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Cloning pioneer Alan Colman to lead Singapore stem cell institute Bloomberg NewsPublished: July 9, 2007 SINGAPORE: Alan Colman, the scientist who helped clone Dolly the sheep more than a decade ago, said he would return to a laboratory-based role as the head of a Singapore government body responsible for stem cell research. Colman started work last week as executive director of the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium and principal investigator at the Institute of Medical Biology. Colman was previously chief executive officer of ES Cell International, a Singapore-based stem cell company. His new positions will give him more time in the laboratory, he said. "I'll be dealing with all sorts of stem cells, not just human embryonic," Colman said in a telephone interview on Monday. Singapore is trying to establish itself as a global hub for biomedical research by offering incentives to lure scientists like Colman, who moved to Singapore from Britain five years ago, and companies including Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. Singapore wants to cut its reliance on electronics as manufacturers shift jobs to lower-cost countries. The island nation is competing with Australia and other countries for leading scientists. The University of Queensland in Australia said Monday that it had appointed Nicholas Fisk, an expert on fetal stem cell therapy currently based at Imperial College in Britain, to lead its new center for clinical research in Brisbane. Singapore's government has invested more than 500 million Singapore dollars, or $329 million, in a seven-building science park, called Biopolis, where Colman works. Production of drugs and medical devices has quadrupled to 23 billion dollars since the government identified biomedical science as a driver of economic growth in 2000. Compared with the United States, where President George W. Bush has restricted some federal funding for stem cell research, Singapore's more liberal laws allow researchers to take stem cells from aborted fetuses or discarded embryos, clone them and keep them for as long as 14 days. Singapore this year was named one of five key locations for biotechnology research by Fierce Biotech, a U.S.-based industry journal. The four other locations are Scotland and the U.S. states of California, Florida and Washington. Colman was part of a team of scientists at Scotland's Roslin Institute and helped create Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned animal, in 1996. He worked for 14 years as research director of PPL Therapeutics in Britain before joining ES Cell International in 2002. Colman will continue on the board of ES Cell, which will remain as a smaller entity focused on "more immediate revenue-generating activities like drug screening and drug discovery," he said. ES Cell began in 2002 as a joint venture between Singapore's Economic Development Board and an Australia-based private investment group. The board has since become the company's majority owner, Colman said. Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn