Message from Chairman, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC), Professor Sir George Radda

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to give you the latest update of our activities, following the 24th meeting of the SBIC External Liaison Committee on 5 June 2009... To read on, please click here

R&D Collaborations

A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute and GSK Biologicals SA Belgium have sealed an agreement to collaborate in three vaccine and adjuvant system related research projects. This collaboration, which will integrate BTI’s expertise in bioprocessing with GSK’s capabilities in biologics, aims to bring about new approaches to vaccine development and production. A highlight of the collaboration is the two-year project led by A/Prof Lam Kong Peng from BTI’s Immunology Programme to uncover the molecular mechanism of new classes of adjuvants provided by GSK Biologicals and their effect on the body’s immune system. This research could lead to new breakthroughs in vaccine development and delivery methods, increase the efficacy of vaccination and develop expertise in this new area of research, which could have a direct impact on future vaccination programmes in healthcare. Click here to find out more.

The Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) and France-based Humalys SAS are collaborating to speed up the development of antibody-based therapies for use against specific viral diseases prevalent in Asia and Singapore and fuel possible developments of new drugs. In particular, this collaboration will focus on identifying and characterizing specific human monoclonal antibodies targeted at viral diseases that cause infection, inflammation or immunological disorders. SIgN will make use of Humalys’ proprietary technology to isolate human monoclonal antibodies and build an antibody platform for studies into their therapeutic efficacy. Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies derived from this partnership could be useful as an alternative treatment for patients with medical conditions which may not have any known remedy or vaccines. Click here to find out more.

 A*STAR And NUS Researchers Score Breakthrough In Developing Unlimited Number Of Pure Insulin-Producing Cells

Researchers from A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore have scored a breakthrough in developing an unlimited number of pure insulin-producing cells from mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Led by Dr Lim Sai Kiang (IMB) and Li Guodong (NUS), provides proof of principle that this strategy could be applied to human ESCs to obtain similar pure insulin-producing cells, which could be effective in treating diabetic patients. These research findings have been published in two separate papers in the 2008 online version of the journal Stem Cell Research. Click here to find out more.

Scientists Make Landmark Discovery Of The “Engine” That Drives Cell Movement

Dr Thomas Leung and his team in the GSK-IMCB Group from the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) discovered a complex of three proteins that directly regulates the myosin network within a cell, thus generating traction force to propel the cell forward. Their findings, published in the October 08 issue of Cell, have widespread implications in the fields of cancer growth and spread, wound-healing, learning and memory, and developmental biology. Click here to find out more.

Archive:

Highlights & Announcements in 2008

Highlights & Announcements in 2007