NUSRI China has been advancing deep technology in areas such as medicine, food and mobility. While these innovations require heavy investments and may take years to develop, their successful commercialisation will build a better future for all.
 
Over the 11 years since the establishment of its first research institute in Suzhou, NUSRI China has successfully incubated 104 startups, with 25 in this year alone. It has also secured S$49.8 million in research grants since, with over a hundred principal investigators actively leading research work in the institutes.
 
“NUSRI China and BLOCK71 China together serve as a nexus of global resources and networks providing a full range of services to support tech startups at every stage,” says Ms Xu Qingji, Associate Director at NUSRI China. “We help Singapore’s deep tech startups to connect with government agencies, large enterprises, investment and financing institutions and other resources for them to gain access to the China market.
 
Here, we feature four innovations that can transform our daily lives.
 
Revolutionising The Future Of Retinal Diagnostics
 
EyRIS (Chongqing) Al Technology Co. Ltd, a joint venture set up by a Singaporean company EyRIS Pte Ltd and their Chinese partner Aurora International Trading Ltd, aims to raise the standard of healthcare delivery by developing and deploying AI Deep Learning System (DLS) in the healthcare industry. Its core product, Singapore Eye LEsioN Analyzer (SELENA+) is a deep tech product that can automatically detect multiple retinal diseases using a patient’s retina image. SELENA+ can simultaneously process large amounts of data and reduce diagnosis time from an hour to three minutes. Indeed, by making the detection of retinal diseases faster, cheaper and more consistent, the future of retinal diagnostics looks set to be revolutionised.
 
Originally invented by clinicians and technologists from Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and NUS School of Computing, SELENA+’s breakthrough machine learning technology relies on representation-learning methods to convert natural data into its raw form, then analyses the data to sieve out intricate patterns and structure inherent in the data presented.
 
EyRIS was incubated in BLOCK71 Chongqing on 25 January 2021, made possible by a funding amount of CNY900,000 from the local government. Establishing itself in BLOCK71 Chongqing was integral to helping EyRIS take off. The fledgling startup could tap into the resources and government-level networks offered by the incubation programme to improve their business plans, marketing strategies, market research and intellectual property development.
 
Plans are underway for EyRIS to collaborate with major public hospitals and key medical institutions in Chongqing in areas such as ophthalmology and disease screening.