Research initiative BloodCounts launched a medical project in Singapore to build artificial intelligence models that analyse full blood count tests for early disease detection.
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 26 October 2026 – BloodCounts! is the first healthcare project hosted by the Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES) in the centre's 13-year history, with local hospital partners National University Health System (NUHS) and SingHealth. The project will use advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal new patterns from the complete blood count (CBC)* test and create opportunities for earlier disease detection in Singapore and worldwide.
Led by Professor Weisi Lin (Nanyang Technological University) and Professor Michael Roberts (University of Cambridge), BloodCounts! brings together researchers and clinicians from across Singapore and the UK.
Healthcare systems perform 10 million CBC tests daily, yet much of the information embedded within these tests is not fully utilised despite containing valuable medical signals.
BloodCounts! will use CBC measurement data to build frontier AI models to discover subtle alterations in blood cells across a range of diseases, thereby deploying these predictive tools to support early diagnosis, prognosis, and clinical decision-making. The value lies in using information that is already generated without additional burden to the patient or clinicians.
This work will build on a growing international Consortium that first started at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge with data from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Cambridge University Hospitals and rapidly expanded to the Biomedical Research Centres of Barts Health Hospitals and University College London Hospitals. Now the BloodCounts! Consortium includes members from academic research centres in Belgium, The Gambia, Ghana, India and the Netherlands. NUHS and SingHealth join the Consortium as the first Singapore partners.
Research Professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Professor Michael Roberts, said:
"Healthcare is one of the most challenging domains in which to develop AI applications. Deep partnership between mathematicians, clinicians, and software engineers allows us to develop AI models which are anchored in rigorous mathematics, informed by real-world clinical practice and which are available openly to researchers globally. Operating at global scale, with hospitals in Europe, Africa, and Asia gives us the diversity of patients required to build equitable AI models."
Head of Division & Senior Consultant, Haematology Division, Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Dr Lee Shir Ying, said:
"NUHS' participation helps ensure that characteristics of Singapore's population are represented in a large, diverse international dataset, strengthening the Consortium's ability to build tools that are relevant across different healthcare settings. NUHS will support the project through the provision of robust, anonymised CBC and clinical data, as well as scientific input from experts in haematology, laboratory medicine, oncology, neurology, and biomedical informatics."
Deputy Group Chief Medical Informatics Officer (Research), SingHealth, and Deputy Chairman, Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Professor Iain Tan, said:
"SingHealth helps bridge the gap between scientific discovery and real-world healthcare impact through our trusted clinical data infrastructure, rich multimodal healthcare datasets, deep clinical expertise, and strong translational research capabilities spanning cancer, neuroscience, clinical informatics, and artificial intelligence. Through BloodCounts! we are working with our international partners to uncover clinically meaningful signals within routine full blood counts that could support earlier disease detection, more precise risk stratification and more personalised care. Together, our goal is to derive greater value from data already generated in routine care to improve outcomes for patients."
The research team will host a launch event on Thursday 29 October to formally meet with researchers, clinicians, and project partners. The event will provide an opportunity to understand the project's aims, partner contributions, expected work in the coming months, and the impacts to the healthcare sector.
As the University of Cambridge's first research centre outside the UK, CARES is well positioned in research grant management and international collaboration and naturally became the host for the BloodCounts! project in Singapore. BloodCounts! is supported by a generous award from the National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF) under the AI-for-Science (AI4S) initiative and joins the national funding initiative as one project out of eight to accelerate scientific discovery using AI in multiple domains.
*Complete Blood Count (CBC) is also known in the UK and Singapore as Full Blood Count (FBC).
Media are welcome to attend the launch event on 29 October. To arrange attendance or an interview with the research team, please reach out to the media contact, Olivia Lee.
View the media release by NRF on the launch of the eight inaugural projects under the SGD$120m AI-for-Science (AI4S) programme.
Annex A: Full list of PIs and their affiliated universities and/or institutions Prof. Weisi LIN (Nanyang Technological University) and Prof. Michael ROBERTS (University of Cambridge) are the Lead Principal Investigators.
All other Principal Investigators are listed in alphabetical order with their universities and/or institutions:
- Dr. Nicholas GLEADALL (University of Cambridge)
- Prof. Hui JI (National University of Singapore)
- Prof. Mickey KOH (St George's Hospital, London; Advanced Cell Therapy and Research Institute, Singapore)
- Prof. Hwee Kuan LEE (A*STAR)
- Prof. Parashkev NACHEV (University College London Hospitals)
- Prof. Willem H. OUWEHAND (University of Cambridge)
- Prof. Carola-Bibiane SCHÖNLIEB (University of Cambridge)
- Dr. Suthesh SIVAPALARATNAM (Barts Health Hospitals, London)
- Dr. Chuen Wen TAN (SingHealth)
- Prof. Iain TAN (SingHealth)
All collaborators are listed in alphabetical order with their universities and/or institutions:
- Dr. Jason CHAN (SingHealth)
- Dr. Christopher Li-Hsian CHEN (National University of Singapore)
- Dr. Deidre Anne DE SILVA (SingHealth)
- Dr. Alagappan GHANDI (A*STAR)
- Dr. Boon Cher GOH (National University Health System)
- Dr. Shir Ying LEE (National University Health System)
- Dr. Tan Minh NGUYEN (National University of Singapore)
- Prof. Malini OLIVO (A*STAR)
- Dr. Carlum SHIU (Sysmex Asia Pacific Pte Ltd)
- Prof. Charles SWANTON (University College London Hospitals)
- Dr. Ryan Shea TAN (SingHealth)
- Dr. Joseph TAYLOR (Barts Health Hospitals, London)
- Prof. David WERRING (University College London Hospitals)
https://www.cares.cam.ac.uk/
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
By Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES)