There were a fair number of US biomedical scientists opening labs in Singapore a decade ago. Labor is relatively cheap, and usually a lot more hard-working than in the US. Some of them tried to keep dual labs, and then started spending more and more time in Singapore.
NUS (https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/research/ ) is the main research university. It's ranked #32 globally for universities, and #2 in Asia (Tsinghua in China is #1), and Nanyan Tech (also in Singapore) is #3 for Asia. Notably they beat out the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Tokyo University among others. While the rankings are gamed by everyone, and are not just research, it's still two top Asian universities there.
No idea what the regulatory environment is like for biotech companies there, but it's not hard to recruit talent to a top university, especially as people get disillusioned with the West.
New reader here, just discovered this substack! Curious how you learned about Singapore as it's not a super common (Western) topic. I'm reading LKY's "From Third World to First" and you hit the nail on the head - what Balaji calls LKY "the first startup CEO" of a nation.
There were a fair number of US biomedical scientists opening labs in Singapore a decade ago. Labor is relatively cheap, and usually a lot more hard-working than in the US. Some of them tried to keep dual labs, and then started spending more and more time in Singapore.
Really? I checked out Singapore's biotech scene but couldn't find anything serious outside of Hummingbird Bioscience for Oncology.
Sydney Brenner was very bullish on biomedical science in Singapore (see summary of his life: https://www.cshl.edu/personal-collections/sydney-brenner/ )
NUS (https://medicine.nus.edu.sg/research/ ) is the main research university. It's ranked #32 globally for universities, and #2 in Asia (Tsinghua in China is #1), and Nanyan Tech (also in Singapore) is #3 for Asia. Notably they beat out the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Tokyo University among others. While the rankings are gamed by everyone, and are not just research, it's still two top Asian universities there.
No idea what the regulatory environment is like for biotech companies there, but it's not hard to recruit talent to a top university, especially as people get disillusioned with the West.
I really enjoy your style of writing. Combining history lessons with autistic futuristic views. Keep it up.
New reader here, just discovered this substack! Curious how you learned about Singapore as it's not a super common (Western) topic. I'm reading LKY's "From Third World to First" and you hit the nail on the head - what Balaji calls LKY "the first startup CEO" of a nation.