Two new Learning Hubs, eight new Residential Halls, a new Graduate Hall and two additions to the academic buildings in NTU are in the pipeline at NTU’s Yunnan Garden campus in the next three years.

The Master Plan will see the university’s biggest physical transformation since 1991. Based on these plans, all LKCMedicine undergraduates are guaranteed on-campus accommodation. By 2015, the residential halls will provide an additional 5,000 residential places.

The new residential halls are designed as an idyllic blend of eco-friendly residences, amidst lush greenery and tranquil waters, adding to the holistic educational experience for students. Ideas by students such as sports plazas, basketball courts and barbeque pits have been incorporated to enhance students’ residential living experience. The new halls will also include movable partitions for flexible configurations and easy access to power and Internet connection from outdoor areas such as gazebos.

The Master Plan also unveils a soon-to-be iconic building, the Learning Hub, conceived by renowned English designers Heatherwick Studio. The seven-storey centre will house 55 new-generation classrooms of the future, designed to support new pedagogies by promoting more interactive small group teaching and active learning. Envisaged as a 24-hour centre, it comes with a cafeteria, library and even a roof top garden for students to use in the evenings for various formal or informal activities such as group discussions and club activities.

Also in the pipeline is a new Academic Building near NTU’s School of Material Science and Engineering, and the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. About 2.5 times the size of a football field, the building will enhance both schools’ laboratory facilities and provide more room for multi-disciplinary collaboration by teams of students, faculty, visiting professors and researchers.

This new building will complement LKCMedicine’s upcoming Experimental Medicine Building. To be completed in 2015, this building will be located within NTU’s biomedical engineering cluster and linked to the School of Biological Sciences.

50 Nanyang Avenue

Tel: +65 656791174

A*Star's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) & Olympus Singapore have established a microscopy suite in IMB to study human diseases such as cancer at the nano-level. Nanoscopy platforms allow scientists to study human diseases, develop effective drugs and new diagnostic tools and therapies.

This suite, equipped with state-of-the-art microscopes with nano-imaging capabilities, will allow scientists to see individual proteins inside a living cell, which is not possible with conventional microscopy. This collaboration with Olympus Singapore will lay the foundation for IMB to develop a comprehensive nanoscopy2 platform, which is the first in the world for biomedical research.

Scientists at IMB will be able to use the advanced microscopes in the IMB-Olympus Microscopy Suite to study molecular interactions in living biological systems; study human diseases, including cancer, aging, neurodegeneration and pathogenesis, at nanometer-range resolution; develop effective drugs at a much faster rate; and develop new diagnostic tools and therapies.

The use of nano-imaging technologies to study living biological samples is an emerging field in modern biology. Nano-imaging (nanoscopy) techniques have so far been mostly limited to use in materials science and chemistry research, to analyze non-living samples such as the characterization of miniature photonic crystals found in solar cells, because the techniques required are so harsh that living cells cannot survive them.

IMB is one of the Biomedical Sciences Institutes of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). It was formed in 2007, the 7th and youngest of the BMRC Research Institutes, with a mission to study mechanisms of human disease in order to discover new and effective therapeutic strategies for improved quality of life.

IMB hosts 20 research teams of international excellence in stem cells, genetic diseases, cancer and skin and epithelial biology, and works closely with clinical collaborators to target the challenging interface between basic science and clinical medicine. Its growing portfolio of strategic research topics is targeted at translational research on the mechanisms of human diseases, with a cell-to-tissue emphasis that can help identify new therapeutic strategies for disease amelioration, cure and eradication.

Institute of Medical Biology, 8A Biomedical Grove, #06-06 Immunos

Tel: +65 64070150 or email: [email protected]

A new 11-storey building which provides a focal point for cutting-edge research in defence and biomedical sciences has officially opened at the National University of Singapore (NUS). T-Lab, is the culmination of a longstanding collaboration between the National University of Singapore  (NUS) and the Defence Ministry (MINDEF).

The new S$42 million building is the first permanent home of Temasek Laboratories (TL@NUS), which will be located in the north wing of NUS. Key NUS labs which conduct research in environmental science and water technologies are located in the south wing.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also Defence Minister, said MINDEF's partnership with local universities and research institutes have been mutually beneficial.
"They not only provide a natural source of scientific and engineering talent and expertise to augment the research and resources of DSTA and DSO, but also allow many accomplished researchers to challenge themselves with cutting-edge defence work." DPM Teo added: "This building will provide the TL@NUS researchers with their own in-house, advanced experimental facilities such as a closed-loop low-speed wind-tunnel, an antenna test chamber and a free-space material measurement lab to meet their unique research needs.

With the new building, some 300 researchers will all be housed under one roof and this will foster closer interaction as well as enhance research in areas like electromagnetics and information security.

T-Lab Building, 5a Engineering Drive, National University of Singapore

Drug giant Pfizer opens $600m plant in Tuas; research hub Biopolis, spurred on by the early success in being able to grow the fledgling biomedical sector's manufacturing output to $12 billion in just four years, the target now is to double it within the next 10 years.

The pharmaceutical ingredients-producing factory is one of the company's most technologically advanced plants worldwide and will employ 250 staff.

31 Tuas South Ave 6