Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences partners the Liggins Institute to strengthen research in Diabetes and Obesity in Singapore

A*STAR’s Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Auckland, New Zealand for SICS to partner the Liggins Institute to develop a new research programme in Metabolic Diseases in Singapore. Metabolic Diseases include important conditions like diabetes and obesity. The Liggins Institute, a research institute of the University of Auckland, is one of the major contributors to global research in this field, addressing in particular the role of epigenetic and developmental factors in the pathway to such metabolic diseases.

Through this partnership with the Liggins Institute, SICS will develop a new research programme in Growth, Development and Metabolism (GDM) that will focus on the developmental pathways to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.  The GDM programme will use both animal and human models to study how the environment to which the fetus and infant are exposed can influence the subsequent development of Type II Diabetes and Obesity in adolescence and adulthood.  This research is timely and relevant as these two diseases are rapidly increasing in prevalence throughout the world, especially in Asia.  Going forward, diabetes and obesity are expected to have a growing impact on the health of Singaporeans and on health care expenditures in Singapore.  While most of the research in this area has been conducted in Caucasian populations, recent data has suggested that key aspects of the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of metabolic diseases could indeed differ between Asians and Caucasians, and even differ between the various Asian ethnic groups.

Prof. Peter Gluckman FRS, the Director of Liggins Institute and also an Adjunct Investigator in SICS since 1st July 2007, has been appointed as the Programme Director of the GDM Programme.  Prof. Gluckman will provide the scientific leadership and his extensive experience in this field will help to jumpstart and progress this initiative towards international excellence.  The GDM Programme will be housed at the Brenner Centre for Molecular Medicine, SICS’s research facilities located in the National University of Singapore Kent Ridge campus, and is expected to host about 24 researchers at steady state.

 
Said Prof. Judith Swain, Executive Director of SICS, “Diabetes and obesity are issues of great importance to the health of the population in Singapore, and so we have elected to establish the first new programme in SICS in this disease area.  We are delighted to have Peter Gluckman, an internationally prominent investigator, to head this programme since he will give us an immediate link to key institutions around the world that the Liggins Institute has already established partnerships with.  Our focus on metabolic diseases in Asian populations will bring a unique contribution to these collaborations.”

Commenting on his role in the new GDM Programme, Prof. Peter Gluckman said, “I am delighted to be associated with this exciting initiative of SICS and A*STAR. It is an opportunity to build on the considerable potential arising from Singapore’s previous commitment to basic and clinical research and to look at the issues of the development of diabetes and obesity from a uniquely Asian perspective. I believe that we can develop global leadership in harnessing the growing knowledge of how developmental and genetic processes interact to lead to diabetes.  This will, in turn, lead to new ways to prevent or treat this emergent problem which is of particular concern to Asian populations. The staff of the Liggins Institute are delighted and eager to work in greater association with their colleagues in Singapore.”
 
For media enquiries, please contact:

Singapore
Ms. Lina Tan
Corporate Communications
BMSI Business Centre (A*STAR)
Tel:    +65 6478 8352
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New Zealand
Ms. Pandora Carlyon
Manager, Communications & Advancement
The Liggins Institute
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland
Tel: (09) 373 7599, ext 82305
Mobile: 021 565 715
Fax: (09) 373 7497
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Notes to the editor:

About the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS):
http://www.sics.a-star.edu.sg

Established in 2007, the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS) is a new institute within the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and has as its mission to develop disease-oriented clinical and translational research programmes in focused disease areas. 

SICS is distinguished by its focus on clinical sciences and the use of innovative approaches and technologies that enable the efficient and effective study of human health and diseases.  The clinical scientists in SICS conduct the full spectrum of “bench to bedside” research activities in genetic medicine, infectious diseases and metabolic diseases (including diabetes/obesity/insulin resistance). 

The institute aims to attract, train and nurture clinician-scientists and serves as a critical bridge linking basic research undertaken by A*STAR Research Institutes and clinical research programmes in Singapore’s public hospitals, disease centres and the universities.

About the Liggins Institute:
http://www.liggins.auckland.ac.nz/

The Liggins Institute is the first large-scale research institute formed in 2001 within The University of Auckland, New Zealand. It has a staff of about 160. It is one of the world’s leading centres for research on fetal and child health, growth and development, breast cancer, epigenetics and evolutionary medicine.  The Institute is one of the major contributors to research addressing the role of epigenetic and developmental factors in the pathway to metabolic disease and obesity. Their work has spanned the theoretical, molecular, physiological, clinical and epidemiological dimensions of this theme with many high impact publications and a number of their staff receiving high international recognition. The director, Prof Peter Gluckman FRS has defined the distinct developmental pathways, the role of epigenetic processes, their experimental reversibility and the role of developmental plasticity in the pathway to disease. He has provided hypotheses regarding the origin of the ethnic differences in the pattern of metabolic disease. The work of the Liggins Institute involves an extensive collaboration (including cross academic appointments) with the Institute of Developmental Sciences of the University of Southampton (UK), and also a collaboration with a small branch of the Liggins Institute housed in the Department of Pathology in Cambridge (UK) to assist in epigenetic research.