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Chen Luxi is a Senior Scientist with the Social Sciences department under A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. She was previously a research fellow with the National University of Singapore. 

Her research interests lie in developmental psychology and applied psychology, with a focus on child development, self-regulation, family processes, stress mindset and coping, and mental health. Notable projects she has been involved in include the òòò½ÍøLongitudinal Early Development Study (SG-LEADS) where she the study team investigated how child-, parent-, family-, school-, and community-level factors contribute to children's development across multiple domains (cognitive, socioemotional, behavioural, academic, physical, and mental health), as well as maternal wellness and family functioning in Singapore; the Modelling and Optimising Homecare and Caregiving Services for the Elderly (HOCAMOSE) project that is focused on improving the efficiency and quality of homecare and caregiving services for the elderly through data-driven modeling and optimisation, with the goal of enhancing older adults' physical and psychological well-being; and the Role-play Intervention Programme to Improve Theory-of-Mind among Preschoolers in Singapore, which developed and implemented a role-play intervention aimed at enhancing preschoolers' theory-of-mind development, while examining the role of executive functions and teacher coaching in fostering children's social-emotional understanding.

Chen obtained her BSc in Psychology from the Beijing Normal University her Master of Counselling from Monash University, and her PhD in Psychology from the Nanyang Technological University.

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Chen Xuejiao is a Senior Scientist with the Social Sciences department under A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. She was previously a research fellow with the National University of Singapore. 

Her research interests focus on early childhood development and family well-being. She employs quantitative methods such as structural equation modeling, fixed effects modeling, and propensity score analysis to evaluate how environmental factors like family background, food insecurity, and COVID-19, affect young children’s test scores, behaviour problems, and physical health.

Chen has been involved in the òòò½ÍøLongitudinal Early Development Study (SG-LEADS) since its first wave. The study collects data from 5,005 Singaporean children aged six and below at baseline, and follows the same children over time. She has contributed to the sample design, questionnaire design, survey operation, and the construction of sampling weights and norms for test scores.

She received her PhD from the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore.

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Preeti Dhanasekaran is a Senior Scientist with A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. She previously spent nearly a decade at the National University of Singapore, where she led and managed multidisciplinary research programmes spanning autoimmunity, neurocognitive outcomes, digital health adoption, and national registry-based studies.

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Gao Ge is a Scientist with the Social Sciences department under A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. She was previously a postdoctoral research fellow at the European University Institute, Italy. 

Her research interests focus on gender, work, and family; children’s development; social stratification; social aspects of health and well-being; and quantitative methods. 

She received her BA in Sociology from Wuhan University, her MA in Sociology from Nanjing University, and her MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of Maryland.

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Molly Grant is a Scientist with A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. She was previously a Research Fellow for the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and Children at the Victoria University of Wellington.

Her research interests lie in child and adolescent development, family life, social and economic factors, and longitudinal research. Her doctoral research used a life course framework to examine social and economic circumstances across childhood and children’s health and development. The use of longitudinal analytic techniques in this research meant the duration and timing of childhood experiences could be considered together, giving direction for policy interventions and family support strategies.

Grant has prior working experience in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland as part of the research team at the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) birth cohort study. GUiNZ is the largest contemporary study of child development in New Zealand and follows the lives of more than 6,000 children and their families longitudinally. 

Much of her research to date has focused on material hardship – a key indicator of poverty. She has also worked as a Research Fellow for the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families and Children at the Victoria University of Wellington, identifying key interventions that target the reduction of material hardship in the short- to medium-term. 

Grant obtained both her Master and PhD in Education from the University of Auckland.

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Lu Shuya is a Scientist with the Social Sciences department under A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. She was previously a research fellow with the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Her research interests focus on family, migration and child development. Lu has been involved in the òòò½ÍøLongitudinal Early Development Study (SG-LEADS). Collecting data from 5,005 Singaporean children aged six and below at baseline and following the same children over time, the study investigates how child-, parent-, family-, school-, and community-level factors contribute to children's development across multiple domains (cognitive, socioemotional, behavioural, academic, physical, and mental health), as well as maternal wellness and family functioning in Singapore.

Lu obtained her BA in Sociology, Education and MA in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine; and her PhD in Sociology from the National University of Singapore. 

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Kristy Lee is a Scientist with the Social Sciences department under A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. Prior to joining A*STAR, Lee completed her postdoctoral training as a research fellow at the Centre for Holistic Initiatives for Learning and Development (CHILD) and thereafter as a research fellow with the Human Potential Translational Research Programme at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Lee’s research interests lie in child development, sociomoral cognition, and social inequalities. During graduate school, she led several experimental studies on early prosociality, including investigations into preschool children’s norm enforcement, helping, and resource distribution, as well as observational studies on early-emerging racial biases. Lee is presently part of the research team for the òòò½ÍøLongitudinal EArly Development Study (SG-LEADS) led by Professor Jean Yeung. Her current research focuses on the longitudinal impact of non-parental care on children’s achievement and socioemotional adjustment.

Lee obtained her Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons) in Psychology from the National University of Singapore, and her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Nanyang Technological University.

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Li Nanxun is a Scientist with the Social Sciences department under A*STAR IHDP's Human Development domain. Prior to joining A*STAR, Li was a research fellow at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

Li’s research interests lie in family sociology, social policy, fatherhood, parenting, and child development. Li is part of the research team for the òòò½ÍøLongitudinal EArly Development Study (SG-LEADS) and she was involved in the Study on Family Status Discrimination in the Workplace in Hong Kong.

She was presented the second prize for Best Student Paper Award by the Population Association of òòò½Íø in 2023, and received a research scholarship from the Centre for Family and Population Research at NUS from 2019 to 2023.

Li obtained her BA in Bilingual Interdisciplinary Chinese Studies from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, her MA in Social Policy from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and her PhD in Sociology from the National University of Singapore. 

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Lucas Shen’s research at A*STAR IHDP involves leading data-intensive quantitative research on the interactions between the family environment (e.g. paternal vs maternal factors) and the broader environment (neighbourhood social, urban, and built environment) on early childhood development (physical, social, and mental well-being).

His key projects harmonise and link geospatiotemporal data with cohort studies before applying causal inference and quasi-experimental design, and his research also applies novel unstructured big data and machine learning to answer policy-relevant questions in socio-economic behaviour and political economy. He advocates reproducible science and contributes to open scientific software.

He obtained his BSc in Economics & Management from the University of London International Programmes (First Class Honours), and MSc and PhD (Economics) from Nanyang Technological University.

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Currently a scientist with A*STAR IHDP, Narasimhan Kothandaraman previously held similar positions with King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, Cleveland Clinic in the U.S., and University of Western Cape in South Africa.

He specialises in exposome research focusing on biological ageing, menopausal health, and metabolic changes through metabolomics, lipidomics, microbiome and exposomics analysis.

As Principal Investigator of the SG-PRIME Study (òòò½ÍøPopulation Research on Integrated exposoMe & Early menopause), funded by the National Medical Research Council, this multi-ethnic Asian ageing cohort investigates environmental exposures, metabolic changes, and health outcomes in women, emphasising menopausal complications and healthy aging. He also contributes to the Growing Up in òòò½ÍøTowards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) and òòò½ÍøPREconception Study of long-Term maternal and child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) cohorts, investigating early-life exposures, metabolic programming, developmental origins of health, ageing, and menopause across the lifespan. His research extends to pediatric obesity, mental health, and sexual dimorphism.

Kothandaraman received his PhD from the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of òòò½Íøfor his work on metabolomics of phenylpropanoid mutants in 2003. Subsequently, he worked as a research fellow at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at the National University Health System in the field of biomarker discovery for prenatal diagnosis and gynaecological malignancies using MS platforms. He joined the Systems Biology and Biomarker Discovery group at A*STAR IHDP in 2017.

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Having been with A*STAR IHDP since 2010, Suresh Anand Sadananthan is a Research Scientist under the Human Development programme.

Sadananthan’s research focuses on obesity and muscle health, with a particular interest in how body fat distribution and muscle quality relate to cardiometabolic risk across the life course. His work spans adults and children, integrating advanced imaging and physiological assessments to study adiposity, muscle health, and their metabolic consequences.

He develops and applies MRI- and spectroscopy-based biomarkers to characterise abdominal and ectopic fat depots and leverages deep-learning-based image analysis methods for automated segmentation of MR images. His research also includes detailed phenotyping and longitudinal tracking of abdominal fat distribution in children.

Actively involved in GUSTO and S-PRESTO studies on maternal and early life determinants of childhood obesity and metabolic disorders, Sadananthan has expanded the investigation of body fat partitioning in the developmental cohorts at A*STAR IHDP to include MRI-based assessment of cardiac fat, structure, and function to examine early life risk factors for future cardiovascular and metabolic health. Through these combined efforts, he aims to advance the understanding of how early-life and adult determinants of obesity and muscle health shape long-term cardiometabolic outcomes.

