Three renowned clinician scientists received the prestigious Singapore Translational Research (STaR) Investigator Awards to conduct research in Singapore. The award, jointly offered by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), provides research and salary funding to the researchers over a period of five years.

The STaR award is an initiative under the Biomedical Sciences Initiatives Phase II. Its objective is to recruit top-notch clinician scientists to carry out medical research, henceforth bringing about better clinical applications and patient outcomes.

The STaR Investigators will help to foster strong collaborations with research groups and institutions within Singapore and globally.  More importantly, they will also serve as mentors for the younger researchers.

The three STaR awardees this year include a health sciences research expert who is also the Director and Professor of the Health Sciences Research Programme in Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, and two international cancer researchers from the prestigious Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, both from the United States of America.

Said Mr Lim Chuan Poh, A*STAR Chairman and Co-Chair for Singapore’s Biomedical Sciences Executive Committee, “The recipients of this year’s STaR Investigator Award have excellent track records of sustained and outstanding achievements in their respective fields of research.  At the same time, they have also demonstrated their potential to transform Singapore’s translational and clinical research landscape through their facilitation of strategic collaborations for the exchange of knowledge and ideas. I am confident this new cadre of STaR Investigators will significantly add to our pool of scientific talent to create new knowledge and remain globally competitive in various fields.”

Said Ms Yong Ying-I, Permanent Secretary (Health) and Co-Chair for Biomedical Medical Sciences Executive Committee, “The STaR Investigator Award serves as a very important mechanism to attract both local and overseas outstanding TCR investigators to pursue cutting-edge research in Singapore. Their top-rate scientific programmes will contribute and facilitate the development of clinical research and eventually help enhance our care for our patients”.

Added Mr Lim, “The impact of this growing cadre of clinician scientists is already being felt in Singapore. For example, the Gastric Cancer Consortium that brings together a number of clinician scientists has detected 10 cases of gastric cancer at a very early stage and eradicated this lethal disease through the screening of 1629 individuals at high risk for developing it. Such outcomes of clinician scientists’ collaborations with basic scientists are an affirmation that we can realise the full potential value of our investment in biomedical sciences.”

The three clinician scientists add to the inaugural batch of four STaR awardees in 2008, who have since begun their research in Singapore.

The STaR Investigator Award is funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and administered by the National Medical Research Council of the MOH.

About STaR Investigator Award:
The STaR Investigator Award is a prestigious award, jointly offered by the Singapore Ministry of Health's National Medical Research Council (NMRC) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), to recognise and support investigators with outstanding qualifications in translational and clinical research.
 
Tenable in Singapore, STaR Investigators can start a new research programme which can potentially advance Singapore’s priorities in biomedical research and healthcare or contribute to the Translational and Clinical Research (TCR) Flagship Programmes.  STaR Investigators may also spend up to 20% of their time engaging in direct patient care in Singapore.
 
In keeping with the international status of the STaR Investigator Awards, recipients will also receive very competitive research support and remuneration.

Recipients of the Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award (STaR)

Name	Institution	Area of research
Professor H. Phillip KOEFFLER	National University Health System	Translational CancerResearch
Professor David Bruce MATCHAR	Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore	Health Services Research
Professor TEH Bin Tean	National Cancer Centre Singapore	Translational Cancer Research