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Prof Saw Seang Mei

MBBS, MPH, PhD, FAMS, FARVO

Co-Head, Myopia Research Group, Singapore Eye Research Institute

Research Interest:

Epidemiology, gene-environment interaction, natural history and management of myopia and pathologic myopia
Cohorts and Clinical trials

Research Appointments

Co-Head, Myopia Research Group, Singapore Eye Research Institute

Academic Appointments

Professor SingHealth Duke-NUS Ophthalmology ＆ Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Programme

Profile

Prof Saw Seang Mei is the SERI Professor of Ophthalmology Research, Duke-NUS Medical School; Head, Myopia Unit, Singapore Eye Research Institute, and Professor of Epidemiology, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (NUS). She is the Deputy Co-Chair (Biomedical) of the NUS Institutional Review Board (IRB). She received her MBBS degree from the National University of Singapore and both her MPH and PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and her research expertise is the epidemiology, genetics and treatment of myopia. She has established the natural history, role of outdoors and nearwork in myopia aetiology and developed new gadgets and treatments for myopia.

Prof Saw has an H-Index of 80 (Scopus), with papers attracting more than 3,000 citations per year, each year over the past 5 years. Over the past 5 years, 32% of her published papers were in the in top 10% most cited worldwide, with a field weighted citation index of 2.34. She is the Principal Investigator of the Singapore Cohort study Of the Research factors for Myopia (SCORM), the STrabismus, Amblyopia and Refractive error study in Singapore preschool children (STARS), and Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) myopia studies and have published more than 500+ peer-reviewed international journals, including the Lancet and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Prof Saw is the Associate Editor, Translational Vision Science and Technology and an Editorial Board Member of Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology.

Prof Saw has received many awards including the Garland W. Clay Award (2006), the Great Women of our Times Awards, Science and Technology Category, Singapore (2006), Chew Sek Jin Memorial Lecture Award at the International Myopia Conference (2013), USA, World’s Top 100 influential people in Ophthalmology by the Ophthalmologists (2014), Gold Fellow Award, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2015), NUHS-Mochtar Riady Pinnacle Excellence Award (2015), and the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Prevention of Blindness Award (2015).

Professional Appointments and Committee Memberships

SERI Professor of Ophthalmology Research
Professor, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (2010 – present)
Deputy Co-Chair, National University of Singapore Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Member, Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee (FPTC), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (2019 – present)
Member, NUS Senate Panel for Student Discipline
Role as member on the NUS Board of Discipline (BOD) and the Disciplinary Appeals Board (DAB) (2019 – present)
Member, National Medical Research Council MRC Research Training Fellowship pPanel (2015 – present)
Member, Transition Award Panel, National Medical Research CouncilMRC (2012 – present)

Education

FARVO (2012)
FAMS (2001)
PhD (1998)
MPH (1995)
MBBS (1988)

Awards

Bernard Gilmartin OPO Award, 2019, College of Optometry, United Kingdom (2019)
President’s Science Award, Singapore (Team) (2019)
Academy of Asia-Pacific Professors of Ophthalmology (APPO) (2019)
10-year Long Service Award, Ministry of Health, Singapore (2018)
20-year Long Service Award, SSH School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (2018)
Outstanding Researcher Award, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (2017)
Outstanding Service in Prevention of Blindness Award, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) (2016)
Achievement Award, Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) (2015)
NUHS-MochtarRiady Pinnacle Excellence Award (2015)
Gold Fellow Award, The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) (2015)
Bernard Gilmartin OPO Award, College of Optometry, United Kingdom (2014)
Annals Gold Publication Award, Annals Academy of Medicine (Singapore) (2014)
World's Top 100 influential people in Ophthalmology by the Ophthalmologists (2014)
Chew Sek Jin Memorial Lecture Award, International Myopia Conference (2013)
Achievement Award, American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) (2009)
Faculty Researcher Excellence Award, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (2009)
Great Women of our Times Award, Science and Technology Category, Singapore (2006)

