Dr Ai Peng Tan is a clinician-scientist and senior consultant neuroradiologist whose work sits at the interface of advanced neuroimaging, translational neuroscience and precision mental health. She is Assistant Professor (Clinician Scientist) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Research Director in Diagnostic Radiology at NUS and National University Hospital, and Principal Investigator at A*STAR’s Institute of Human Development and Potential.
Her research programme aims to transform neuroimaging from a descriptive research tool into a clinically actionable framework for early identification, prognosis and targeted intervention in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Drawing on multimodal MRI, she investigates how early-life exposures such as prenatal adversity, maternal mental health and digital media exposure become biologically embedded in the developing brain and shape later cognitive, emotional and behavioural outcomes.
A central focus of her laboratory is the development of population-specific normative “brain charts”. By anchoring these models to behavioural domains such as executive function, social cognition and emotional regulation, her work seeks to move beyond diagnostic labels toward biologically informed stratification and precision intervention. Dr. Tan’s work builds a translational bridge from brain circuits to diagnosis, prognosis and intervention—asking not only what brain charts can reveal, but how they can change mental healthcare and improve patients’ outcome
