Metabolon, Inc., the global leader in providing metabolomics solutions that advance a wide variety of research, diagnostic, therapeutic development, and precision medicine applications, today announced a new partnership with the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) to identify biomarkers using data from the Health for Life in Singapore (HELIOS) study.

The HELIOS study, established and led by NTU LKCMedicine, aims to understand the health of the Singaporean population by collecting deep phenotypic data regarding lifestyle, environment, and genes that may influence health. HELIOS has captured insightful data across a broad range of diseases, including atherosclerosis, diabetes, cardiometabolic disease, coronary artery disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frailty, aging, osteoporosis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Metabolon will leverage HELIOS data to identify biomarkers to support the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a wide range of health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases. The collaborative data agreement and long-term follow-up of cohort participants will enable the investigation of the complex relationship between environment, lifestyle, and genetic factors that may lead to subsequent disease.

"We are diversifying cohort partnerships as we continue to expand our disease coverage strategy.  We're eager to start this exceptional partnership with HELIOS," said Rohan Hastie, Ph.D., President and CEO of Metabolon. "The fact that disease prevalence changes with ethnicity makes it important to capture the metabolome from diverse cohorts. Additionally, geographical location and culture present an enormous influence on the microbiome. The opportunity to study data across the globe allows for the capture of this diversity at the metabolic level and enables us to develop solutions that are precise and focused on the population to be served."

Professor Joseph Sung, Dean of LKCMedicine and NTU's Senior Vice President (Health & Life Sciences), said: "NTU Singapore's collaboration with Metabolon on metabolite analysis will help make the HELIOS data set more holistic and enhance population and global health research at LKCMedicine, which is one of our key research programs. The study will provide a powerful resource for developing innovative and effective approaches for prediction, prevention, and management of chronic diseases to improve the health of Singaporeans and in turn, reduce healthcare burden."

"HELIOS' data represent one of the most extensive sets of lifestyle and health metrics measuring blood profiles, skin health, visual acuity, cognitive assessment, bone density, liver function, muscle and body mass, lung health, cardiovascular fitness, and arterial stiffness along with genetic variants," said Rangaprasad (Ranga) Sarangarajan, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Metabolon. "While genomics data provide the risk of disease, Metabolon will take it to the next level providing a comprehensive functional readout of biological processes using metabolomics to identify biomarker signatures that represent transitions from homeostasis to disease."

NTU LKCMedicine's Professor John Chambers, Chief Investigator of HELIOS, said: "This is an important, timely, and welcomed partnership between LKCMedicine and Metabolon, a major international biotechnology company, on the HELIOS study. The collaboration will enable researchers at LKCMedicine and our partner academic organizations to better understand the functional disturbances that may lead to diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions of high public health importance. As one of the most comprehensive studies of metabolic regulation in Asian populations, the results will provide major new insights into the determinants of health, with findings of direct relevance to Singapore."