iHealthtech NUS

31/07/2026

🏅Professor Lim Chwee Teck Receives Prestigious WACBE Savio L-Y. Woo Distinguished Lecture Award

Professor Lim Chwee Teck, Director of the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech) and NUSS Chair Professor from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, NUS has been awarded the 2026 WACBE Savio L-Y. Woo Distinguished Lecture Award, one of the World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers’ highest honours recognising senior scientists for pioneering contributions, leadership, and lasting impact in biomedical engineering. The awards ceremony was held during the 12th WACBE Congress on Bioengineering 2026.

Professor Lim is the first recipient from Asia since the award was established in 2015. Previous awardees have all been based at leading universities in the United States.

Named in honour of Professor Savio L-Y. Woo, a pioneer in biomechanics and biomedical engineering, the award celebrates distinguished scientists whose research has significantly advanced the field while inspiring future generations. Professor Lim’s recognition reflects his internationally acclaimed contributions to mechanobiology, microfluidics, wearable biomedical technologies, and translational health innovation, as well as his longstanding commitment to mentorship and scientific leadership.

This distinguished honour recognises Professor Lim’s global standing in biomedical engineering and highlights the growing impact of Singapore and Asia on the international biomedical engineering landscape.

31/07/2026

Wellbeing starts with connection. 🏸🏓

Our recent badminton and table tennis sessions were about more than staying active. They brought colleagues together, sparked conversations, and strengthened the sense of community that makes our workplace special.

Small acts of care can have a big impact. Together, we're building a healthier, happier, and more supportive workplace. ❤️

28/07/2026

🔬 Simplifying wearable health monitoring with a single smart skin patch

iHealthtech Principal Investigator Dr Liu Yuxin and his team, including Dr Wu Xiaodong, have developed X-Sig, a flexible epidermal (skin) sensor that can simultaneously capture and fuse multiple physiological signals, including electrocardiography (ECG), electromyography (EMG), pulse waves and force myography (FMG), into a single output channel.

By combining the body's electrical and mechanical signals at the source, X Sig reduces the need for multiple sensors and separate processing circuits, paving the way for wearable devices that are smaller, more comfortable and more energy efficient.

This work demonstrates a new approach to wearable health monitoring and could contribute to the development of smaller, more comfortable and more energy efficient devices for continuous physiological monitoring.

📖 Published in Nature Sensors: "A cross-modal epidermal sensor enables single-channel fusion of biopotential and biomechanical signals"
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44460-026-00044-0

NUS College of Design and Engineering News link: https://cde.nus.edu.sg/news/nus-cde-researchers-merge-multiple-physiological-signals-into-a-single-patch-for-simpler-health-monitoring/

By capturing multiple body signals through one channel, the device could support more comfortable and efficient continuous health monitoring beyond clinical settings.

27/07/2026

27/07/2026

🏸 A little exercise, a lot of fun, and stronger connections!
Our Operations team recently organised a badminton session for staff and students to come together for a friendly game.

It was a simple but enjoyable activity that gave everyone a chance to get moving, have fun, and build new friendships and connections across our community.

As the saying goes, "Sport is medicine, and awareness is the doctor that reminds us to take it." Staying active today is an investment in our health and well-being for the future.

We hope this session encourages our community members to take small steps towards a healthier lifestyle while enjoying the company of colleagues and friends.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and we look forward to seeing more of you at our future wellness activities! 😊🏸

A big thank you to Zhen Yang for organising this enjoyable event, and to Donny, Lili, Zhen Yang, and Archana for helping to capture and share the wonderful moments through their photos.

15/07/2026

🎙️ An insightful podcast featuring iHealthtech's Prof Benjamin Tee. His personal journey, from struggling to conceive to co-founding Hannah Life Technologies, a FemTech spinout, and developing the twoplus Fertility product, is a compelling example of how lived experience and resilience can drive meaningful innovation in women's health.

What makes it truly compelling is that Prof Tee turned his own pain into a solution to help others facing the same challenge.

The discussion on Singapore's low birthrate, one of the lowest in the world now, and the limits of technology was particularly thought-provoking. It serves as a reminder that even with all the technology we develop, the real challenges often lie in people's mindsets and life choices. Technology is not the ultimate solution. It can offer hope and practical help, but it cannot make life's biggest decisions for us.

Thank you to host Crispina Robert for a wonderful interview and for creating this podcast.

Dr Benjamin Tee, an NUS professor and serial founder whose own five...

08/07/2026

It was a privilege to host Prof Metin Sitti (President, Koç University) at NUS for an inspiring seminar and a lively discussion with our iHealthtech community.

Prof Metin Sitti shared his latest work and vision for wireless milli- and microscale medical robots 🤖🦠 designed to navigate hard-to-reach environments in the body and enable minimally invasive interventions. What resonated strongly was the breadth of potential clinical functions, ranging from targeted drug delivery and neural stimulation to clot opening, liquid biopsy, biofluid pumping, cauterization, and hyperthermia, and how these capabilities could meaningfully reduce invasiveness and side effects while improving patient outcomes.

✅ Miniaturization is also where the real engineering frontier begins: shrinking devices to the milli‑ and microscale imposes hard limits on on‑board actuation, power, sensing, computation, and communication. These constraints are driving innovation in new materials and fabrication methods (including 3D microprinting and assembly-based manufacturing), as well as robust approaches for wireless control and safe navigation using external physical fields (e.g., magnetic, acoustic, and electrical). Equally important is reliable tracking under clinical imaging modalities—including ultrasound, fluoroscopy, and photoacoustic imaging—to enable precise and safe operation in vivo.

Beyond the content, the Q&A stood out. Prof Metin Sitti was deeply engaged, energetic, and generous in exploring questions from the audience. We're hopeful the ideas sparked during the session will lead to new conversations and collaborations toward our shared goal of advancing patient care.

Sincere thanks to Prof Lim Chwee Teck, Director of iHealthtech, for inviting Prof Metin Sitti to our institute and making this seminar possible.

03/07/2026

💙 A heartfelt thank you to Prof Roger Ho, one of our iHealthtech Principal Investigators, for his incredible contributions during his time with iHealthtech.

Prof Ho has helped advance impactful work in mental health research, including studies linked to COVID-19 and ADHD, with a strong focus on translating insights into better patient care.

As he begins his next chapter in Hong Kong, we want to thank him for the dedication, leadership, and care he has brought to our community and patients, and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavours. We look forward to seeing his work continue to create meaningful impact for patients.

Photo (from left to right):
A/Prof Shao Huilin, Dr Toh Kee Chua, Prof Lim Chwee Teck, Prof Roger Ho, Dr Donny Liang and Dr Li Ang.

29/06/2026

🦠 Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. The World Health Organization reported that TB regained this position in 2023 as COVID 19 deaths declined.

A/Prof Catherine Ong’s talk at the iHealthtech INSPIRE seminar series was especially timely in light of the recent Bedok investigations. The Communicable Diseases Agency’s community screening at Heartbeat at Bedok and nearby sites screened 3,169 people from 2 to 8 May 2026, underscoring the continued importance of clear screening pathways and strong public health follow up.

💡A key takeaway from the session was that TB control is not only about the pathogen, but also about host vulnerability and health systems readiness. Beyond people living with HIV and those with diabetes, older adults can face higher risk due to age related immune changes and frailty, which makes prevention and early detection especially important for seniors.

✅ The research shared also highlighted promising host directed approaches that aim to reduce lung damage and improve outcomes. In particular, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) have been implicated in tissue destruction and cavitation in pulmonary TB, and understanding these pathways may open up new therapeutic strategies alongside standard antimicrobial treatment.

Thank you, A/Prof Ong, for an insightful and practice relevant session.

We welcome research and clinical collaborators who are interested in strengthening TB screening strategies, risk stratification for vulnerable groups including seniors, and translational work on host directed therapies.

Thank you as well to iHealthtech Director Prof Lim Chwee Teck for hosting this talk.

17/06/2026

Thanks to Dr Wang Cong (University of Iowa) for an insightful talk on the fluid mechanics of cough clearance. In his work on the transient dynamics of airway mucus expulsion, he offers a fresh perspective on how fluid mechanics can inform approaches to support patients whose primary respiratory defense, e.g., expelling mucus and mucus-trapped pathogens, is compromised.

✅ One especially compelling direction is the model’s potential to serve as a testbed for evaluating drugs and lubricants that could facilitate mucus clearance.

We look forward to Dr Wang’s future work and hope these findings will translate into meaningful improvements in patient care .

The talk was hosted by iHealthtech PI Dr Wu Changsheng.