The Singapore government has built Biopolis- a high-tech biomedical park, at a cost of S$500 million. Biopolis includes a seven-building complex linked by skybridges and offers a built-up area of 185,000 sqm. Here, scientists can interact at both personal and scientific levels with colleagues of several A-STAR Institutes as well as corporate research groups.

Located in close proximity to the National University of Singapore, National University Hospital and the Singapore Science Parks, the Biopolis is Asia's leading center for biomedical sciences research and development.

Biopolis was constructed with the objective to offer custom built facilities to biomedical researchers.

Biotech & Pharma companies

Several key government agencies, publicly funded research institutes, R&D laboratories of pharmaceutical and Biotech companies are located here. These include five of A-STAR's Biomedical Research Institutes - The Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Bioprocessing Technology Institute, the Genome Institute of Singapore, the Bioinformatics Institute and the Institute for Bio-engineering and Nanotechnology and the Division of Biomedical Sciences. The Johns Hopkins in Singapore, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Isis Pharmaceuticals Singapore have also established new facilities at Biopolis. Biopolis has all the latest state-of-the-art equipment and features a bar, a day-care center and an underground facility made to house a quarter-million laboratory mice.

Stem Cell Bank

A stem cell bank is also being set up at Biopolis.This stem bank will be able to count on some of the world's most liberal laws on human embryonic cell usage. Singapore offers grants for R&D projects and technology training. Lower corporate taxes and even full tax exemption are available to the biopharma industry because it's considered a strategically important industry in the city-state. No wonder, these international companies are flocking to Biopolis.

It is a sprawling structure, located at the heart of the educational hub of Singapore. It is surrounded by the following national landmarks:

National University of Singapore
Fusionopolis
Singapore Polytechnic
Institute of Technical Education
National University Hospital
Singapore Science Park
Ministry of Education
INSEAD Business School

The research facility is situated in One-North, Buona Vista close to Dover.

Construction of Biopolis Singapore

Since its construction, Biopolis has become a landmark in Singapore. Zaha Hadid, the famous Iraqi-British architect, is responsible for designing the building. It was constructed in two phases. The first phase had seven buildings occupying a space of 2,000,000 square feet. These buildings were constructed between 2003 and 2004. The project was funded by the government agencies and different public-funded research institutes. Phase one houses buildings named Nanos, Genome, Helios, Chromos, Proteos, Matrix and Centros. All the seven buildings are connected through skybridges.

The second phase comprised two buildings, namely Neuros and Immunos. These were constructed during 2006 and added more research capacity to Biopolis.

The third phase is under construction and is expected to be completed in 2011. Phases IV and V are also on paper. The JTC Corporation is carrying out the construction operations of Biopolis and is expected to complete phase V in 2013.

Research facilities in Biopolis

Since the time of its inception, the research facility has attracted many international pharmaceutical and biomedical companies who have set up their research units here. The research center is designed to provide technical and infrastructural support to industries like the following:

Food and feed sector
Agrochemical
Chemistry
Pharmaceutical
Environment
Public and private research facilities

Some of the international pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms who have their research units located in Biopolis are GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis International AG, SingVax Pte Ltd., CombinatoRx and the like.

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the patronizing institute in converting Singapore into a world-class biomedical research hub, manages 14 research institutes in biomedical, physical science and engineering and six other consortia and centers within and outside the boundaries of Biopolis.

Last Updated on: 18-12-2012

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