Research Studies

Visually-disabling pathologic myopia in the SEED and SCORM high myopia cohorts: Longitudinal changes, novel biomarkers and impact on health-related quality of life (2017 - 2019)
Impact of Pathologic myopia on vision-specific functioning and quality of life in Singaporean adults (2015 – 2019)
Myopia-2 Effects of tiotropium and umeclidinium on a myopia model in mice (2016 – 2018)
The Paediatric Eye Disease Consortium: a Pooled Analysis of Individual-Participant Data from Population-based studies (2016 – 2017)
Evaluation of the effect of sunglass protection on light illuminance levels (2016 - 2017)
Infrastructure support to establish a myopia research program in Singapore (2015 – 2018)
Randomized Controlled Trial of an Incentive-based Physical Activity Program targeting both Children and Adults (FIT-FAM) (2015 – 2017)
Whole-exome sequencing to identify genetic variants associated with severe childhood obesity, and tracking the changing prevalence of obesity related complications (2015 – 2018)
The Outdoormeter: A wearable system to prevent myopia in children (2015 – 2016)
Whole exome sequencing to identify genes for extreme myopia in Asian populations (2013 – 2015)

Publications

Tedja MS, Wojciechowski R, Hysi PG, Eriksson N, Furlotte NA, Verhoeven VJM, Iglesias AI, Meester-Smoor MA, Tompson SW, Fan Q, Khawaja AP, Cheng CY, Höhn R, Yamashiro K, Wenocur A, Grazal C, Haller T, Metspalu A, Wedenoja J, Jonas JB, Wang YX, Xie J, Mitchell P, Foster PJ, Klein BEK, Klein R, Paterson AD, Hosseini SM, Shah RL, Williams C, Teo YY, Tham YC, Gupta P, Zhao W, Shi Y, Saw WY, Tai ES, Sim XL, Huffman JE, Polašek O, Hayward C, Bencic G, Rudan I, Wilson JF; CREAM Consortium; 23andMe Research Team; UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium, Joshi PK, Tsujikawa A, Matsuda F, Whisenhunt KN, Zeller T, van der Spek PJ, Haak R, Meijers-Heijboer H, van Leeuwen EM, Iyengar SK, Lass JH, Hofman A, Rivadeneira F, Uitterlinden AG, Vingerling JR, Lehtimäki T, Raitakari OT, Biino G, Concas MP, Schwantes-An TH, Igo RP Jr, Cuellar-Partida G, Martin NG, Craig JE, Gharahkhani P, Williams KM, Nag A, Rahi JS, Cumberland PM, Delcourt C, Bellenguez C, Ried JS, Bergen AA, Meitinger T, Gieger C, Wong TY, Hewitt AW, Mackey DA, Simpson CL, Pfeiffer N, Pärssinen O, Baird PN, Vitart V, Amin N, van Duijn CM, Bailey-Wilson JE, Young TL, Saw SM, Stambolian D, MacGregor S, Guggenheim JA, Tung JY, Hammond CJ, Klaver CCW. Genome-wide association meta-analysis highlights light-induced signaling as a driver for refractive error.Nat Genet. 2018 Jun;50(6):834-848. IF: 29.352; CI: ISSN‎: ‎1061-4036)
Qiao Fan, Virginie J.M. Verhoeven, Robert Wojciechowski, Veluchamy A Barathi, Pirro G. Hysi, Jeremy A. Guggenheim, René Höhn, Veronique Vitart, Anthony P. Khawaja, Kenji Yamashiro, S. Mohsen Hosseini, Terho Lehtimäki, Yi Lu, Toomas Haller, Jing Xie, Cécile Delcourt, Mario Pirastu , Juho Wedenoja, Puya Gharahkhani, Cristina Venturini, Masahiro Miyake, Alex W. Hewitt, Xiaobo Guo, Johanna Mazur, Jenifer E. Huffman, Katie M. Williams, Ozren Polasek, Harry Campbell, Igor