Dr John Wong was a key member of my Gang of Four in the Biomedical Sciences Initiative (BMSI) launched in June 2000. The other key members were Prof Tan Chorh Chuan and Dr Kong Hwai Loong. It all started in 1998 when I was briefed by the senior staff of NUS School of Medicine on the potential of translational research, in particular on the ethnic differences in disease presentation and treatment. EDB funded John’s Cancer Therapeutics Research Group (CTRG), possibly Asia’s only academic multinational cancer early phase clinical trials group which did some of the first work showing major differences in outcome and toxicity of treatment between Asians and Caucasians in lung cancer. With Dr Kong Hwai Loong, I visited the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland in June 1999. I explained our Singapore idea to the Director, NCI and his Director for Clinical Science, Dr Ed Liu. In November 1999, John met up with Ed in Washington DC and shared with him data on ethnic differences in common cancer presentation and response to treatment in Singapore. John met Ed again in Hong Kong in Feb 2000 and convinced Ed to come to Singapore. Ed landed in Singapore in May 2001 to be Director of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS). George Yeo, then Minister of Trade and Industry in December 2001 broke the ground for the construction of Biopolis Phase 1 of 7 buildings. The GENOME building housing GIS was officially opened in October 2003. Biomedical Sciences research is active and growing in Singapore at A*STAR@Biopolis, NUS and NTU. All thanks to John.
Mr Philip Yeo Chairman SPRING Singapore