PHOTO/INTEVIEW OPPORTUNITY, 4.45PM, MONDAY MARCH 31. MEET AT RECEPTION OF WELLCOME TRUST BIOCENTRE
One of the world's most renowned centres for biotechnology is looking to recruit student researchers from the University of Dundee's faculty of life sciences to join their world class research cluster in Singapore.
Contact Singapore, a global professional advisory network on working and living in Singapore will visit the University of Dundee on Monday 31 March to meet students considering pursuing their scientific career abroad.
Professor Mike Ferguson, Deputy Head of the School of Life Sciences said "We are delighted to host Contact Singapore at the Wellcome Trust Biocentre Dundee. We are their only port of call in Scotland and appreciate the compliment to our bioscience technology base. Singapore is investing heavily in biotechnology, one of the key industry sectors of the future, and are looking to recruit the best PhD graduates they can - hence their visit to Dundee.
"I am particularly pleased that Dr Christopher Howarth of the Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases in Singapore will discuss opportunities for research into tuberculosis and dengi fever, two of the world's greatest health problems in the tropics. These topics are close to our own heart since we also have a major research division focussed on tropical diseases."
The tropical island-city of just four million attracts big name investors such as Novartis and Eli Lilly in its biotech initiative. Physical set-ups like the Biopolis - a lifestyle cum research city-within-a-city and the Tusa Biomedical Park put Singapore on course to rival only the US and Japan as innovative biomedical forerunners.
Dr Christopher Howarth, Head of Staffing Research at Novartis Pharma AG in Basel Switzerland will present to students about the lure of Singapore for companies like Novartis. The company has established an Institute for Tropical Diseases based in Singapore and plans, with the Sinapore Economic Development Board, to spend $220 million over the next few year to research diseases like dengue fever and tuberculosis.
By Jane Smernicki, Press Officer 01382 344768 j.m.smernicki@dundee.ac.uk