Singapore Eye Research Institute

BOSTON & SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Ora, Inc., the foremost global ophthalmology contract research organization (CRO), today announced a strategic, exclusive partnership with the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), a world-renowned institution for cutting-edge eye research and ophthalmic preclinical studies. This exclusive partnership marks a significant milestone in the ophthalmology research industry by combining the unparalleled clinical development expertise of Ora with the cutting-edge preclinical study capabilities of SERI. Aimed at providing early-stage innovators around the world with comprehensive research support, this partnership is set to revolutionize the development of new ophthalmic therapies. SERI is a leading research institute provider of non-clinical ophthalmic animal studies, specializing in the development and use of translatable ocular animal models in a variety of small and large animal species to evaluate drug and device therapies for ocular diseases. With a reputation for excellence and a commitment to scientific rigor and ethical preclinical operations, SERI will collaborate with Ora’s biopharmaceutical and device clients to accelerate the development of therapeutic candidates across a range of ocular-specific therapeutic areas. Key benefits of the partnership include: Comprehensive Preclinical Services: SERI brings a wealth of experience and state-of-the-art resources to ensure that every aspect of preclinical evaluation is conducted with precision and thoroughness, reinforcing Ora’s delivery of top-tier, ethically-minded research in the field. Unmatched Breadth of Models: SERI boasts an unparalleled array of non-GLP systemic safety, toxicity, ocular safety, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and efficacy models, spanning both anterior and posterior segments of the eye, which are not readily available from other CROs. This ensures Ora clients have access to a tailored selection of models that best suit the specific requirements of their ophthalmic research endeavors. Reduced Timelines: The partnership with SERI facilitates the efficient evaluation of potential therapeutic candidates for eye disorders, with expedited access to world class expertise and capabilities for preclinical evaluations. Quality Assurance: With AALAC accreditation, SERI adheres rigorously to the highest quality and ethical standards of industry best-practices. This commitment ensures that every preclinical study conducted under the partnership meets the pinnacle of reliability, reproducibility, and ethical preclinical operations. Ora and SERI both prioritize the assurance of data integrity, reinforcing the credibility and trustworthiness of the preclinical research conducted. Expanded Capacity: The partnership with SERI serves as a catalyst for Ora's expansion of research offerings, granting clients access to an even broader range of services to support their ophthalmic drug development programs along with a heightened level of expertise and resources. “SERI's outstanding reputation and their proficiency in conducting preclinical studies led by Associate Professor Veluchamy A. Barathi align perfectly with the mission of Ora,” said Stuart Abelson, chairman and CEO of Ora, Inc. “By combining our strengths, we are poised to accelerate the development of innovative therapies at all stages, furthering SERI’s mission as a global center of excellence. We are stepping into a new era of preclinical excellence, ready to tackle the next frontier of ophthalmic innovation." Professor Jodhbir Mehta, MD, executive director of SERI and deputy chief executive officer (Research), SNEC, said, “We are excited to embark on this pivotal partnership with Ora. This collaboration propels us toward realizing SERI’s vision of becoming an international center of excellence in eye and vision research. Our SERI scientists rank among the top 2% globally in ophthalmology, and our unprecedented impact factor in scientific publications showcase our commitment to advancing eye care. By seamlessly integrating our expertise with Ora’s, we aim to provide unmatched preclinical capabilities, accelerating the development of innovative ophthalmic therapies and reinforcing our position as leaders in translating basic science to clinical applications for sight-threatening disorders.” Leading the partnership and collaboration for Ora will be Buffie Kerstetter, director of preclinical partnerships, as a tenured preclinical business development advocate for Ora’s valued sponsors with 30 years of experience in the preclinical industry. For more information about this partnership, please contact Buffie Kerstetter at bkerstetter@oraclinical.com or Ravi Chandran at ravi.chandran@snec.com.sg About Ora Inc. Ora is the world’s leading full-service ophthalmic drug and device development firm with offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia. For over 45 years, we have proudly helped our clients earn more than 85 product approvals. We support a wide array of organizations, from start-ups to global pharmaceutical and device companies, to efficiently bring their new products from concept to market. Ora’s pre-clinical and clinical models, unique methodologies, and global regulatory strategies have been refined and proven across thousands of global projects. We bring