11 November 2003

SPEECH BY MR THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM, ACTING MINSTER FOR EDUCATION, AT THE OPENING OF THE 4TH SINO-SINGAPORE CONFERENCE ON BIOTECHNOLOGY ON TUESDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2003, AT 9.30 AM AT LT20, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Today's event is the fourth conference organised under the Trilateral Programme between National University of Singapore, Tsinghua University and Xiamen University. And for the first time, in addition to the three partner universities, prominent scientists from other well-known Chinese universities - including Peking University, Fudan University, Nankai University, Wuhan University and Sun Yat-Sen University - are partipating in this gathering. I would like to bid our Chinese delegates a very warm welcome. Your presence here marks the deepening of scientific, academic and educational collaboration between Singapore and China.

2 We are seeing a new wave of scientific advance in the world. The life sciences are at the forefront of this new wave, with major breakthroughs being achieved in recent years in fields such as gene therapy, bioengineering, stem cell culture, biochip technology, and transgenic plants and animals.

3 The advances in biotechnology and the life sciences present immense economic potential, given their scope for transforming daily life - ranging from food production, health care, environmental protection and the quality of life in general. However, they also match the growing risks that we face globally, from new and emerging diseases, and from bio-terrorism. More than ever before, societies across the world are aware of the impact that the tiniest of microbes can have on human civilization and our way of life.

The New Global Landscape of Research - The Trade of Ideas Across Disciplines and Across Borders

4 Recent scientific advances also emphasise the changing nature of the global research landscape. First, the fastest growing areas of new knowledge are coming out of multiple disciplines. Advances in knowledge in one field are pointing to new pathways in another. And many of the most important breakthroughs are occurring in the spaces between traditional disciplines.

5 The multi-disciplinary nature of recent scientific advance is well illustrated by the field of nanobiotechnology. A growing trade of ideas is taking place between the borders of the physical and biological sciences. The physical sciences provide tools for synthesis and fabrication of devices for measuring the characteristics of cells and sub-cellular components, and of materials that are useful in cell and molecular biology. And biology provides the gateway to understanding the most sophisticated collection of functional nanostructures that exists.

6 The second fundamental fact about the new global research landscape is its intensely collaborative nature. Recent advances have illustrated the roles of both competition and shared interest in the scientific community - a kind of 'competitive partnership'. It is in many ways unique to the business of knowledge creation, unlike much that takes place if the economic trade in good and services - where an enterprise has every interest in knocking its competitors out of the business. Collaboration is the 'SOP' or standard operating procedure for cutting edge research.

7 Take the successful completion in April this year of the human genome project. This mammoth task was made possible by the collaboration of hundreds of scientists at 20 sequencing centres around the globe, in a tremendous venture that began in 1990. Their combined effort has opened up a new and exciting era in medicine and health. It will change the way we live, and will in time surely change the way societies operate.

8 Another example, that strikes close to home for most of us here, is the SARS project. Scientists working concurrently in several countries identified the agent causing SARS (a type of coronavirus never seen before in humans) and broke its genetic code within a matter of 4 weeks - using the very techniques that were developed to sequence the human genome. Compare this to the HIV virus which began spreading 20 years ago. It took two years to identify the virus and several more years to unravel its genes.

9 The unprecedented speed of advance in the battle against SARS is a signal of the critical benefits of international collaboration in the fight against diseases. The basic understanding of the coronavirus biology has allowed scientists, including those in Singapore at the Genome Institute of Singapore and the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, to create diagnostic kits that have become important tools in the diagnosis of SARS today. This is a good example of how local scientific discoveries can be translated into clinically-relevant applications. While it is not possible to predict when a vaccine might be available for SARS, the WHO now expects that the first human tests of an experimental SARS vaccine could begin by early next year.

10 Singapore is developing the Biomedical Sciences industry as the fourth pillar of its economy. From the time we identified this new economic pillar in year 2000, we have quickly built up our core capabilities through A*STAR and its research institutes, working together with our universities and with industry players. We now have a comprehensive array of key biomedical research technologies - ranging from genomics, bioengineering, nanotechnology and bioinformatics, to the more basic and conventional platform technologies of chemistry, bioprocessing and molecular biology. The entire One North region, including NUS, will represent the epicentre of Biomedicine in Singapore, where globally competitive biomedical research is done, and where the future generations of biomedical PhDs will be trained. The five Research Institutes of A*STAR/BMRC are moving into the new Biopolis, a short drive away from NUS.

11 We recognize the importance of regional and global collaboration in this endeavour. Go it alone strategies will not work in the life sciences. The launch of the Biopolis, with its unique blend of public and private sector research activities, and global and local research talent and enterprises, demonstrates our commitment towards building a thriving, globally-oriented biomedical community and industry. The recent announcement of the setting up of a Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention (REDI) Centre in Singapore is another promising joint international effort between Singapore's Ministry of Health and the Communicable Disease Centre and National Institutes of Health in the US.

12 I am happy to see that the Department of Biological Sciences (DBS) here at NUS has taken the initiative to actively promote closer collaboration in life sciences research with Chinese universities. Today, we are witnessing rapid advances in life sciences research in China. China is already one of the world leaders in biochip technology and genomics analysis of plant and animals. Our partnership will I am sure be a rewarding one.

13 NUS is now in the fourth year of a five-year MOU for Trilateral Collaborative Research Agreement with the Departments of Biological Sciences of Tsinghua University and Xiamen University. The collaboration has been a successful one to date, leading to the publication of important research findings and providing opportunities for young Chinese scientists to come to NUS on attachments. It is envisaged that this MOU will serve as a model for future collaboration with other top Chinese universities.

14 The NUS Department of Biological Sciences is also today opening the Structural Biology Research Corridor that includes more than 12 Principal Investigators, the Functional Genomic Laboratory, the Structural Biology Laboratory and the Protein and Proteomics Centre. (They have acquired state-of-the-art research equipment including mass spectrometry, cryoelectron microscopy, X-ray diffractrometer, an 800 MHz NMR and others.) With its upgraded teaching and research facilities, the Department is well placed to be among the leaders in research, and to attract top-grade students.

15 Today's 4th Sino-Singapore Biotechnology Conference and the DBS Structural Biology Corridor mark a very important milestone in the development of NUS's Department of Biological Sciences. The Department has transformed itself from a unit focusing on the teaching and research of traditional biology to an active player at the frontier of the life sciences in Asia. I wish it all the best as it cuts new paths in research.

16 I would finally like to acknowledge the strong financial support of The Singapore Hokkien Foundation, Singapore Rubber Millers Association and Lee Foundation in supporting the Trilateral programme between NUS, Tsinghua and Xiamen universities¹. Further, the new Research Corridor at NUS and the funding of new faculty positions was made possible by a very generous donation by the estate of the late Mr. Lee Hiok Kwee².

17 It is my great pleasure now to declare open the 4th Sino-Singapore Biotechnology Conference and the Department of Biological Sciences Structural Biology Corridor. Thank you.

¹ The associations provide an annual donation of $100,000 for the Trilateral programme.