Rudan, Zoran Vatavuk, James F. Wilson, Peter K. Joshi, George McMahon, Beate St Pourcain, David M. Evans, Claire L. Simpson, Tae-Hwi Schwantes-An, Robert P. Igo, Jr, Alireza Mirshahi, Audrey Cougnard-Gregoire, Céline Bellenguez, Maria Blettner, Olli Raitakari, Mika Kähönen, Ilkka Seppälä, Tanja Zeller, Thomas Meitinger, Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia (CREAM), Janina S. Ried Christian Gieger, Laura Portas, Elisabeth M. van Leeuwen, Najaf Amin, André G. Uitterlinden, Fernando Rivadeneira, Albert Hofman, Johannes R. Vingerling, Ya Xing Wang, Xu Wang, Eileen Tai-Hui Boh, M. Kamran Ikram, Charumathi Sabanayagam, Preeti Gupta, Vincent Tan, Lei Zhou, Candice E H Ho, Wan’e Lim, Roger W Beuerman, Rosalynn Siantar, E-Shyong Tai, Eranga Vithana, Evelin Mihailov, Chiea-Chuen Khor, Caroline Hayward, Robert N. Luben, Paul J. Foster, Barbara E. K. Klein, Ronald Klein, Hoi-Suen Wong, Paul Mitchell, Andres Metspalu, Tin Aung, Terri L. Young, Mingguang He, Olavi Pärssinen, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Jie Jin Wang, Cathy Williams, Jost B. Jonas, Yik-Ying Teo, David A. Mackey, Konrad Oexle, Nagahisa Yoshimura, Andrew D. Paterson, Norbert Pfeiffer, Tien-Yin Wong, Paul N. Baird, Dwight Stambolian, Joan E. Bailey-Wilson, Ching-Yu Cheng, Christopher J. Hammond, Caroline C.W. Klaver, Seang-Mei Saw. Meta-analysis of gene–environment-wide association scans accounting for education level identifies additional loci for refractive error. Nat Commun. 2016 Mar 29(7):11008 (IF: 11.47; CI: ISSN: 2041-1723)
Cheng CY, Schache M, Ikram MK, Young TL, Guggenheim JA, Vitart V, MacGregor S, Verhoeven VJ, Barathi VA, Liao J, Hysi PG, Bailey-Wilson JE, St Pourcain B, Kemp JP, McMahon G, Timpson NJ, Evans DM, Montgomery GW, Mishra A, Wang YX, Wang JJ, Rochtchina E, Polasek O, Wright AF, Amin N, van Leeuwen EM, Wilson JF, Pennell CE, van Duijn CM, de Jong PT, Vingerling JR, Zhou X, Chen P, Li R, Tay WT, Zheng Y, Chew M; Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia, Burdon KP, Craig JE, Iyengar SK, Igo RP Jr, Lass JH Jr; Fuchs' Genetics Multi-Center Study Group, ChewEY, Haller T, Mihailov E, Metspalu A, Wedenoja J, Simpson CL, Wojciechowski R, Höhn R, Mirshahi A, Zeller T, Pfeiffer N, Lackner KJ; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2, Bettecken T, Meitinger T, Oexle K, Pirastu M, Portas L, Nag A, Williams KM, Yonova-Doing E, Klein R, Klein BE, Hosseini SM, Paterson AD; Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions, and Complications Research Group, Makela KM, Lehtimaki T, Kahonen M, Raitakari O, Yoshimura N, Matsuda F, Chen LJ, Pang CP, Yip SP, Yap MK, Meguro A, Mizuki N, Inoko H, Foster PJ, Zhao JH, Vithana E, Tai ES, Fan Q, Xu L, Campbell H, Fleck B, Rudan I, Aung T, Hofman A, Uitterlinden AG, Bencic G, Khor CC, Forward H, Pärssinen O, Mitchell P, Rivadeneira F, Hewitt AW, Williams C, Oostra BA, Teo YY, Hammond CJ, Stambolian D, Mackey DA, Klaver CC, Wong TY, Saw SM (joint corresponding), Baird PN. Nine loci for ocular axial length identified through genome-wide association studies, including shared loci with refractive error. Am J Hum Genet.2013;93: 264-77. (IF: 10.931; ISSN: 0002-9297)
