Six doctors to receive Clinician Scientist Investigator (CSI) Award - Boost to Singapore's translational research

13 March 2007

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13 Mar 2007

Six medical doctors have been selected for the prestigious Clinician Scientist Investigator (CSI) Award this year. They will join the ranks of the select few clinician scientists to work on biomedical research investigations aimed at improving patient health outcomes and saving lives. The CSI award aims to support the career development of clinician scientists and promote translational research in Singapore. The National Medical Research Council of MOH and the Biomedical Research Council of A*STAR have been co-sponsoring the initial two rounds of the CSI awards since 2004. Going forward, NMRC has taken over the administration of the programme and will be supporting it fully.

The work of the awardees covers a wide range of biomedical areas including neurology, stem cell biology, leukemia, cancer genetics and anti-cancer drug development. The six awardees were chosen based on the scientific merits of their research plans and commitment from their host institution. For more details on the awardees, please refer to Annex A.

This year, two senior clinician scientists will receive the award for Category A and four clinician scientists will receive the award for Category B. Category A caters to senior clinician scientists who are already actively involved in basic scientific research and hold at least one active grant that has been peer-reviewed and awarded at the national level. Category B caters to younger clinician scientists who wish to develop a career in translational research. For more details on the CSI award, please refer to Annex B.

This new batch of clinician scientists will join the previous two batches of 14 clinician scientists to build up translational research capabilities in Singapore.

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ANNEX A

Awardees of the Clinician Scientist Investigator Award

Table caption

S/N	Name	Host Institution	Research Area
Category A: Senior Clinician Scientists
1	Associate Professor Wong Meng Cheong	National Neuroscience Institute	Brain tumour research, stroke, neurovascular and stem cell research
2	Associate Professor Chong Siow Ann	Institute of Mental Health	Early psychosis intervention, Schizophrenia genetics project, psychiatric epidemiology and health services research
Category B: Junior Clinician Scientists
3	Dr Charles Chuah	Singapore General Hospital	Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) and other haematological malignancies
4	Dr Yong Wei Peng	National University Hospital	Cancer genetics, anti cancer drug development and biomarker discovery
5	Dr Tan Hao Yang	National University Hospital	Neuropsychiatric disorders like Schizophrenia, dementia and autism
6	Dr Philip Karuman	National Cancer Centre	Cancer genetics

ANNEX B

Clinician Scientist Investigator Award

The Clinician Scientist Investigator (CSI) Award is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Health's National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) of A*STAR.

The Award provides between three to five years of support to clinicians in public hospitals and disease centres. Awardees will be required to commit at least 60 per cent Full Time Equivalent (FTE) of their work hours conducting research and developing their research careers.