Image: SEACURE+ members led by NTU's Assoc Prof Nagaendran Kandiah [Back row, 5th from left]; together with NTU representatives Prof Joseph Sung, Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences), NTU and Dean, LKCMedicine [Back row, 6th from left]; Prof Lim Kah Leong, Associate Vice President (Biomedical & Life Sciences), NTU [Back row, 4th from left]; Assoc Prof Yusuf Ali, Vice-Dean (International Relations), LKCMedicine [Back Row, 1st from right]; and Assoc Prof Lim Su Chi, Co-Director of LKCMedicine's Nutrition, Metabolism & Health research programme [Front row, 1st from right].
NTU Singapore is leading 24 clinicians from the region and beyond to set up Southeast Asia's first consortium dedicated to tackling dementia.
The Southeast Asian Consortium on Neurocognition, Neuroimaging and Biomarker Research Plus (SEACURE+) will pool resources and data representative of the region's 700 million people to better understand the unique traits of the Southeast Asian brain and develop a harmonised approach to prevent and manage dementia.
The consortium began as a working group in 2023 comprising Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. At its official launch today, SEACURE+ expanded its regional footprint with the addition of Brunei and Myanmar as new member countries.
SEACURE+ also inducted China and India as honorary members. Their participation will enable comparative studies between Chinese and Indian populations living in Southeast Asia and those in their home countries. This will deepen understanding of how factors such as environment, culture, and epigenetics can shape the biological processes underlying dementia.
