NUS Medicine’s BSL-3 Core Facility team awarded COVID-19 Resilience Medals
Published: 24 Nov 2023
Congratulations to the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) Core Facility team for receiving the National Awards (COVID-19) – The COVID-19 Resilience Medals (CRM). The National Awards (COVID-19) CRM is a special state award that recognises the substantive contributions of those who participated directly in the fight against COVID-19 in Singapore.
The NUS Medicine’s state-of-the-art BSL-3/ABSL-3 Core Facility is designed and certified to work on indigenous or exotic infectious agents, which can potentially develop into lethal diseases through inhalation. Experimental work such as virus isolation and characterisation of SARS-CoV-2 viral agents recovered in cultures of specimens were handled in this specialised facility, by a well-trained and competent team. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NUS Medicine BSL-3 team worked tirelessly alongside clinicians and researchers in consultation with regulatory authorities and ensured a safe and secure BSL-3 facility for all when handling the SARS-CoV-2 samples for research. This was especially critical during the early stages of the pandemic, even before Singapore’s Circuit Breaker was announced.
Both the operation and research units within the BSL-3 facility worked synergistically to ensure that every biorisk management aspect of the facility and specific protocols for handling SARS-CoV-2 were in place. The consistent and tremendous effort by the team also earned the NUS Medicine BSL-3 Core Facility a reputation for managing a comprehensive biorisk management programme during the pandemic.
On 21 November 2023, all members of the BSL-3 team were presented with the CRM at the Resort World Convention Centre, during the 2023 National Day Awards (NDA) / National Awards (COVID-19) ceremony hosted by the Ministry of Education, Singapore.
Well done, NUS Medicine BSL-3 team for the well-deserved acknowledgement for your contribution, dedication, and hard work throughout the pandemic.
