Director’s Message

Bringing Convenience and Savings to the Scientific Community

The Biopolis, established in October 2003, was conceived as the cornerstone of a much broader vision to build up the Biomedical Sciences industry in Singapore. Biopolis represents a vision to establish the entire value chain of Biomedical Sciences activities in Singapore - from research and development to manufacturing and healthcare delivery.

To support the needs of the biomedical scientific community (comprising the nationally funded research institutes, private companies and other research organisations) at Biopolis, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) established the Biopolis Shared Facilities (BSF) in August 2004.

Located in Matrix Basement 2 (B2), BSF occupies a 7,000 sqm purpose-built facility together with satellite facilities in Nanos B2 and Proteos Level 6 (L6), through which it provides a wide range of research support, scientific services and meeting facilities to the scientific community. Our support services include glassware washing and autoclaving, a media preparation kitchen (both for standard and customised media), and a supplies centre for a wide range of lab consumables commonly used in life sciences research. Our suite of scientific services includes, Confocal Microscopy, DNA Sequencing, Flow Cytometry, Microarray, Protein Analytics, High Content Screening, Histopathology, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and X-ray Crystallography. Our meeting facilities comprise meeting rooms for small group meetings (14-18 persons), 5 theatrettes each with a seating capacity of 150 persons, and a video conferencing/teleconferencing suite with state-of-the-art video and teleconferencing equipment e.g, the Tandberg video conferencing and polycom systems equipped with ISDN connections for IDD calls.

Through centralisation of these services under one roof, BSF seek to maximise usage of these key scientific equipment, support and facility services. Through economies of scale we capitalise on cost sharing and bring convenience and savings to our customers.

Today, BSF’s customer base has enlarged and includes R&D organisations outside the Biopolis as well for example the universities (both NUS & NTU), the polytechnics, hospitals and companies both in and outside of the Biopolis. This augers very well for BSF as it demonstrates that BSF is providing relevant and value for money services to its customers.

BSF will continue to work in partnership with its customers, vendors and stake holders to deliver cost competitive research products and professional scientific services to intramural and extramural scientific communities in Singapore. BSF will also strive to be the desired supplier for research products and scientific services to our valued customers. Finally, a big thank-you for your support and we look forward to working closely with you to facilitate your research. Our promise to you is Professional, Friendly and Prompt service always.

Dr. Manjeet Singh
Director
Biopolis Shared Facilities