ŌURA and NUS open joint lab in efforts to advance personalised preventive health

The new Singapore-based joint lab brings together wearable biometric data and sleep science expertise with the aim to explore how everyday habits shape long-term health and wellbeing.

ŌURA, a smart ring maker, and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have opened a new joint research lab aimed at advancing personalised preventive health.

Announced in a joint statement published by EDB, the Oura-NUS joint lab is located at NUS and brings together continuous, real-world biometric data from ŌURA with the university’s longstanding expertise in sleep science, physiological data analysis and cognitive neuroscience.

Combining wearable data with sleep science

The lab is a collaboration between ŌURA, maker of the Oura Ring, and the Centre for Sleep and Cognition (CSC) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS Medicine. Its focus is to study how sleep and physical activity influence broader aspects of health, with the aim of improving long-term health outcomes.

By integrating continuous biometric data from approved research studies with academic research capabilities, the joint lab seeks to support a shift from reactive healthcare to more proactive and preventive approaches. Insights generated are expected to inform individuals, clinicians and health systems on how everyday behaviours affect health over time.

Building on a six-year research partnership

The launch builds on more than six years of collaboration between ŌURA and NUS across multiple research projects. These have included studies evaluating the accuracy of the Oura Ring’s sleep tracking, examining differences in sleep variability across countries, and exploring the impact of travel-related sleep disruption.

Previous research has also looked at how day-to-day changes in wearable biometric data can provide signals related to cardiovascular health and disease risk.

The new joint lab will expand this body of work through multi-year studies designed to examine how real-world sleep patterns and daily behaviours influence long-term health outcomes, both at the individual and population levels.

According to Dr Shyamal Patel, Senior Vice President of Science, ŌURA, the collaboration reflects the need for strong scientific foundations when it comes to changing health behaviours.

"With this Joint Lab, we’re expanding that work to tackle some of the world’s most pressing preventive health challenges,” he shared.

Singapore as a base for preventive health research

The Oura-NUS joint lab is ŌURA’s first research entity in the APAC region, highlighting Singapore’s role as a strategic hub for international growth, health innovation, and public-private collaboration

With the lab based in Singapore, both parties aim to contribute to national priorities around preventive health and healthy longevity, while developing data-driven models that can be applied across APAC and global populations.

Professor Michael Chee, Director of the Centre for Sleep and Cognition, NUS Medicine, said the joint lab would accelerate efforts to reduce the burden of chronic disease.

“By pairing Ōura’s continuous biometric data with our expertise in sleep science and behaviour change, we can test new ways of giving people timely and relevant feedback that help them make optimal lifestyle choices every day for better health outcomes,” he added.

Lead image / EDB

ALSO READ: Singapore’s revised Integrated Shield Plan Rider Framework: Minister Ong clarifies details on the new rules