Singapore announced a new $100 million skin research centre on Thursday. It will be dedicated to research into areas such as skin ageing and diseases like eczema and pigmentation disorders.

Called the Skin Research Institute of Singapore, it is founded by three partners: the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the National Skin Centre and Nanyang Technological University. It will eventually be housed in Novena.

One in three people worldwide suffers from a skin disorder, and the diseases also affect Asian and Caucasian people differently. Singapore is an ideal place to investigate the diseases partly because of its multi-ethnic population, the institutes said.

Aside from conducting research, the skin research centre will also give out research grants, introduce PhD programmes in skin biology and build a database of Asian skin samples which can be used for scientific studies and consumer product testing.