Invited Faculty
  • Anselm Mak
    Nat'l Univ. of Singapore
    Singapore
  • Dr Anselm Mak commenced his advanced physician training in Rheumatology and Internal Medicine in Hong Kong in 2003 after he graduated in MBBS from the University of Hong Kong in 1998 and obtained the MRCP (UK) in 2002. After completing his specialist training in December 2005 in Hong Kong, Dr Mak joined the National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore, as a clinical rheumatologist (Associate Consultant & Rheumatologist) in September 2006. In January 2018, Dr Mak was promoted to Senior Consultant & Rheumatologist of the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, NUH. Dr Mak was elected Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Ireland, London and Glasgow in 2009, 2014, 2015 and 2022, respectively.
    On the academic side, Dr Mak joined the NUS Clinician Scientist track of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSoM), National University of Singapore (NUS) in April 2008 and was subsequently awarded tenure with the University in January 2014. Dr Mak's major research areas include mechanism of early lupus-related damage in major organs, and immunopathogenesis of neurocognitive dysfunction and endothelial dysfunction in SLE. In the realm of lupus-related neurocognitive function, the major recent discoveries that Dr Mak and his team made are the involvement of the dysfunctional cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic circuit and hippocampus-amygdala uncoupling mechanism, increase in cerebral extracellular white-matter free water and global functional liberality -functional alignment uncoupling in the executive control network (ECN) in patients with SLE even before their development of neurocognitive dysfunction. In the area of endothelial function, Dr Mak and his team hitherto found the association between endothelial dysfunction and early bone loss in patients with SLE, as well as the potential beneficial role of hydroxychloroquine use in CD34+CD133+CD309+ endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) that are low in the circulation of patients with SLE. Currently, Dr Mak’s laboratory is focusing on addressing (1) the neuropathology of lupus-related neurocognitive dysfunction using multimodal magnetic resonance (MR) brain imaging techniques, and (2) the effect of B cell modulation on T cell physiology in the treatment of SLE, of which Dr Mak is the principle investigator of the investigator-led trial entitled SUBTLE (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04447053). Dr Mak’s work has been published in a number of international peer-reviewed journals including Rheumatology (Oxford), Frontiers in Immunology, Annals of Neurology, Journal of Autoimmunity, Autoimmunity Review, Arthritis & Rheumatology, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and Nature Reviews Rheumatology. Based on his original clinical and laboratory observations between 2007 and 2011, he defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Major Organ Damage in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus" which awarded him the higher research doctorate (MD) from his alma mater in November 2012. Further in January 2018, Dr Mak succeeded in defending his second doctoral thesis pertaining to his work on the double knock-out murine models (B6.MRLlpr-/-CD137L-/-) generated from his laboratory that addressed the roles of CD137 ligand (CD137Lig) in mediating lupus-related cutaneous and kidney inflammation, as well as long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampi of the murine model, leading to an award of PhD from the YLLSoM, NUS.
    Dr Mak has been representing Singapore since January 2017 as the Full Member of the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) – an international research organization of lupus experts which the SLE Disease Damage Index and the latest SLE Classification Criteria were devised (https://sliccgroup.org/). As far as editorial work is concerned, Dr Mak is currently the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases, Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, and Rheumatology (Oxford). Dr Mak also serves in the University as a member of the institution review board (IRB) of NUS, and a member of the Faculty Promotion & Tenure Committee (FPTC) of the YLLSoM, NUS.
    Dr Mak has recently participated in authoring two book chapters which have been published in Translational Autoimmunity (Advances in Autoimmune Rheumatic diseases, 1st edition, Volume 6, 2023, Elsevier) (https://www.elsevier.com/books/translational-autoimmunity-volume-6/rezaei/978-0-323-85831-1) and Dubois’ Lupus Erythematosus & Related Syndrome (10th edition, 2023, ScienceDirect, Elsevier). (https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780323479271/dubois-lupus-erythematosus-and-related-syndromes#book-info). Dubois’ Lupus Erythematosus is the standard and definitive reference text on the field of SLE since its first edition was released in 1966, edited by late Dr Edmund L Dubois .
    Research & Clinical Focus

    systemic lupus erythematosus

    neuropsychiatric

    cognitive

    brain MRI

    neuroimmunology

    • Date Time Room Session Title Lecture Title
    May 20 13:40-14:00 Room Auditorium [Concurrent Session 9] Targeting Organs Decoding neurocognitive dysfunction in SLE with advanced functional neuroimaging