together the world’s most extensive and experienced team of ophthalmic experts, R&D professionals, and management executives to maximize the value of new product initiatives. For more information, please visit and follow us on LinkedIn. Ora® and Ora Logo are registered trademarks of Ora, Inc. About Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) is Singapore’s premier national research institute for ophthalmic and vision research and is part of the SingHealth Cluster, one of the 3 healthcare clusters in Singapore. Renowned for its cutting-edge work in the realms of eye disease and visual science, SERI’s research spans basic, clinical, and translational efforts involving experts in ophthalmology, molecular biology, genetics, bioengineering, AI, epidemiology, and population health. SERI has grown from a founding team of five in 1997 to an integrated organization of more than 240 staff, encompassing clinician scientists, scientists, research fellows, PhD students and support staff. This makes SERI one of the largest research institutes in the Asia Pacific region, publishing an impressive array of more than 5000 scientific papers. SERI undertakes vision research in collaboration with local clinical ophthalmic centers and biomedical research institutions, as well as major eye centers and research institutes throughout the world. One of the key strengths of SERI is its multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to research that has led to breakthroughs in understanding and treating eye diseases, resulting in innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. SERI's close proximity to Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), its clinical arm, facilitates the seamless translation of basic research findings into clinical practice, ensuring rapid availability of the latest treatments and technologies to patients. SERI aims to be at the forefront of ophthalmic research, translating this knowledge into enhanced patient care, especially in regions where the burden of eye diseases is high. For more information, please visit and follow us on LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: Contacts Buffie Kerstetter at bkerstetter@oraclinical.com Ravi Chandran at ravi.chandran@snec.com.sg Source: Ora, Inc. and Singapore Eye Research Institute View this news release online at:

A new synthetic antibiotic is shown to be more effective than established drugs against 'superbugs' such as MRSA, a new study shows. A new synthetic antibiotic developed by University of Liverpool researchers is shown to be more effective than established drugs against 'superbugs' such as MRSA, a new study shows. The study demonstrates the potent activity of the antibiotic, teixobactin, against bacterial biofilms. Biofilms are clusters of bacteria that are attached to a surface and/or to each other -- which are associated with serious chronic infections in humans. Nearly five million people lose their lives due to antibiotic resistance-associated infections and millions more live with poor quality of life due to treatment failures. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is increasing and an AMR review commissioned by the UK Government has predicted that by 2050 an additional 10 million people will succumb to drug resistant infections each year. The development of new antibiotics which can be used as a last resort when other drugs are ineffective is a crucial area of study for healthcare researchers around the world. This work builds on pioneering research by the University's Dr Ishwar Singh, an expert in antimicrobial drug discovery and development and medicinal chemistry. A team of researchers led by Dr Singh developed simplified synthetic versions of the natural molecule teixobactin, which is used by producer bacteria to kill other bacteria in soil. They have tested a unique library of synthetic versions of the 'game changing' antibiotic, optimising key features of the drug to enhance its efficacy and safety, plus enabling it to be inexpensively produced at scale. For this latest study, the researchers designed and synthesised highly potent teixobactin analogues but swapped out key bottleneck building block L-allo-enduracididine with the commercially available low cost simplified building blocks such as non proteogenic amino acids. As a result, the analogues are now effective against the broad range of resistant bacterial pathogens including bacterial isolates from patients and bacterial biofilms. This is another important step in adapting the natural teixobactin molecule to make it suitable for human use. Dr Ishwar Singh said: "Teixobactin molecules have the potential to provide new treatment options against multi drug resistant bacterial and biofilm related infections to improve and save lives globally. Our study provides a promising foundation for further research, and opens avenues to explore the application of teixobactin in various health related biofilm contexts, including surgical site infections, implant-related surgeries and cystic fibrosis patients." This work is funded by Innovate UK, the Department of Health and Social Care and Rosetrees Trust. In addition to the University of Liverpool team it involves researchers from Singapore Eye Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), University of Ghent (Belgium), University of Utrecht (Netherlands), and the University of Lincoln (UK).

