[Sci-tech-public] REMINDER: STS Colloquium by Edison Liu on Monday, April 13th

[Debbie Meinbresse]

Please join us on Monday, April 13th:

Building a Science Hub in the 21st Century: Singapore 2000-2008

Edison T. Liu, M.D.
Genome Institute of Singapore

4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095

Abstract
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?

My discussion will touch on these issues from the point of view of a 
naturalized American, a physician, and a scientist.


Bio
Dr. Edison T. Liu is

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).

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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