Dean’s Message

Dear Friends,

Warmest greetings from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

These past few months certainly have been very eventful. We started the year off with the NUS-Kanagawa Joint Symposium on 19 and 20 January 2015. This inaugural symposium focused on the field of Urology and promoted the exchange of scientific ideas through a networking session with industry partners, and encouraged closer ties and understanding among researchers from the NUHS and the Japanese universities in the Kanagawa Prefecture.

In February, we held the inaugural Raffles Dialogue on the Future of Human Well-being and Security at Raffles Hotel Singapore. The Dialogue brought together thinkers who deliberated on critical topics ranging from globalisation and the planet’s health, delivering quality healthcare and education, to international cooperation and goodwill.

For this issue’s Science of Life, we are delighted to feature Professor Edward Koo from the Departments of Medicine and Physiology, and his research on Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Prof Koo’s research focuses on understanding the causes of AD and effective treatment strategies.

As part of the long-standing tradition of recognising our clinical teachers, the School held a series of Appreciation for Clinical Teachers 2014 events at all the restructured hospitals in Singapore from September to December 2014. The initiative was to celebrate the teaching mission and to express our gratitude to clinical teachers who invested their time and effort in our medical students’ education.

Moving on to our student activities, our graduate students also collaborated with the Nursing and Pharmacy Departments to organise the 5^th Annual Graduate Scientific Congress. Over 450 graduate students, faculty members and industry representatives from all relevant established and emerging disciplines attended the congress. It served as a platform to communicate and exchange ideas on current scientific issues and to promote scientific advancements.

A medical student’s journey is full of learning opportunities and fulfilling experiences, both inside and outside curriculum activities. We see this in Phase I medical student Gerald Fung’s account of his time at the 28^th East Asian Medical Students’ Conference in Tangerang, Indonesia. We also have Phase II medical students Charlotte Choo and Priscillia Lye recounting their journey through the Longitudinal Patient Experience programme, a Phase I medical student volunteer programme in which students conduct a one-year community-based longitudinal follow-up of patients living in the community with chronic illnesses.

Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the NUS Medicine community for their invaluable contribution to the school. I hope these updates help to keep you in touch with our latest activities.

A/Prof Yeoh Khay Guan

Dean

Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine