Setoh is Medical Lead for Vaccines at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, focusing on India and Southeast Asia (I-SEA). His work involves generating and communicating scientific data, supporting safe vaccine use, and enhancing public health outcomes. Engaging with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), he ensures accurate scientific exchange and information dissemination.

Through this joint appointment, I continue to conduct biomedical research with academic researchers. I also engage with key opinion leaders and experts in infectious disease, microbiology and immunology from local academic institutions such as NUS, NTU, DukeNUS, and A*Star, and also with international collaborators.

My appointment in this honorary senior fellow position continues my longstanding research collaborations with researchers at The University of Queensland, as well as other research institutes around Australia.

My research program focuses on mosquito-borne viruses and the diseases they cause. More than half of the world’s population live in areas with active mosquito-transmitted diseases, and >3.9 billion people in ~128 countries are at risk of dengue virus alone.Three examples demonstrate my program’s research impact and translational outcomes.1) My program’s research on Zika virus (ZIKV) showed that viral mutations were unlikely to be the cause of the unprecedented outbreak (Setoh et al., Viruses, 2018; PMID: 30282919). This shifted focus to other factors such as population susceptibility, mosquito vectorial capacity, host factors, etc. I was invited by leaders in my field to co-author an op-ed (Trends in Microbiology, 2019. 27(5); PMID: 30826180), warning on the dangers of assigning different “risk levels” to different ZIKV strains, and that genotypic variations of ZIKV strains should not influence the breadth and depth of public health responses.2) Vaccines developed from my program include live attenuated ZIKV (Setoh et al., Nature Microbiology, 2019; PMID: 30886357), an adenoviral-vectored Zika/Chikungunya virus vaccine (Nature Communications. 2018, 9(1):1230; PMID: 29581442), as well as vaccines against ZIKV, West Nile and dengue viruses based on the insect-specific flavivirus (ISF) platform (Science Translational Medicine. 2019. 11(522); PMID: 31826984). A patent of our ISF technology PAT-02278-AU was also filed in Australia & internationally (India,Brazil,US), and non-human primate (NHP) pre-clinical trials a next step in the program.3) My program developed vaccines and antibody therapeutics against Ebola virus, tested in pre-clinical trials in NHPs (SciRep, 2017, 7:41537; PMID: 28155869). This addressed an important gap in the response against Ebola outbreaks, by innovating towards the development of a low-cost post-exposure therapeutic that can protect first-responders and front-line healthcare workers in an Ebola outbreak setting.

I lead a group of scientists and research students within the Virology Branch of EHI. In this role, we served the public health interest of Singapore by conducting applied research that aims to better understand the vector-borne diseases that pose a threat to Singapore by contributing to dengue surveillance, as well as responding to various infectious disease outbreaks and emergencies in Singapore. On top of deep scientific research knowledge, the work requires:- Leadership in project management, strategic planning, and building good working relationships across academia, industry and government agencies.- Intimate understanding of dengue vector control operational work and broader organisational goals. - Developing technical guidelines and manage the listing and evaluation of antimicrobial disinfectant products in accordance with EPA guidelines, ISO21702 and EN17272. - Experienced with working in high-containment biomedical research facilities (BSL3 laboratories).- Experienced in ensuring compliance with bioethics and regulatory bodies (e.g. IRB/DSRB, GMAC, MOH Biosafety).- Consolidate and package scientific information to effectively communicate to top management of varying technical backgrounds, with implications for policy and planning.- Communicate research findings at internal seminars and workshops, as well as national and international scientific conferences.

Expressed and purified West Nile virus recombinant antigens for application on Luminex multiplex immunoassay in a serology study.