Verhoeven VJ, Hysi PG, Wojciechowski R, Fan Q, Guggenheim JA, Höhn R, MacGregor S, Hewitt AW, Nag A, Cheng CY, Yonova-Doing E, Zhou X, Ikram MK, Buitendijk GH, McMahon G, Kemp JP, Pourcain BS, Simpson CL, Mäkelä KM, Lehtimäki T, Kähönen M, Paterson AD, Hosseini SM, Wong HS, Xu L, Jonas JB, Pärssinen O, Wedenoja J, Yip SP, Ho DW, Pang CP, Chen LJ, Burdon KP, Craig JE, Klein BE, Klein R, Haller T, Metspalu A, Khor CC, Tai ES, Aung T, Vithana E, Tay WT, Barathi VA; Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia (CREAM), Chen P, Li R, Liao J, Zheng Y, Ong RT, Döring A; Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Research Group, Evans DM, Timpson NJ, Verkerk AJ, Meitinger T, Raitakari O, Hawthorne F, Spector TD, Karssen LC, Pirastu M, Murgia F, Ang W; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 (WTCCC2), Mishra A, Montgomery GW, Pennell CE, Cumberland PM, Cotlarciuc I, Mitchell P, Wang JJ, Schache M, Janmahasathian S, Igo RP Jr, Lass JH, Chew E, Iyengar SK; Fuchs' Genetics Multi-Center Study Group, Gorgels TG, Rudan I, Hayward C, Wright AF, Polasek O, Vatavuk Z, Wilson JF, Fleck B, Zeller T, Mirshahi A, Müller C, Uitterlinden AG, Rivadeneira F, Vingerling JR, Hofman A, Oostra BA, Amin N, Bergen AA, Teo YY, Rahi JS, Vitart V, Williams C, Baird PN, Wong TY, Oexle K, Pfeiffer N, Mackey DA, Young TL, van Duijn CM, Saw SM (joint last), Bailey-Wilson JE, Stambolian D, Klaver CC, Hammond CJ. Genome-wide meta-analyses of multiancestry cohorts identify multiple new susceptibility loci for refractive error and myopia. Nat Genet. 2013 Mar;45(3):314-8. (*Joint Last author) (IF: 29.352; CI: ISSN‎: ‎1061-4036)
Fan Q, Barathi VA, Cheng CY, Zhou X, Meguro A, Nakata I, Khor CC, Goh LK, Li YJ, Lim W, Ho CE, Hawthorne F, Zheng Y, Chua D, Inoko H, Yamashiro K, Ohno-Matsui K, Matsuo K, Matsuda F, Vithana E, Seielstad M, Mizuki N, Beuerman RW, Tai ES,Yoshimura N, Aung T, Young TL, Wong TY, Teo YY, Saw SM. Genetic variants on chromosome 1q41 influence ocular axial length and high myopia. PLoS Genet. 2012; 8(6):e1002753. (IF: 7.528; ISSN · 1553-7390)
Morgan IG, Ohno-Matsui K, Saw SM. Myopia. Lancet. 2012; 379(9827):1739-48. (IF: 45.217; CI: ISSN: 0140-6736)
Khor WB, Aung T, Saw SM, Wong TY, Tambyah PA, Tan AL, Beuerman R, Tan DTH. An outbreak of Fusarium keratitis associated with contact lens wear in Singapore. JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association. 2006; 295 (24): 2867-2873. (IF: 35.289; CI: ISSN: 0098-7484)
Chong YS, Liang Y, Gazzard G, Stone RA, Saw SM. Association between breastfeeding and likelihood of myopia in children. JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association. 2005; 293:3001-2 (IF:35.289; CI: ISSN: 0098-7484)
Saw SM, Hong CY, Chia KS, Stone RA, Tan Dd. Near work and myopia in young children. Lancet. 2001; 357:390 (IF: 45.217; CI: ISSN: 0140-6736)
Saw SM, Katz J, Schein OD, Chew SJ, Chan TK. Epidemiology of myopia. Epidemiologic Review. 1996; 18 (2): 175-187. (PMID: 9021311) (IF: 6.667; CI: ISSN 0193-936X)