He obtained his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Madras, India, his Master of Technology from the University of Mysore, India, and his PhD in Computer Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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Candida Vaz has been with A*STAR IHDP since 2018. Prior to joining the institute, Vaz was with the A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute for almost seven years where she was involved in projects primarily related to next generation sequencing data analysis.

Vaz is a scientist dedicated to advancing understanding of the paternal origins of health and disease, focusing on how a father’s biology, lifestyle, and environment shape reproductive outcomes and influence child health across the life course. By integrating multiomics datasets with clinical, environmental, and behavioral information, she investigates the biological networks that connect paternal health to early developmental programming. Her work aims to identify molecular signatures and pathways that explain how paternal factors contribute to fertility outcomes, intergenerational risk, and long-term health trajectories.

A major pillar of Vaz’s research is translating RNA biology particularly small non-coding RNAs and microRNAs into clinically meaningful diagnostic solutions. Her vision is to bridge fundamental RNA discoveries with real-world medical needs, developing molecular diagnostics that are robust, scalable, and suitable for point-of-care use. Through this translational approach, she aims to contribute to the next generation of precision diagnostics that empower personalised care and improve reproductive and family health outcomes.

Vaz’s scientific contributions have been recognised through several competitive awards, including the A*STAR Career Development Fund (2021), A*STAR Pitch Fest (2023), and the A*START Central Open Mike (2025). These achievements underscore her commitment to transforming molecular insights into impactful healthcare solutions. Her long-term goal is to build integrated molecular platforms that enhance how reproductive health is monitored and managed benefiting aspiring parents, clinicians, and wellness driven individuals.

She holds a PhD in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

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Zhang Han's scientific work focuses on the human brain and behaviour development, particularly in the influences of brain and behaviour development in children and adolescents, and the psychobiological resilience of individuals.

Her professional expertise includes statistical data analysis, data analytics, programming, cognitive neuroscience, and MRI, while her research interests lie in the individual difference of brain networks in a developmental perspective; transgenerational transmission of maternal adversity; and neurocognitive development study with large-scale big data.

Zhang obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Qufu Normal University, and her PhD in Developmental and Educational Psychology from the Beijing Normal University.

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Priti Mishra's research interests lie in developing new statistical models, and the application of various statistical methods and bioinformatics tools to derive biologically relevant information from multi-omics data.

She leads projects in molecular epidemiology focussing on cardiometabolic health, fatty liver, kidney health and neurodevelopment and has extensive experience in multi-omic data analysis. Mishra has worked on projects that longitudinally profile the associations of various maternal as well as early-life risk factors on child metabolic and neurodevelopmental health, using multi-omics platforms, and is currently spearheading multiple projects that focus on deploying machine learning to develop multi-omics-based predictive models to predict incidence of chronic diseases.

Mishra obtained her PhD in Metabolomics from the National University of Singapore.

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Alyssa Ng’s research interests lie in understanding lifestyle and environmental influences affecting mental health and cognitive outcomes. Presently, her work at A*STAR IHDP focuses on studying the effects of maternal health during pregnancy and early-life exposures on child neurodevelopment, and underlying brain-body connections.

During her PhD studies, she designed and led projects which involved collecting real-time data from participants across days using a combination of health tracking wearables and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) smartphone applications to capture insights into how sleep patterns impacted mental well-being and continuous blood sugar in healthy adults, while controlling dietary factors.

Ng obtained her BA (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Melbourne, and earned her PhD at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

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Bryan Ng’s research focuses on human biological ageing and how it interacts with cognitive impairments, and dementia risks and pathologies caused by underlying age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.  

He previously held a visiting research fellow position at the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London studying cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of ageing in Alzheimer’s disease patients. He found that the levels of soluble factors associated with cellular senescence – one of the major hallmarks of ageing – can differentiate Alzheimer’s disease patients from age-matched individuals. Prior to his post-doctoral work, he used human stem cell models of Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease in multiple research projects. During his PhD studies, he demonstrated that human donor-specific stem cell models in a dish can reflect clinical outcomes of Alzheimer’s disease patients. 

Trained in studying human stem cell models and fluid biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases, he is particularly interested in working at the interface between clinical and preclinical studies focusing on biological ageing, which is the strongest risk factor for many chronic diseases such as dementia. His research will focus on early ageing and its association with dementia risks in middle-aged Asians from the cohorts at A*STAR IHDP. Through his research, he aims to improve overall healthspan of individuals who may be at risk of cognitive decline due to age-related neurodegenerative diseases. 

