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<b>Please join us on Monday, April 13th:<br><br>
<div align="center"><font size=5 color="#0000FF">Building a Science Hub
in the 21st Century: Singapore 2000-2008<br><br>
</font><font size=5>Edison T. Liu, M.D.<br>
</font>Genome Institute of Singapore <br>
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<div align="center"><font size=4><b>4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095<br><br>
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<u>Abstract<br>
</u></b>Science and technology is considered by all Asian countries as
the fundamental source of economic security. Starting with manufacturing,
these nations have advanced to compete in knowledge creation.
Singapore, a country of 4.8 million people residing in 710 square km of
land, has since its independence in 1965, moved from pure reliance on
shipping to manufacturing, later to finance, and in the last 10 years
have focused on science and technology, especially in the biosciences.
Using an integrated approach, the Singaporean government strengthened
their universities, encouraged the recruitment of foreign talent,
established research institutes, provided industrial funding, reformed
their health care system to foster research, and established a regulatory
and ethical base for medical research all towards developing an
environment conducive for a creation-based economy. At the same time,
Singapore has been challenged by the SARs epidemic, several major
economic downturns, and a demographic problem of low birthrates and an
ageing population. Their strategy and execution is worthy of study given
that the country has no natural resources and a small population
base. What were the foundations of this success? Can this be
replicated elsewhere? Is Singapore a microcosm of Asia or is it an
anomalous variant? Why are these changes in Singapore even
important? <br><br>
My discussion will touch on these issues from the point of view of a
naturalized American, a physician, and a
scientist. <br><br>
<h1><b>Bio<br>
</u>Dr. Edison T. Liu </b>is </h1>Executive Director, Genome Institute of
Singapore (Biomedical Sciences Institutes); Professor of Medicine,
National University of Singapore; Special Advisor to the President,
National University of Singapore; and Director, Singapore Cancer
Syndicate. He was educated at Stanford University receiving a
Bachelors of Science in Chemistry and Psychology (1973) and an M.D. in
1978. He received his residency training in internal medicine at
Washington University, St. Louis, and clinical cancer fellowships at
Stanford University (Oncology), and at the University of California at
San Francisco (Hematology). He then pursued post-doctoral studies as a
Damon-Runyan Cancer Research Fellow at the University of California at
San Francisco in the laboratory of Dr. J. Michael Bishop. In 1987, he
joined the faculty of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill where he was director of UNC's Specialized Program of
Research Excellence (SPORE) in Breast Cancer. In 1996, he joined
the NCI as the Director of the Division of Clinical Sciences responsible
for the intramural clinical and translational programmes at the NCI that
comprised 1200 employees and over 100 principal investigators. In
2001, Dr. Liu assumed the position of Executive Director, Genome
Institute of Singapore. He founded the institute which now houses 280
scientists within Singapore’s Biopolis. His current scientific research
investigates the dynamics of gene regulation on a genome scale that can
explain biological states in cancer. Dr. Liu has contributed over 250
articles, reviews, books, and book chapters to the scientific literature.
Dr. Liu also was the executive director of the Singapore Cancer
Syndicate, a governmental funding agency supporting clinical
translational cancer research (2003-2008), and is currently the Executive
Director of the Singapore Tissue Network, the national tissue repository
in Singapore. He is the Chairman of the Governing Board for Singapore’s
Health Sciences Authority which is the key health regulatory agency for
the nation that includes the FDA and national blood banking equivalents.
In 2007, Dr. Liu was elected as President of the Human Genome
Organization (HUGO). Dr. Liu’s awards include the Leukemia Society
Scholar (1991-1996), the Brinker International Award for basic science
research in Breast Cancer (1996), the Rosenthal Award from the American
Association for Cancer Research (2000), the President’s Public Service
Medal for his work in helping Singapore resolve the SARS crisis, and a
Doctor of Medicine Sciences honoris causa (Queen’s University, Belfast.
2007). <br>
<br>
Dr. Liu’s current scientific interests are the functional genomics of
breast cancer that spans from basic to epidemiologic studies. He writes
general commentaries for the Singapore’s national newspaper, The Straits
Times and for the biotechnology magazine, BioSpectrum.
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