Duke-NUS Medical School: Health solutions & research

Scientists are closing in on new treatments for a debilitating lung disease that slowly robs patients of their ability to breathe.

The therapies, originating from a 2017 breakthrough by Duke-NUS Medical School and its Academic Medicine partner SingHealth, were licensed to German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and have since progressed into phase two clinical evaluation, placing the drug development programme among the few discoveries from Singapore to reach this stage.

The breakthrough showed that interleukin-11 (IL-11), a gene long believed to be protective, was in fact causing damage instead.

Assistant professor Anissa Widjaja, the molecular biologist who co-led the five-year research, explains: “We found that IL-11 plays a key role in driving scarring, chronic inflammation and organ injury – three processes that sit at the heart of many age-related diseases and organ failure.” 

The team eventually found that blocking IL-11 did not only slow disease progression but could also reverse damage and help organs repair themselves.

This paradigm shift has opened the door to therapies that could potentially restore function to organs such as the liver and kidneys, too – with potential applications across a range of complex chronic diseases. 

“It’s less about turning back the clock but about reducing the years people spend in poor health, frailty, weakness and disease,” says Prof Widjaja.

Prof Widjaja credits the discovery to the school’s support and collaborative culture, saying: “Duke-NUS has played a very critical role in enabling my research and how I think about impact”.

Competitive grants and internal funding supported her team’s work from its earliest stages, alongside expertise in intellectual property, industry engagement, and legal and licensing. These less visible elements often determine whether a scientific idea becomes a viable therapy, she says. 

She adds: “As an early career scientist at that time, having access to that ecosystem was incredibly formative.”

Today, Prof Widjaja’s career spans research and leadership, where she runs her own laboratory while leading the strategic partnerships and industry alliances team to bridge scientific discovery with real-world application. 

This dual role reflects an environment shaped by the school’s design from the outset.

Says the institution’s dean Professor Patrick Tan: “Duke-NUS was conceived as a bold experiment – Singapore’s first and still only graduate-entry medical school. This has fostered a culture more open to experimentation, more comfortable with interdisciplinarity, and more willing to challenge established ways of doing things.” 

Since the school’s establishment in 2005, this approach has delivered tangible impact, from contributing to the world’s first FDA-authorised Covid-19 antibody test to developing Singapore’s first locally-created cancer therapeutic.

Says Professor Tan Eng Chye, president of the National University of Singapore (NUS): “Duke-NUS is integral to NUS’ mission in education, research and societal impact.”  

A key differentiator lies in how research is conducted. Rather than working in isolation, Duke-NUS brings clinicians, industry partners and even investors in early.

“By involving the right people from the start, we ensure our work addresses real unmet needs,” says Prof Widjaja.

Working with its many partners, Duke-NUS not only occupies a central seat in Singapore’s medical and healthcare ecosystem, but also contributes to NUS’ 13th-place global ranking for Medical and Health on the Times Higher Education list.

It has also been recognised as one of Singapore’s Best Employers for six consecutive years – a reflection, says Prof Patrick Tan, of its workplace culture and sense of purpose. 

“Duke-NUS is small, but highly catalytic. People come here not just for a job, but to do work that matters and has far-ranging impact and makes a real difference in lives,” he says.

In partnership with SingHealth, the school is part of an Academic Medical Centre that integrates patient care, training and research to accelerate the path discoveries take from lab to bedside. 

SingHealth’s group chief executive officer Professor Ng Wai Hoe says: “Our partnership with Duke-NUS strengthens clinical excellence, advances translational research and develops the next generation of clinician-scientists to continually improve patient care.”

Duke-NUS’ connectivity – with SingHealth and a wide network of local and global partners – underpins its ability to drive discoveries that shape health policy, advance new therapies, and ultimately improve how millions of people live and age.

Its founding partnership with Duke University in the US reflects a deeply integrated model of academic medicine that blends clinical patient care with education and research to find new treatments.

Says Duke University president Professor Vincent Price: “Through joint programmes, shared leadership and sustained collaboration, we have strengthened research translation and clinician-scientist development, generating impact in Singapore, the US and beyond.”

This enduring partnership, together with Singapore’s cosmopolitan environment, has fostered a culture where diversity of talent and perspectives is, as Prof Patrick Tan puts it, “not cosmetic”.

“It improves the science, broadens the thinking, and strengthens our ability to solve complex problems,” he says.

For faculty like Prof Widjaja, that global outlook opens doors beyond Singapore. She has been nominated by the US Department of State for the International Visitor Leadership Programme – an opportunity to build deeper international partnerships to advance care and outcomes for patients.

She says: “The problems we work on are too complex for any one institution – or even one country – to solve.”