Why Singapore is Emerging as a Hotbed for Stem Cell Research ?
Singapore, conservative on most social issues - including a ban on most types of chewing gum - is emerging as a hotbed for stem cell research, thanks to liberal laws in that field and equally liberal government financing and obviously the Bush administration policies that restrict federal money for stem cell research.
Bush administration policies that restrict federal money for stem cell research have prompted an increasing number of top scientists to pack their bags and head for this equatorial city.
Two of America’s most prominent cancer researchers, Neal G Copeland and Nancy A Jenkins, are planning to arrive here next month to take posts at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology.
The husband-and-wife team, who worked for 20 years at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland, said politics and budget cuts had left financing in the United States too hard to come by.
Scientists say President Bush’s veto last month of legislation to raise limits on federal financing for stem cell research was the latest in a series of setbacks. Shrinking research grants, a greater corporate emphasis on quick profits and the political firestorm over stem cells have left many American scientists frustrated and discouraged.
