For A/Prof Lim Su Chi, understanding diabetes is more than a scientific pursuit—it’s a deeply personal mission to improve lives. As Clinical Director of the Clinical Research Unit at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and an endocrinologist of over 35 years, his work has contributed to how we care for patients with diabetes in Singapore.

At the heart of A/Prof Lim’s work is the belief that diabetes is a “model disease” for many other complex conditions—if we can tackle it effectively, we gain deeper insights to better manage many other chronic illnesses. Over the past two decades, his team has built three large diabetes cohorts (with over 10,000 participants and more than 350,000 biobank samples), laying the foundation for breakthroughs in precision diabetes care. One example is the subtyping of type 2 diabetes into major biologically meaningful and clinically actionable subgroups. This may inform management strategies customized to each subtype to improve care and outcome. 

But research, for him, is not just about publications—it’s about people. After 16 years as a consultant, he took the uncommon step of pursuing a PhD in molecular epidemiology, balancing long hours in the lab with patient care. “It was a lot of self-navigation,” he recalls. What kept him going? A quiet determination to serve, and a vision he summarizes in three words: People, Host, and Dream—the relationships that sustained him, the community that supported him, and the dream that gave his purpose.

His research has sparked practice-changing insights. For instance, he discovered that Asians tend to develop diabetes at a younger age and at a lower obesity-burden than Western populations, prompting how we screen and counsel patients. His team also championed the identification of “monogenic diabetes,” a lesser-known genetic form affecting younger adults, often misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated. To date, more than 800 eligible patients have undergone genetic testing—and several were able to switch from multiple daily insulin injections to simpler oral medications, leading to better blood glucose control and radically improving quality of life.

A/Prof Lim is also passionate about mentoring the next generation of clinician-scientists. “Hard work becomes bearable once we see meaning and hope in what we’re doing,” he says. It’s this sense of purpose—coupled with a childlike curiosity—that keeps him young at heart.