Ng obtained his Bachelor of Science (Hons) in life sciences specialising in molecular and cell biology with a minor in biophysics from the National University of Singapore, before obtaining his DPhil from the University of Oxford on molecular neurodegeneration. He received the National Science Scholarship from A*STAR to pursue his DPhil studies during which he received the Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Early Career Award, Travel Award and the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies’ Travel Award. After joining A*STAR IHDP, he secured a Career Development Fund awarded by A*STAR and a Young Investigator Award from the Global Association for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases.

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Alicia Salamanca-Sanabria is a clinical psychologist and digital health researcher with over a decade of clinical experience. Her PhD was focused on digital interventions for depression and resilience.

Her work bridges mental health, sleep, lifestyle, and technology to develop holistic, evidence-based digital solutions for preventing and treating common mental disorders (CMDs) and reducing risks for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). She integrates clinical psychology, behavioural science, and human-centred design to create scalable, culturally relevant interventions across the lifespan.

Salamanca-Sanabria leads the DREAMS project, funded by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, which combines co-designed digital CBT-I App with Oura Ring data and QEEG technology to enhance adolescent sleep, cognitive functioning, and mental well-being.

Alessandro Sparacio is a Scientist at A*STAR's IHDP, dedicated to advancing mental health research with a focus on cognition, mood, and stress. His work centres on understanding and developing effective, accessible stress-reduction strategies.

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Besides her role at A*STAR IHDP, Noor Hidayatul Aini Bte Suaini is also a research associate with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

She started her research journey in paediatric food allergy during her Honours year at the University of Melbourne where she looked into the epidemiology and genetics of vitamin D deficiency which is known to be one of the risk factors for food allergy in Australian children living in Melbourne. Since then, her research has primarily focused on investigating the environmental and genetic risk factors for food allergy in Australian children compared to Asian children who are residing in Australia. While she predominantly works on food allergy, she has also explored other atopic diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis.

A significant project she has worked on is the HealthNuts study, a population-based longitudinal study of food allergy comprising 5,300 infants in Melbourne, Australia. The infants were recruited when they were a year old and were followed up at age two, four, six and 10. Given the comprehensive nature of the study and data collected, the HealthNuts study has formed the basis of all her past research work.

Her current work was supported by the A*STAR Career Development Fund (2022) and focuses on the interplay between antenatal factors, child’s skin microbiome, immune system, and genetics in influencing a child’s risk of atopic dermatitis. She was also awarded the Open Fund - Young Individual Research Grant in 2025 to explore how placental immune markers and preconception/prenatal risk factors influence the onset of atopic dermatitis in children

She obtained both her Bachelor of Science and PhD from the University of Melbourne.

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Sun Lijuan’s research focuses on the role of nutrition and food composition in regulating glycaemic and insulinemic response to prevent obesity and diabetes.

In collaboration with industry partners and academic institutes, Sun has worked on projects such as the activation of brown adipose tissue to regulate energy expenditure and thyroid hormones in healthy humans and hyperthyroid patients; how the food sequence or macronutrient composition affects postprandial glycaemic and insulinemic responses; and how chronic nutraceuticals and cold exposure induce the white adipose tissue browning process.

Sun obtained her PhD from the Institute for Nutritional Science in China and subsequently did her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kentucky. She also spent six months as a visiting scholar at the Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland and seven months at the Yale School of Medicine.

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Hannah Yong’s research interests lie in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying pregnancy disorders and adverse developmental programming, with the goal of identifying novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets to improve maternal and child health.

Her current work leverages on the observational GUSTO and S-PRESTO mother-child cohorts to investigate how lipid and tryptophan metabolism influence pregnancy outcomes and developmental programming, spanning the domains of maternal mental and metabolic health and offspring allergic, cardiometabolic and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Additionally, she is involved in the NiPPeR and AMulet clinical trials that explore how nutritional interventions can optimise health outcomes for mothers and their children. Her research is supported by the A*STAR Career Development Fund and an NMRC Open Fund Young Investigator Research Grant.

She has received many awards, including the A*STAR Star Mentor Award and the A*STAR Career Development Fund Day Outstanding Poster Award in 2024, the DOHaD Society Brain Mobility Award and the Society for Reproductive Investigation Early Career Investigator Travel Award in 2023, the EGOI Fellowship from the Experts Group on Inositol in Basic and Clinical Research in 2022, the Arthur Nyulasy Prize from The University of Melbourne in 2021 and the A*STAR International Fellowship in 2017.

She is also currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Reproductive Physiology at the National University of Singapore.

Yong obtained both her Bachelor of Biomedicine (Honours) and PhD from The University of Melbourne.

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