Press Releases
New Transition Award to strengthen the development of Clinician Scientists in Singapore
25 February 2011
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25 Feb 2011
Award paves the way for junior clinician scientists to receive funding support for translational and clinical research
1. The National Medical Research Council (NMRC) has announced a new programme for clinician scientists called the “Transition Award”. Purposefully designed to support budding clinician scientists who are just starting out in their research careers, the Transition Award will help them build up their research capabilities and ensure a smoother transition for them to become independent researchers. It joins the suite of NMRC’s established human capital programmes, namely the prestigious Singapore Translational Research (STaR) Investigator awards and the Clinician Scientist Awards (CSA). Together, these awards will form the framework to support, grow and sustain Singapore’s pipeline of clinician scientists.
2. The Transition Award will provide up to three years of mentored research funding to successful candidates. Mentored research is an important aspect of the award so as to enable the junior clinician scientist to learn and get mentoring from more experienced clinician scientists. The awards will be administered through the NMRC via yearly grant calls and the first call is expected in the middle of 2011. More information about the Transition Award can be found in Annex A.
Leukemia Expert named STaR Investigator
3. Separately, Professor Dario Campana, has been awarded the Singapore Translational Researcher (STaR) Investigator award. Professor Campana is a distinguished cancer biologist from the St. Jude Children Research Hospital, USA. Professor Campana brings with him a vast experience in cell therapy - he has pioneered a way to grow normally scarce subset of white blood cells called natural killer (NK) cells in numbers which have helped advance the field of NK cell biology. He has also found a way to genetically modify the cells so as to increase their anti-leukemia properties, paving the way for clinical trials. In Singapore, Professor Campana will be looking into innovative ways to utilize NK cells as a viable option to cure leukemia.
Four outstanding individuals awarded the Clinician Scientist Award
4. Four outstanding individuals from Singapore’s healthcare institutions were also awarded Clinician Scientist Awards (CSA). They include:
• A/Prof Ooi Eng Eong from the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CSA-Senior Investigator)
• A/Prof Marcus Ong, Consultant and Director of Research at Singapore General Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine (CSA-Investigator)
• A/Prof Lynette Shek, Senior Consultant, National University Hospital (CSA-Investigator)
• Dr Tina Wong, Consultant at the Singapore National Eye Centre and Head of the Ocular Drug Delivery Research Group in the Singapore Eye Research Institute (CSA-Investigator)
More information about the awardees can be found in Annex B.
5. STaR and CSA awardees, along with recipients of NMRC’s research scholarships and fellowships for 2010 will be acknowledged at the NMRC Awards Ceremony held on 25 February 2011, 7pm at the National University Health System (NUHS) Tower Block Auditorium. The co-chairs of Singapore’s Biomedical Sciences Executive Committee (BMS EXCO) Ms Yong Ying-I, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) will be officiating at the awards ceremony.
6. Commenting on the significance of the Transition Award, Ms Yong said, “The Transition Award will serve to nurture a sustainable pipeline of clinician scientists in Singapore. Singapore has set a target to double the number of clinician scientists from 80 to 160 over the next five years. The Transition Award was created to give deserving individuals an added boost at the start of their research careers. This includes mentoring and research support. This will help ease them into building up their research capabilities and sufficiently prepare them to work towards competing for independent investigator awards such as the Clinician Scientist Awards.”
7. Said Mr Lim Chuan Poh, “The BMS EXCO would like to congratulate the five clinician scientists for being awarded the STaR and CSA. They are fine examples of the kind of talent needed to build up our Translational and Clinical Research (TCR) capabilities and contribute to Singapore’s position as a leading Biomedical Hub in Asia. Indeed, each of their research projects holds promise of new knowledge and discoveries that are clinically beneficial to our society and also to the world at large.”
Annex A (11 KB)