In the second year of a pandemic that reshaped how nations test for disease, a small clinical laboratory at NTU Singapore's medical school has passed from academic hands into a partnership with a diagnostics company, while keeping its daily work of screening for the virus. Its story is one of a community of scientists answering an emergency and then asking what the emergency has taught them about building the laboratories of the future. Whether its ambitions for flexible, machine-assisted testing will outlast the crisis that gave them birth is a question the coming years will answer.
NTU and Pathnova Launch Hi-Tech Lab to Strengthen Singapore's Future Pandemic Response
A lab built in weeks now aims to be a blueprint for the next pandemic
Mark
Why does this lab matter beyond the testing numbers?
Mimi
Because it was built fast by academics in April 2020 and began PCR testing by July. Now a company runs it, and the aim is a lab design that can be reused in the next outbreak.
Mark
What has it actually done so far?
Mimi
Swabs from over 120,000 people for the Ministry of Health, including routine testing of foreign worker dormitory residents. Capacity is 2,000 tests a day.
Luke
Those figures come from the announcement itself. We don't have independent verification or a breakdown of how many tests were run per month.
Mark
And the serology work?
Mimi
It detects past infection or antibody response after vaccination. That's Pathnova's specialty, so it fits the partnership.
Mark
What about Yap's 36-minute test?
Mimi
It skips manual RNA purification and works on crude samples, using limited equipment. Devised in April 2020.
Luke
Careful. The source says his team devised it; it doesn't say that test is what the lab runs at scale, or how it performed against standard PCR.
Mark
So what's the big vision?
Mimi
An open-source, robotic, reconfigurable lab that resists supply chain bottlenecks and uses AI and analytics to cut costs.
Luke
That's a stated plan. No timeline, budget or results are given, so it's intent, not achievement.
El Pulso
- The lab is processing swabs at up to 2,000 tests a day while the country still needs them for its pandemic response.
- Its founding team of academics has handed day-to-day operations to a private diagnostics firm, reshaping who runs the work.
- Serology testing has been added, letting staff detect past infection and gauge antibody responses after vaccination.
- The partners are sketching open-source, robot-assisted lab designs meant to withstand supply shortages in future outbreaks.
- The plans remain largely unproven, and the lab's real test is whether it can turn pandemic lessons into practice.
In the second year of a pandemic that reshaped how nations test for disease, a small clinical laboratory at NTU Singapore's medical school has passed from academic hands into a partnership with a diagnostics company, while keeping its daily work of screening for the virus. Its story is one of a community of scientists answering an emergency and then asking what the emergency has taught them about building the laboratories of the future. Whether its ambitions for flexible, machine-assisted testing will outlast the crisis that gave them birth is a question the coming years will answer.
On 1 July 2020, a small clinical laboratory at the Novena campus of NTU Singapore's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine began running COVID-19 PCR tests. A year later it has a new operator and a longer horizon in view.
The lab was set up in April 2020 by academic researchers to help Singapore expand its testing capacity. Since March 2021 it has run in partnership with Pathnova Laboratories, a diagnostics company, which manages operations while NTU continues to host it. It now goes by Pathnova Laboratories @ LKCMedicine. For the Ministry of Health it has tested swabs from more than 120,000 people, including routine screening of residents in foreign worker dormitories, and it can handle 2,000 tests a day.
Its two leaders bring very different histories. Associate Professor Eric Yap, the medical director, is a doctor and former defence scientist who in April 2020 devised a direct PCR test that skips lengthy RNA purification and returns results in 36 minutes. Dr Ian Cheong, Pathnova's co-founder, trained as a lawyer and a scientist and has worked on cancer diagnostics.
Looking beyond the pandemic, the partners want to build a laboratory that is flexible, scalable and built on open-source robotics and automation, with AI and data analytics aimed at lowering costs and protecting quality. Leaders describe the partnership as a product of the COVID-19 crisis and a contribution to Singapore's safe reopening. How much of that vision becomes working reality is still to be seen; for now, the lab's work is the daily labour of testing.
On 1 July 2020, a small clinical laboratory at the Novena campus of NTU Singapore's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine began running COVID-19 PCR tests. A year later, it is under new operational management and has set its sights on what comes after the pandemic.
The NTU Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory was established in April 2020 by a team of academic researchers, in support of the national push to expand testing capacity. Since 1 March 2021 it has operated in partnership with Pathnova Laboratories, a medical diagnostics company backed by the Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator and headquartered at the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory. Pathnova runs the operations, while NTU continues to host and support the lab. It is now called Pathnova Laboratories @ LKCMedicine.
The numbers give a sense of its role. The Ministry of Health has engaged the lab to test swabs from more than 120,000 individuals, including routine rostered testing of residents in foreign worker dormitories. Its capacity stands at 2,000 tests per day, and it has been preparing for large-scale testing and faster turnaround through automation and a wider range of SARS-CoV-2 assays. Pathnova, which focuses on serology, has also added COVID-19 serology tests, which can detect past infection or gauge a person's antibody response after vaccination.
The partners describe the lab as the only diagnostic service laboratory set up by an institute of higher learning as a rapid response to the national emergency. It is co-led by Associate Professor Eric Yap of LKCMedicine, the medical director, and Dr Ian Cheong, Pathnova's chief scientific officer and co-founder.
Both bring particular backgrounds. Yap has worked as a medical doctor and a defence scientist, and studies genetic variation in human, bacterial and viral genomes to make disease diagnosis faster and more accurate. In April 2020, he and his team devised a direct PCR test that looks for COVID-19 genetic sequences in crude samples, skipping the lengthy manual RNA purification steps that current PCR tests require. It produced results in 36 minutes using limited equipment. Cheong, trained as both a lawyer and a scientist, has a background in experimental therapeutics and diagnostics for cancer. In 2017, with Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator support, he co-founded Pathnova with Emeritus Professor Chan Soh Ha and Jason Foo, to develop scalable detection of nasopharyngeal cancer and autoimmune diseases through serological methods accelerated by machine learning.
Looking ahead, the partners say that as the lab moves out of COVID-19 work, they want to use what pandemic testing taught them to build a new kind of laboratory: flexible and scalable, running on open-source robotics and software automation. Supported by experts in genomics, computer science and bioengineering, the lab will explore simplifying and shortening complex protocols. The intended design is fully integrated, reconfigurable and resistant to supply chain bottlenecks. Data analytics, AI automation, robotics and mathematical algorithms are meant to raise efficiency and cut operating costs, while smart digital processes safeguard quality and daily productivity and leave scientists free to improve workflows.
Leaders involved framed the partnership in terms of public benefit. Peter Chia, CEO of Temasek Life Sciences Accelerator, said such collaborations grow from quality science and committed people, and expressed hope for more innovative solutions for communities in Singapore and the region. NTU Senior Vice President (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong said the collaboration lets NTU scientists draw on Pathnova's AI expertise for future pandemic challenges. Distinguished University Professor Joseph Sung, dean of LKCMedicine, noted that viruses mutate and diseases evolve, but technology evolves too, often in our favour. Cheong said the two organisations build leanly and from first principles, that the partnership was catalysed in the crucible of COVID-19, and that they were glad to contribute to Singapore's safe reopening.
What remains to be seen is how much of the open-source, AI-driven laboratory moves from plan to practice; for now the lab is still doing its pandemic work at 2,000 tests a day.
Citas Notables
Viruses mutate and diseases evolve, but fortunately technology also evolves, often in our favour.— Prof Joseph Sung, Dean, NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine
Our partnership was catalysed in the crucible of COVID-19.— Dr Ian Cheong, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder, Pathnova Laboratories
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