Saima Hilal

Saima Hilal is an Assistant Professor at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Department of Pharmacology, with affiliations at the National University Health System's Memory Aging and Cognition Center and Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam. Her research focuses on neurodegenerative and vascular diseases, leveraging neuroimaging, epidemiology, and biomarkers to address underdiagnosed conditions like dementia in Asian populations.

Education: PhD in Medicine (2016, NUS), MPH (2013, NUS), MD (2006, Dow Medical College, Pakistan).

Research interests include Alzheimer’s disease, cerebrovascular pathologies, and cardiovascular risk factors. Notable grants include a Bright Focus Foundation grant on cerebral microinfarcts and a Start-up grant on cardiovascular disease prevention. She has pioneered methods like WMH-DualTasker for neuroimaging analysis and developed predictive models for cognitive decline using retinal and plasma biomarkers.

• Awards: World Heart Federation Emerging Leaders Programme, Travel grants from Alzheimer’s Association and Vascular Behavioral Disorders Society.
• Teaching: Advanced Epidemiology, Public Health Aging, Non-Communicable Diseases.

Her work bridges clinical and population-based studies, emphasizing multi-ethnic cohorts and machine learning applications. She leads initiatives like the DEBBIE-AD study on blood-brain barrier biomarkers and the SEACURE consensus for mild cognitive impairment management in Southeast Asia.