Dean’s Message

Dear Friends,

Warmest greetings from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine!

July 2015 stands out as a very special month for all of us here at NUS Medicine – we celebrated the 110^th anniversary of the School on July 3^rd. On this day in 1905, Singapore’s first and foremost medical school was established to educate and train doctors for this country.

We have celebrated in other milestone moments this year too and I am proud to share them with you.

In March and April, we celebrated the official opening of two very important facilities – the Tahir Foundation Building (MD1), and the biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory in our flagship building, the Centre for Translational Medicine (CeTM).

The Tahir Foundation Building was officially opened on 27 April 2015 by the Minister for Education, Mr Heng Swee Keat. Named in recognition of Dato’ Sri Dr Tahir, whose generous gift made in 2012 supports the advancement of medical education and research at NUS Medicine, the 17-storey facility houses research labs, teaching and learning spaces, as well as NUS Medicine student activity areas.

On 14 May 2015, the 650-square metre BSL-3 laboratory was officially opened by the Minister for Health, Mr Gan Kim Yong. Designed to Biosafety Level-3 standards, the new research facility lets scientists work on dangerous biological agents safely. This facility is crucial in helping to boost Singapore’s research capabilities defences against new disease outbreaks.

In the area of international educational collaboration, we hosted the 12th NUS-Nagasaki Symposium on Infectious Diseases at the CeTM on 11 and 12 June 2015. This joint symposium with Nagasaki University provided a key platform for the development of strategic ideas and skills in the control of infectious diseases. Speakers from Singapore and Japan covered topics such as emerging diseases, bacterial and viral infections, and immunology and infections.

In this issue’s Science of Life, we feature Associate Professor Richie Soong of the Department of Pathology and head of the Centre for Translational Research and Diagnostics, and his latest research in exploiting molecular features of disease to personalise disease management. Last but not least, we welcome alumnus Dr Desmond Wai (Class of 1994) to share with his experience of his time at medical school.

I hope these articles update you about the latest activities in and around our School and wish you a pleasant read.

Dr Yeoh Khay Guan
Dean

Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine