SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre leads S$10m national effort to tackle muscle-loss in ageing Singapore

5/28/2025 6:08:00 PM |

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Singapore’s first nationwide research initiative dedicated to sarcopenia aims to revolutionise diagnosis and treatment for Asian patients.
With a unique collection of samples from patients, combined with state-of-the-art investigative platforms, this initiative will bring new insights to the onset and progression of the disease.
Research outcomes may provide insights to improve quality of life for patients and establish Singapore as a leader in medical innovation and patient care for this largely under recognised and understudied condition.

SINGAPORE, 28 MAY 2025—To tackle the growing threat of muscle loss in Singapore’s ageing population, SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre will spearhead a S$10 million research initiative into sarcopenia—marking the country’s first comprehensive, large-scale programme focused on this condition marked by loss of muscle mass and strength.

Supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore under the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Open Fund - Large Collaborative Grant (OF-LCG) programme and administered by the Singapore Ministry of Health through the NMRC Office, MOH Holdings Pte Ltd, the project—named MAGNET (Mechanistic Investigation and Clinical Innovation for Sarcopenia Diagnosis and Therapy)—will position Singapore as a leader in sarcopenia research globally and is expected to bring critically needed innovations to how the condition is detected and treated, particularly among Asian patients.

Based on a study by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia¹, sarcopenia affects nearly one in three Singaporeans aged 60 and above, impacting mobility, independence and quality of life. It also affects younger adults with chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes—one in 14 Singaporeans under 60 are estimated to have sarcopenia². Sarcopenia has also been found to be an independent risk factor for poorer health-related outcomes³, such as earlier cancer recurrences and increased hospital admissions, leading to increased healthcare burden⁴.

There are currently no effective treatments that are deployed at scale to halt or reverse the disease, especially at the later stages. Exercise and dietary supplements are potential options to manage or slow down the decline of the disease, though studies are still underway. A likely limiting factor in their effectiveness is that sarcopenia is not routinely diagnosed, especially in the early stages when there are few warning signs to trigger patients’ or clinicians’ attention. When sarcopenia becomes clinically apparent, patients might already be at an advanced stage with complications such as physical frailty. To tackle this, the scientists aim to advance understanding of how sarcopenia develops in Asian populations and to explore new and pragmatic methods of diagnosis and treatment.

Professor Wang Yibin, Corresponding Principal Investigator of the MAGNET Programme and Director of the Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, said: “The health burden of sarcopenia is growing rapidly as our society ages, yet we are still in the early stages of understanding how it develops and how best to treat it. With MAGNET as Singapore’s first nationwide research initiative dedicated to this disease, we are bringing together the country’s leading minds and capabilities to deliver breakthroughs in both science and care.”

To date, over 400 patients with sarcopenia from Sengkang General Hospital have been recruited for the studies (including clinical evaluation), and their relevant biological samples (e.g. blood cells and muscle tissues) have been collected for investigations.

Clinical Lead and Principal Investigator, SingHealth Duke-NUS Muscle Health Programme, Clinical Associate Professor Frederick Koh, one of the MAGNET programme theme Principal Investigators, and Consultant, Colorectal Surgery Service, Sengkang General Hospital, explained: “Sarcopenia is a complex condition with many different causes, such as ageing, advanced cancer, diabetes and heart and liver failure. It is therefore necessary to study a large cohort of patients with sarcopenia, through the collaborative efforts across all public healthcare institutions, to dissect its underlying disease processes.”

Early studies have revealed new insights into how changes in the immune system and metabolism may be linked to the development of sarcopenia.

Associate Professor Samuel Chew, one of the MAGNET programme theme Principal Investigators and Senior Consultant, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Changi General Hospital, said: “From age 40, there is age-related decline in lean body mass at about 8 percent per decade, and this accelerates to about 15 percent from age 70 onwards. This may contribute to increased risks of falls, lower immunity and poor recovery after trauma and acute illnesses. This nationwide research is thus vital in aiding the screening, diagnosis and management of sarcopenia to enable earlier interventions. In caring for our community, CGH is collaborating with Duke-NUS and various healthcare partners to collectively translate these research findings from bench to bedside, in clinical settings across hospitals and in the community to benefit adults and older adults.”

Professor Teh Bin Tean, one of the MAGNET programme theme Principal Investigators and Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Research) of National Cancer Centre Singapore, said: “Still, by harnessing the most advanced technological platforms to carefully unravel sarcopenia’s underlying biology, we are poised to uncover new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets—driving earlier detection, more effective treatments and advancing precision medicine for better patient outcomes.”

The MAGNET initiative will incorporate cutting-edge AI, genomic and molecular technologies while leveraging the largest Asian-focused clinical cohort of sarcopenia patients, alongside a unique biobank of muscle and serum samples.