New perspective argues pursuing fair AI for healthcare requires cross-disciplinary collaboration to translate methods into real-world benefits. Pursuing fair artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare requires collaboration between experts across disciplines, says a global team of scientists led by Duke-NUS Medical School in a new perspective published in npj Digital Medicine. While AI has demonstrated potential for healthcare insights, concerns around bias remain. "A fair model is expected to perform equally well across subgroups like age, gender and race. However, differences in performance may have underlying clinical reasons and may not necessarily indicate unfairness," explained first author Ms Liu Mingxuan, a PhD candidate in the Quantitative Biology and Medicine (Biostatistics & Health Data Science) Programme and Centre for Quantitative Medicine (CQM) at Duke-NUS. "Focusing on equity -- that is, recognising factors like race, gender, etc., and adjusting the AI algorithm or its application to make sure more vulnerable groups get the care they need -- rather than complete equality, is likely a more reasonable approach for clinical AI," said Dr Ning Yilin, Research Fellow with CQM and a co-first-author of the paper. "Patient preferences and prognosis are also crucial considerations, as equal treatment does not always mean fair treatment. An example of this is age, which frequently factors into treatment decisions and outcomes." The paper highlights key misalignments between AI fairness research and clinical needs. "Various metrics exist to measure model fairness, but choosing suitable ones for healthcare is difficult as they can conflict. Trade-offs are often inevitable," commented Associate Professor Liu Nan also from Duke-NUS' CQM, senior and corresponding author of the paper. He added, "Differences detected between groups are frequently treated as biases to be mitigated in AI research. However, in the medical context, we must discern between meaningful differences and true biases requiring correction." The authors emphasise the need to evaluate which attributes are considered 'sensitive' for each application. They say that actively engaging clinicians is vital for developing useful and fair AI models. "Variables like race and ethnicity need careful handling as they may represent systemic biases or biological differences," said Assoc Prof Liu. "Clinicians can provide context, determine if differences are justified, and guide models towards equitable decisions." Overall, the authors argue that pursuing fair AI for healthcare requires collaboration between experts in AI, medicine, ethics and beyond. "Achieving fairness in the use of AI in healthcare is an important but highly complex issue. Despite extensive developments in fair AI methodologies, it remains challenging to translate them into actual clinical practice due to the nature of healthcare -- which involves biological, ethical and social considerations. In order to advance AI practices to benefit patient care, clinicians, AI and industry experts need to work together and take active steps towards addressing fairness in AI," said co-author Associate Professor Daniel Ting, Director of SingHealth's AI Office and Associate Professor from the SingHealth Duke-NUS Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Programme. He is also Senior Consultant at the Singapore National Eye Centre and Head of AI & Digital Innovation at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI). "This paper highlights the complexities of translating AI fairness techniques into ethical clinical applications. It represents our collective commitment to developing AI that augments clinicians with trustworthy insights to provide quality and equitable care enhanced by technology," remarked co-author Clinical Associate Professor Lionel Cheng Tim-Ee, Chief Data & Digital Officer, Clinical Director (AI) Future Health System Department, and Senior Consultant, Department of Diagnostic Radiology at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). "Clinicians must be actively engaged in iterative communication with AI developers to ensure models align with medical ethics and context," stressed senior co-author Professor Marcus Ong, Director of the Health Services & Systems Research (HSSR) Programme at Duke-NUS, who is also Senior Consultant at SGH's Department of Emergency Medicine. "Good intentions alone cannot guarantee fair AI unless we have collective oversight from diverse experts, considering all social and ethical nuances. Pursuing equitable and unbiased AI to improve healthcare will require open, cross-disciplinary dialogues." The perspective published in npj Digital Medicine represents an international collaboration between researchers from institutions across Singapore, Belgium, and the United States. Authors from across the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (including Duke-NUS, SingHealth, SGH, Singapore Eye Research Institute and Singapore National Eye Centre) worked together with experts from the University of Antwerp in Belgium as well as Weill Cornell Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the United States. Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS, commented, "This global cooperation exemplifies the cross-disciplinary dialogues required to advance fair AI techniques for enhancing healthcare. We hope this collaborative effort spanning Singapore, Europe, and the US provides valuable perspectives to inspire further multinational partnerships towards equitable and unbiased AI."