The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star)’s annual Science and Technology Festival is taking place at Biopolis until tomorrow to showcase the latest life science products and services. This year, its aims to reach out to the burgeoning biomedical science research community in Singapore.

Organised by Biopolis Shared Facilities, a unit under A*Star’s Biomedical Sciences Institute, the event is Singapore’s biggest showcase of life science research technology and methods. At least 30 major vendors of life science supplies, such as Bio-Rad, Qiagen and Roche, are taking part in the event. It also involves a series of scientific seminars, networking sessions and workshops for biomedical researchers.

Seminar topics include nucleic acid analysis and cell culture. Seminar speakers – local and international – are from academia and industry. They include Vikrant Kumar from A*Star’s Genome Institute of Singapore; Choong Meng Ling, a research scientist at A*Star’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre; and Gary McMaster, Chief Scientific Officer of Affymetrix, which makes DNA microarrays.

Origen Laboratories enters strategic partnership with Biopolis Shared Facilities

01 October 2009

Origen Laboratories, Pte. Ltd. (“Origen Labs”) announced today the signing of a partnership with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (“A*STAR”) and the Biopolis Shared Facilities (“BSF”). The partnership will focus on providing A*Star funded researchers a cost-effective solution and improved workflows for performing microarray-based experiments. BSF will refer researchers to Origen Labs if they require gene expression and genotyping processing services as part of their research projects.

The services covered under this agreement include those for human gene expression analysis which utilizes the Affymetrix® GeneChip® Human U133 Plus 2.0 and 1.0ST arrays. Origen Labs will also provide access to its genotyping services which leverage on the Affymetrix® GeneChip® SNP6 platform. This DNA microarray comprises over 1.8 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number probes to allow researchers to interrogate the entire genome and associate these genetic alterations with disease and/or drug response.

“Having cost-effective options for outsourcing genomic experiments is a key need within the biomedical community, both here in Singapore and abroad”, said Dr. Thomas Murphy, Chief Scientific Officer and General Manager of Origen Labs. “These experiments, by their very nature, require costly instrumentation and unique technical expertise. Through an outsourcing model, researchers can gain unique insight to their biological questions at a fraction of the cost. In this respect, Origen Labs’ services are complementary to the mission of BSF which is to provide avenues for researchers to access these types of cutting-edge technologies.”

“At BSF we constantly strive to provide cost competitive services to our customers. We do this by working with partners with demonstrated leadership both in technology and cost to complement the suite of services that we offer to our customers. This tie-up with Origen is an excellent example where BSF leverages on Origen’s leadership in the Affymetrix platform to complement our current services that we offer to our customers,” said Dr. Manjeet Singh, Deputy Director BSF.

eGovAsia - Biopolis partners with Carl Zeiss to boost life science research

17 September 2009

The Biopolis Shared Facilities (BSF) of the Biomedical Sciences Institutes (BMSI), Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Carl Zeiss MicroImaging formalizing a collaboration which aims to boost life science research and education.

The BSF Advanced Microscopic Imaging Laboratory is equipped with ZEISS high-end microscopy systems such as the High Speed Line Scanning 5LiveDuo that is being used in a variety of life science research projects and in supporting the Biopolis Scientific Community.

In this partnership, Carl Zeiss will work closely with the BSF Advanced Microscopic Imaging Laboratory to introduce cutting edge technology to the Biopolis research community with systems on a rotational basis. In the coming year, Carl Zeiss will equip the facility with two million-dollar light microscopy systems: the SR-SIM (Superresolution Structured Illumination Microscopy) and PAL-M (Photoactivated Localization Microscopy).

"This partnership will allow scientists at BSF to experience state of the art imaging capabilities, using the finest research equipment in Singapore" said Ven Raman, Managing Director of Carl Zeiss S.E.Asia & India.

“This MOU with Carl Zeiss marks a new milestone in BSF’s development. Having high-end equipment is only one part of the equation. We wish to harness all the advanced features and capabilities residing in the equipment that we have so that our customers can benefit from them. More importantly, this collaboration with Carl Zeiss will enable our scientists to access the latest innovations to advance the research being done at Biopolis,” said Dr. Manjeet Singh, Deputy Director, BSF.

Source : http://egovasia.enterpriseinnovation.net/content/biopolis-partners-carl-zeiss-boost-life-science-research

The Business Times - Zeiss microscopy systems for Biopolis

15 September 2009

The Biopolis Shared Facilities (BSF) of the Biomedical Sciences Institutes (BMSI), Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*Star), has signed a memorandum of understanding with German-based Carl Zeiss MicroImaging.

At the signing ceremony yesterday, it was announced that the BSF Advanced Microscopic Imaging Laboratory will be equipped with $2 million light microscopy systems, namely the Super-resolution Structured Illumination Microscopy (SR-SIM) and Photo-activated Localisation Microscopy (PAL-M).

Both SR-SIM and PAL-M will open up the nano-world for cell biology, involving the technologies of three-dimensional spatial resolution and fluorescence microscopy.

They will be used extensively to explore structures at the molecular levels at unprecedented levels of clarity and resolution.

These two extremely high-resolution instruments that are not yet commercially available, will arrive in the BSF next year.

Sohail Ahmed, principal investigator for the Institute of Medical Biology, A*Star, and scientific adviser to the BSF Advance Imaging Laboratory said that the partnership would 'bring leading-edge technology and know-how to researchers in the Biopolis'.

Carl Zeiss' signing of the agreement with BSF adds to its list of collaborations with scientific institutions, which already include the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

The Straits Times - Top Japanese uni opens research centre

15 September 2009

MICE with erratic sleep patterns and other schizophrenia symptoms are all in a day's work for Dr Miwako Ozaki.

But the Japanese doctor's research could eventually find new ways to treat this devastating mental illness in humans.

Her study is one of the projects at the Waseda Bioscience Research Institute of Singapore (WABIOS), which was officially opened yesterday.

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) said WABIOS at Buona Vista's Biopolis is the first Japanese academic research institute in Singapore.

This is also Tokyo-based Waseda University's first independent research set-up outside Japan. In Singapore, Waseda has tie-ups with the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

The centre will study neuroscience, bioimaging, bioengineering, biophysics and nanobiology, and has an initial $2 million grant from Waseda University.

Of an anticipated 10 researchers, five will be from Japan and the other five from Singapore.

At its opening, A*Star chairman Lim Chuan Poh also inked a memorandum of intent with the university's president Katsuhiko Shirai to foster exchanges of graduate students and facilitate further research collaborations between scientists from the two institutions.

'We will be looking at a broad spectrum of research areas spanning the biomedical sciences, physical sciences and engineering for possible collaborations,' said Mr Lim.

Currently, A*Star has graduate exchange tie-ups with seven other universities from four countries - including Sweden and Italy - under its Research Attachment Programme, which started in October last year.

A*Star also signed a separate agreement yesterday with German microscope-system manufacturer Carl Zeiss MicroImaging.

Their memorandum of understanding means that A*Star's Biopolis Shared Facilities will get first pick of high-end light microscope systems, which can image cell structures many thousandths the size of a human hair.

Two such systems, each worth $1 million, will be installed at A*Star within the next year.

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