MAGNET aims to achieve its objectives in four ways:

Mapping molecular and metabolic landscape in sarcopenia across a diverse patient population of 1,000 individuals with different disease status in Singapore.
Developing early diagnostic tools using biomarkers, imaging, profiling and AI-driven strategies and analysis.
Discovering new molecular, metabolic and inflammatory pathways in how sarcopenia develops and test therapeutic efficacies of potential targets.
Evaluating and translating findings into new screening methods to improve diagnosis, as well as new therapies for prevention and treatment.

This nation-wide initiative brings together a consortium of scientists and clinicians not only from Duke-NUS, Changi General Hospital, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Sengkang General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, but also all public healthcare institutions from the three healthcare clusters—National Healthcare Group, National University Health System and SingHealth. The initiative also involves key academic and research institutions, namely A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, the Life Sciences Institute Immunology Programme at National University of Singapore (NUS), as well as the Immunology Translational Research Programme at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

¹Chen L-K, Woo J, Assantachai P, et al. Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia: 2019 Consensus Update on Sarcopenia Diagnosis and Treatment, of the American Medical Directors Association. 2019;21(3):300-307.e2.

²Pang BW, Wee SL, Lau LK, Jabbar KA, Seah WT, Ng DH, Tan QL, Chen KK, Jagadish MU, Ng TP. Prevalence and associated factors of Sarcopenia in Singaporean adults—the Yishun Study. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. 2021 Apr 1;22(4):885-e1.

³Ng DHL, Koh FHX, Yeong HEL, Huey TCW, Chue KM, Foo FJ, Chew STH. Nutrition Care after Hospital Discharge in Singapore: Evidence-Based Best-Practice Recommendations. Nutrients. 2023 Oct 24;15(21):4492.

⁴ Trejo-Avila M, Bozada-Gutiérrez K, Valenzuela-Salazar C, Herrera-Esquivel J, Moreno-Portillo M. Sarcopenia predicts worse postoperative outcomes and decreased survival rates in patients with colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Colorectal Dis. 2021 Jun;36(6):1077-1096.

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Annex A: About MAGNET

The MAGNET project is a national collaboration among leading physicians and scientists to jointly investigate why and how sarcopenia is triggered along with ageing or other disease states, and to discover new ways to treat the disease.

MAGNET comprises 4 themes.

Theme 1: Molecular and metabolic landscape

Theme Principal Investigators:

Professor Teh Bin Tean, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Research), National Cancer Centre Singapore
Associate Professor Chen Jinmiao, Centre for Computational Biology, Duke-NUS Medical School

The team will leverage state-of-the-art profiling, genetic and imaging tools to study Asian sarcopenic muscle tissues. Through this work, they will generate extensive, high-resolution datasets, curating high-quality genetic, transcriptomic, epigenomic and metabolic information from millions of human muscle cells, ranging from health to severely sarcopenic.

Using a new AI algorithm developed by Assoc Prof Chen, the team is now able to examine cells and their genetic make-up in greater granularity and more precisely define their traits. They can now disentangle overlapping phenotypes from two risk-factors, such as ageing and diabetes, by isolating key salient factors that differentiate diabetes-associated sarcopenia from age-associated sarcopenia.

By leveraging such AI-based data analysis, the scientists aim to map out the molecular and metabolic landscape for sarcopenia onset and progression in greater detail, allowing for a better understanding of the disease. These insights could lead to more targeted, effective and personalised treatments for patients.

Theme 2: Molecular and metabolic inflammatory markers

Theme Principal Investigators:

Professor Han Weiping, Distinguished Principal Scientist, A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
Associate Professor Veronique Angeli, Assistant Dean (Research) and Chair of Immunology Translational Research Programme at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), Director of the Life Sciences Institute Immunology Programme at NUS

By using targeted imaging-based analysis and cutting-edge genetic tools, the team will study tissue samples from patients with sarcopenia to identify changes in metabolic states and genetic profiles of their immune cells.

They aim to discover and validate immune and metabolic markers in the blood serum that signal the onset of sarcopenia. Having new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets can unveil key molecular pathways and nodal genes for potential intervention.

The identification of such pre-disease markers can also lead to earlier intervention and better outcomes, while reducing cost and complications associated with adverse outcomes, including frailty, poor recovery and other associated chronic conditions.

Theme 3: Mechanistic and Proof-of-concept investigations

Theme Principal Investigators:

Professor Wang Yibin, Director, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders Programme, Duke-NUS Medical School
Dr Hong Jing Han, Principal Research Scientist, Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Programme, Duke-NUS Medical School

Through preclinical investigations, the scientists will study how the identified biomarkers function within cells, focusing on their effects on biochemical pathways and pharmacological responses.

The team will perform proof-of-concept trials to evaluate which substances show the greatest efficacy, accelerating the discovery of new biomarkers, drugs and therapeutic strategies. This work will catalyse the development of personalised prevention and treatment approaches tailored to specific patient profiles.

