CVR Research Group

Overview

CVR is a cross-institutional centre established as a partnership between Duke-NUS, Singapore National Eye Centre and Singapore Eye Research Institute. CVR integrates the outstanding upstream laboratory research at DUKE-NUS with the world-class clinical and genetics research at SNEC & SERI. The centre focuses on better understanding the basic mechanistic causes of blinding diseases and develop new treatment approaches for maintaining and restoring vision.

CVR aims to serve as an all-encompassing amalgamated clinical, experimental and fundamental vision sciences platform, in which the application of early and late-stage translational research with direct clinical and population impact is a top priority, with missions of developing and enhancing technologies, discovery, diagnostics or therapy that will improve the ocular health of patients, not only in Singapore but the region and beyond.

Projects

1. Translational Fibrovascular Research, Assoc Prof Wang Xiaomeng
2. Functional Genomics of eXFoliation Syndrome (XFS), Dr Wang Zhenxun
3. Ocular Regenerative Medicine, Dr Tay Hwee Goon
4. OF-LCG: Translational Asian Age-related Macular Degeneration Program Phase II (TAAP-2), Assoc Prof Wang Xiaomeng
5. OF-LCG: Diabetes StudY in Nephropathy And other Microvascular cOmplications Phase II (DYNAMO-2), Assoc Prof Wang Xiaomeng
6. STDR Pilot: Evaluate a Novel Therapeutic Molecule for the Treatment of Cancer, Assoc Prof Wang Xiaomeng
7. CS-IRG: Investigating the role of UBOX5 in Primary Angle Closure Glaucoma, Dr Wang Zhenxun
8. NRF Frontier CRP: Building a Herpes Simplex Virus based Gene Delivery Platform for Ocular Gene Therapy, Dr Wang Zhenxun
9. OF-IRG: Investigating the Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential of Modulating Homeostatic Pathways to Treat Exfoliation Glaucoma, Dr Wang Zhenxun
10. AM-ACP Designated Philanthropic Fund Award: Developing Cell-based Therapy for Retinal Diseases, Dr Tay Hwee Goon
11. MOE-Tier1: Study of Reprogrammed NEUROD1 Ganglion Progenitors in Glaucoma Disease Model, Dr Tay Hwee Goon
12. STDR PrePilot: Age-related Efficacy Study of Reprogrammed Ganglion Progenitor Neurons in Pre-clinical Injury Induced Glaucoma Animal Models, Dr Tay Hwee Goon
13. IAF-PP: Reliable Cell Production for Stem Cell-based Therapy (ReCePro), Dr Tay Hwee Goon
14. NHIC-I2I: Augmentation of IRAK-M in Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Derived RPE Progenitors, Dr Tay Hwee Goon

Publications

1. Ho CS, Wong CTH, Aung TT, Lakshminarayanan R, Mehta JS, Rauz S, McNally A, Kintses B, Peacock SJ, de la Fuente-Nunez C, Hancock REW, Ting DSJ. Antimicrobial Resistance: A Concise Update. The Lancet Microbe. 10.1016/j.lanmic.2024.07.010.
2. Cheng H, Wong JLY, Quek CWN, Goldberg JL, Mahajan VB, Wong TY, Mehta JS, Ting DSW, Ting DSJ. Ophthalmic Drug Discovery and Development Using Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health Technologies. npj Digital Medicine. 101038/s41746-025-01954-y.
3. Duan X, Lei C, Lim CHL, Ding J, Mehta JS, Basu S, Johnston L, Ren Y, Zhao C, Chang VKT, Zhou H. Quantitative Analysis of Conjunctival Vascular Alterations: Applications in Ocular and Systemic Disease Detection. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research 101016/jpreteyeres2025101416.
4. Rocha H, Chong YJ, Thirunavukarasu AJ, Wong YL, Wong SW, Chang YH, Azzopardi M, Tan BKJ, Song A, Malem A, Jain N, Zhou S, Tan TF, Rauz S, Ang M, Mehta JS, Ting DSW, Ting DSJ. Performance of Foundation Models vs Physicians in Textual and Multimodal Ophthalmologica Questions. JAMA Ophthalmology. 10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2025.4255.
5. Lin MOY, Sampath D, Bosykh DA, Wang C, Wang X, Subramaniam T, Han W, Hong W, Chakraborty S. YAP/TAZ Drive Agrin–Matrix Metalloproteinase 12–Mediated Diabetic Skin Wound Healing. Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 101016/jjid202405005.
6. Wang X, Baskaran L. Commentary on 'Cardiac adipose Tissue in Post-acute Myocardial Infarction Computed Tomography Imaging: Is There Enough Light?'. European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging. 101093/ehjci/jeaf110.
7. Liu M, Lim ST, Song W, Coffman TM, Wang X. Beyond Lipids: Fenofibrate in Diabetic Retinopathy and Nephropathy. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. 10.1016/j.tips.2025.07.014.
8. Ang KH, Thura M, Tan QSW, Gupta A, Kuan KY, Li J, Chia PL, Qiu B, Hong JM, Guo K, Wang X, Su X, Zeng Q. PRL3-zumab as an Anti-angiogenic Therapy in Neovascular Eye Diseases. Nature Communications. 10.1038/s41467-025-59929-2.
9. Lim ST, Zhao X, Liu S, Zhang W, Tan Y, Mullappilly N, Swain SM, Leong ML, Rajarethinam R, Wan KF, Ruedl C, Liddle RA, Li L, Wang X. LRG1 Inhibition Promotes Acute Pancreatitis Recovery by Inducing Cholecystokinin Type 1 Receptor Expression via Akt. Theranostics. 10.7150/thno.110116.
10. Wu W, Zhang Y, Song W, Virshup D, Wang X. Secreted Frizzled-related Proteins in Angiogenesis: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Implications. Angiogenesis. 10.1007/s10456-025-10024-6.
11. Jonk SM, Nicol A, Chrysostomou V, Lardner E, Yu SC, Stålhammar G, Crowston JG, Tribble JR, Swoboda P, William PA. Metabolic Analysis of Sarcopenic Muscle Identifies Positive Modulators of Longevity and Healthspan In C Elegans. Redox Biology. 101016/jredox2025103732.
12. Tan WS, Lai Y, Chung Y, Adusumalli S, Lee XY, Tryggvason K, Tay HG. Retina-specific Laminin-based Generation of Photoreceptor Progenitors from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells under Xeno-free and Chemically Defined Conditions. Nature Protocols. 10.1038/s41596-025-01142-y. 15;9(1):6087. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42493-3.

Members

Head

Prof Jodhbir Mehta

Members

• Assoc Prof Wang Xiaomeng
• Dr Wang Zhenxun
• Dr Tay Hwee Goon
• Adj Prof Jonathan Crowston
• Dr Kristmundur Sigmundsson