Research and knowledge is what lies between merely shielding a country from emerging infectious diseases and allowing an epidemic to occur.

One of the key goals of the Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) Programme is to set up a world-class regional infectious disease center for reference and research in the Asia-Pacific region.

The mission of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS is to pioneer the development and discovery of new and more effective methods for the detection, treatment, prevention and control of new and emerging pathogens. The key outcome of the research will be the early identification of new pathogens, out of which new diagnostic tests, treatments and control strategies will also be developed. This is aided by harnessing the talents at Duke-NUS and those at partner organisations like NUS, NTU, SingHealth, the National Centre for Infectious Disease, the A*STAR institutes and the DSO National Laboratories.

Notably, the EID Programme is working towards developing partnerships throughout the region with the development of laboratory and epidemiologic capacity, training scientists and physicians from partnering countries to make Singapore a viable surveillance hub for emerging infectious diseases. An example of such a partnership is the Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre (ViREMiCS), a joint research institute set up between SingHealth and Duke-NUS. ViREMiCS collaborates with academia and industry to facilitate vaccine development at the early clinical development stage, with the overarching goal of accelerating the translation of vaccine and therapeutics through the development of molecular correlates of safety and efficacy.