Singapore

OVER THE FIRST six years since 2000, it has been estimated that S$1.5 billion (US$949 million) has already been spent on biotechnology in Singapore. The main attractions to stem cell research in Singapore are not purely financial incentives. The country has one of the developed world's most liberal laws on the use of human embryonic cells, with the industry in Singapore gaining a large boost after constraints were placed on stem cell research in the United States by President George W. Bush. In Singapore, the current law allows stem cells to be taken from aborted fetuses or any discarded embryos, and these embryos are allowed to be cloned and retained for up to 14 days to produce stem cells.

Another attraction has also been the creation of Biopolis, which consists of seven buildings with the capacity to undertake research. The buildings have names such as Nanos and Proteos and are regarded as some of the best—equipped laboratories in the world. The center cost S$500 million to build and was opened in late 2003, equipped with the most modern medical laboratories and an underground area that has the capacity to hold 250,000 laboratory mice.

As well as creating this bioscience infrastructure, Singapore has also offered high salaries to biotechnologists to work in the country. Philip Yeo led a team of international headhunters, who managed to persuade many biotechnologists working on stem cell research to relocate to Singapore. Dr. Edison Tak—Bun Liu, formerly a researcher at the National Cancer Institute in the United States, now heads the Genome Institute at Biopolis, and Philip Yeo was also able to recruit Nancy Jenkins and Neal Copeland, an American husband—and-wife team of scientific researchers. Dr. Jackie Y Ying, who had worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also moved to Singapore in 2003 to become the youngest tenured professor ever as the head of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nano—technology at Biopolis. There was also a joint venture at Biopolis between a scientific agency in Singapore and Johns Hopkins University.

However, the most internationally known bio—technologist to move to Singapore to work on stem cell research, and also one of the first to do so, was Dr. Alan Colman, a British scientist who became well known for his cloning, in 1996, of Dolly the sheep. He had wanted to continue research into diabetes and, unable to find suitable research facilities in the United Kingdom or even the United States, accepted an offer from the Economic Development Board in Singapore. With the support of Australian investors, Colman was appointed to the position of chief executive of ES Cell.

Another prominent British researcher in the field of stem cells to move to Singapore was Sir David P. Lane, originally from Edinburgh, who has worked on cancer research and became internationally well known in 2004 for his discovery of the p53 tumor—suppressing gene. In Singapore, he was appointed executive director of the cell biology institute at Biopolis. In 2002, the National Library of Singapore held an exhibition on “The Myths and The Facts of Stem Cells,” to broaden public understanding of the ethical issues involved. It coincided with a report by the Bioethics Advisory Committee published in Singapore at the same time. In 2006, Erik Dugger and others from Channel NewsAsia produced a series called Stems of Life about stem cell research in Singapore and also in the wider Asian context. It was screened on television in Singapore and later produced as a DVD.

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