Got a basic degree?

[Craig]

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/techscien...,152449,00.html?

Got a basic degree? Wash test tubes then

By Natalie Soh
The Eli Lilly centre will use high technology to discover new drug targets. -- LIANHE ZAOBAO

A BASIC science degree qualifies you to wash test tubes. A master's makes you an advanced washer. And a PhD makes you an ordinary worker.

That is the harsh reality in the world of science. Growing a mass of 'warm, intelligent bodies' is therefore the key to building Singapore's research capabilities, said Mr Philip Yeo, chairman for the Agency for Science, Technology and Research .

He told The Straits Times: 'This is the nature of the game; a PhD is essential. The real value-added element is the brains and people. You can have buildings and labs - they can be easily replicated - but what will drive research are the people.'

He said he had used the test-tube washer example with university students a few weeks ago, to 'wake them' up to the reality that they would have to invest a lot of time and effort in their education.

Singapore is an established base for pharmaceutical manufacturing, with global-scale drug companies like Glaxo-SmithKline, Aventis, Schering-Plough and Merck & Co here.

But now, the aim is to try to move beyond manufacturing to more high-end research.

Mr Yeo said: 'That's where the real 'value-add' is. Manufacturing will remain very important because you can create a lot of jobs, but we must realise there's no intellectual property value generated.'

Biomedical manufacturing output is expected to hit $12 billion in 2005.

Yesterday, Singapore took a step in the high-end direction with the opening of the Lilly Systems Biology centre, or LSB, at Science Park II, off Pasir Panjang Road. Mr Yeo was at the event.

Eli Lilly , or Lilly as it is more commonly known, is the first pharmaceutical giant to open a drug research centre here. The project was also the first to receive funding from the Economic Development Board's $1 billion R&D fund, which was set up in 2000 to attract world-class companies to conduct R&D in the private sector.

The LSB is expected to spend $250 million on research over the next five years.

According to Lilly's vice-president of research technologies, Dr Thomas Bumol, the centre will develop sophisticated computational and data-management tools to understand the workings of the cell and how a drug affects the molecular processes at this level.

This, he said, will require a wide range of scientific knowledge, ranging from IT, physics, gene expression and protein information.

Lilly, an American-based company, makes drugs to treat hormone growth deficiency, cancer and other diseases. The company is best known for the anti-depressant, Prozac, and spends US$8.6 million (S$15.5 million) a day on R&D worldwide.

The centre, said senior Lilly officials, is the first outside the US to use high technology in the discovery of new drug targets.

Senior Minister of State (Trade and Industry, Education) Tharman Shanmugaratnam, opened the centre yesterday, saying that the high-tech centre would play a role in putting Singapore on the global scientific map.

[MellowDrama]

8-9 years of post-HS schooling (at least)? I'll pass.