Dean’s Message

Shortly, we will welcome about 560 young men and women of the Medicine and Nursing classes of 2024 and 2022 respectively. They will undergo a transformative educational experience over the next three to five years, one that will equip them with medical and nursing skills and knowledge to be effective healthcare providers. They will in time to come, join other NUS Medicine alumni in providing care for our community.

As the School cycles through a new academic year, our biomedical research work continues apace. This issue, we present a discussion on gene editing. It is a science that has come under a cloud caused by the controversial editing of the genomes of two babies born in China. In another marvellous piece of research work, our colleagues have found the reason for chronic rejection of transplanted organs. This opens the way for precision medicine in transplant, where specific immunosuppressive strategies can be devised to minimise transplant failure and reduce transplant patients’ risk of getting infections and cancer. A third story that we are pleased to share with readers is about

the speed at which the human brain processes and manages information: their finding gives new meaning to the phrase, quick thinking.

We have been turning out doctors for Singapore since 1905, and the work of our scientists has helped to influence and shape the practice of medicine here. That has and will always remain our mission. But the ways in which we work, teach and train and conduct biomedical science are changing, shaped by new technological advances in telemedicine, artificial intelligence, big data, to name just three of the revolutionary, disruptive global forces that are transforming the way we all live, work and play. The NUS medical school will harness the power of these advances to seek, exploit and harvest the new and exciting opportunities that will enable us to contribute even more meaningfully to health education and healthcare.

Wishing you an enjoyable read,

Yap Seng