asian health and diseases and at the same time catalyse Singapore’s precision medicine industry by uplifting local companies and attracting multi-national companies.
Dr. Seow Shih Wee
Dr Seow Shih Wee is Director of Corporate Services at PRECISE, the central programme management office coordinating and implementing Phase II of Singapore’s National Precision Medicine Programme (NPM).
As Director, Corporate Services, Dr Seow is responsible for coordinating daily operations across various departments in PRECISE and monitoring ongoing research activities and progress. Dr Seow’s also oversees PRECISE public command liaises with various government agencies to support PRECISE operations.
Assoc. Prof. Therese Nøst
Therese Nøst, PhD, is an associate professor in Epidemiology at the University of Tromsø (UiT), the Arctic University of Norway, and a senior researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her research interests are in the fields of molecular and environmental epidemiology focusing on blood-based biomarkers for better insight and understanding of complex diseases and environmental exposures. She has especially focused on multi-omics integration (genetics, epigenetics, gene expression and proteomics) in relation to cancer and cardiovascular disease.
She has been in the leader group of the Tromsø Study and of the Department of Community Medicine, UiT.