Theme 4: Clinical cohort development and clinical implementation

Theme Principal Investigators:

Clinical Associate Professor Frederick Koh (Duke-NUS PhD Programme in Clinical and Translational Sciences, Class of 2024), Clinical Lead and Principal Investigator, SingHealth Duke-NUS Muscle Health Programme, and Consultant, Colorectal Surgery Service, Sengkang General Hospital
Associate Professor Laura Tay, Head and Senior Consultant, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Sengkang General Hospital
Associate Professor Samuel Chew, Senior Consultant, Geriatric Medicine, Changi General Hospital
Dr Justin Chew, Consultant from the Department of Geriatric Medicine, and Lead of Research and Innovation from the Institute of Geriatrics and Active Ageing at Tan Tock Seng Hospital

The extensive clinical programmes involved in this project aims to expand our preliminary work in the clinical space from Sengkang General Hospital by improving the clinical infrastructure and pipeline for sarcopenia research across all public healthcare institutions.

With growing recognition of sarcopenia across public healthcare institutions and strengthened collaboration between sites, the collection of new data on patient outcomes—quality of life and physical function, will accelerate the discovery and implementation of new, effective ways to diagnose and treat sarcopenia.

The project also focused on expanding the catchment of the world’s first sarcopenia-specific biobank, which will help provide biological samples for Themes 1 and 2. With more than 500 samples collected to date, the team aims to reach 1,000 samples during the study.

By leveraging existing community-based research, the team will accelerate the translation of clinically and financially viable biomarkers and treatment to the community.

Finally, the team will use the shared knowledge from this programme to move discoveries from the lab to real-world treatments, through carefully designed clinical trials evaluating biomarkers and therapies for sarcopenia.

Annex B: Photos

Caption: From right: Prof Wang Yibin, Prof Teh Bin Tean, Dr Hong Jing Han, Assoc Prof Samuel Chew, Clinical Assoc Prof Frederick Koh // Image credit: Duke-NUS Medical School

Caption: From left: Clinical Assoc Prof Frederick Koh, Prof Wang Yibin. In foreground: Dr Hong Jing Han // Image credit: Duke-NUS Medical School

For the high-resolution images, please click here. (password: dukenus)

Annex C: Chinese Translations

Duke-NUS Medical School (Official name, for use on first mention)	杜克－新加坡国立大学医学院
Duke-NUS (abbreviated form)	杜克－国大医学院
SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre	新保集团杜克-国大学术医学中心
Mechanistic Investigation and Clinical Innovation for Sarcopenia Diagnosis and Therapy (MAGNET)	肌少症诊疗的机制探索与临床革新
Professor Wang Yibin Director, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders Programme Duke-NUS Medical School	王义斌教授主任, 心血管与代谢疾病研究项目杜克 － 新加坡国立大学医学院
Clinical Associate Professor Frederick Koh Consultant, Colorectal Surgery Service Sengkang General Hospital Clinical Lead and Principal Investigator, SingHealth Duke-NUS Muscle Health Programme	高宏祥临床副教授结肠直肠外科顾问医生，盛港综合医院首席研究员, 新保集团杜克-国大肌肉健康项目
Associate Professor Samuel Chew Senior Consultant Department of Geriatric Medicine Changi General Hospital	周忠恩副教授高级顾问医生老年医学部樟宜综合医院
Professor Teh Bin Tean Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Research) National Cancer Centre Singapore	郑敏展教授副总裁(研究) 新加坡国立癌症中心
Associate Professor Chen Jinmiao Centre for Computational Biology Duke-NUS Medical School	陈金妙副教授计算生物学中心杜克 － 新加坡国立大学医学院
Professor Han Weiping Distinguished Principal Scientist A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology	韩卫平教授杰出首席科学家新科研分子和细胞生物学研究院
Associate Professor Veronique Angeli, Assistant Dean (Research), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) Chair, Immunology Translational Research Programme, NUS Medicine Director, Life Sciences Institute Immunology Programme, National University of Singapore (NUS Life Sciences Institute lmmunology Programme)	副教授安热利(Veronique Angeli）新加坡国立大学杨潞龄医学院研究助理院长新加坡国立大学杨潞龄医学院免疫转化研究项目主任国大学生命科学研究所免疫学项目主任
Dr Hong Jing Han Principal Research Scientist Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Programme Duke-NUS Medical School	方靖涵博士首席研究员癌症与干细胞生物学研究项目杜克－新加坡国立大学医学院
Dr Justin Chew Consultant Department of Geriatric Medicine, Lead of Research and Innovation, Institute of Geriatrics and Active Ageing Tan Tock Seng Hospital	周令晖顾问医生老年病学部门研究与创新主任老年医学与乐龄研教学院陈笃生医院