Evelyn Loo
A*STAR Institute for Human Development and Potential, Singapore
A Senior Principal Scientist at A*STAR IHDP, Evelyn Loo is also an adjunct assistant professor at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Department of Paediatrics.
Her research interests include examining environmental influences during the early years of one’s life – such as nutrition, microbiome and exogenous stressors – that affect epigenetic plasticity and immunological maturation during development. Loo’s work revolves around the study of epidemiology of a child’s health as well as identifying critical periods where environmental microbiome can exert the most influence, identifying factors that can affect environmental microbiome, and understanding the interactions between environmental microbiome and allergens, with outcomes on the skin microbiome and the subsequent development of non-communicable diseases. She hopes that her research will be useful in the implementation of strategies to prevent childhood diseases.
Loo is currently leading the Population Mental Health Risk Prediction (PRISMS) study, which is commissioned by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Housing & Development Board as part of the Ministry of National Development's Cities of Tomorrow (CoT) R&D programme. The PRISMS study aims to investigate the impact of the urban built environment on mental well-being in Singapore. This will be done through a multi-pronged approach that includes creating a harmonised mental well-being index, evaluating the current research landscape, and studying how different areas in Singapore affect mental health. The study will also look at how urban factors, such as the environment and indoor spaces, impact mental well-being by measuring stress level, examine how family and individual factors can influence the effects of neighborhood environments, and explore how built and natural environments can help counter negative impacts using data collected during the COVID-19 period in 2019.
Before joining A*STAR IHDP, Loo was a postdoctoral fellow at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Department of Paediatrics where she studied the epidemiology of allergic diseases in children. She now continues her research in the field of developmental origins of health and disease at A*STAR IHDP with the GUSTO and S-PRESTO birth cohort studies.
She obtained her PhD in biomedical sciences from the National University of Singapore through the NUS research scholarship.
