Serving as a shining example of how to foster the growth of small and medium-sized biomedical firms, Singapore has invested heavily in research, creating the Biopolis campus from scratch, where 20 biomedical and engineering institutes have been established. Among these is SIgN (the Singapore Immunology Network), of which the immunologist Paola Castagnoli is Scientific Director. In this interview with the Aspen Italia website team, Castagnoli explains that the gamble on biomedicine taken by this small Asian city-state could also be replicated in Italy, where there is no shortage of expertise, and where there is a vibrant network of SMEs that could interact well with the basic research sphere.
Since 2007, you have been the Scientific Director of SIgN. What is the potential of the immunological research being carried out in Singapore?
First of all, it has to be said that at SIgN our work deals with human immunology, and, in particular, that of infectious and inflammatory diseases. The potential for its application beyond Singapore, which has Western standards of living, is exceptional given that we are based in South East Asia, an area of 650 million people where there are many infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and tuberculosis. Being located here is also important because the Asian genotype is different from that of Caucasians, and this enables us to understand the extent to which the genotype of a population contributes to the development of certain diseases.
We have also observed that a disease manifests itself differently when the genotype is different. This variance has significant consequences for the development of drugs, which in the future will be more and more personalized. In Singapore, we are studying the immune response to infectious and inflammatory diseases in both the local Asian and Caucasian populations, given that over 30% of the population of the country is foreign. And for pharmaceutical companies, which have up till now studied the effects of drugs only in the West, these studies are very important for making inroads into the very vast Chinese market.
How much and in what ways is Singapore investing in research?
The investment is both in research and especially in human capital, because Singapore has only existed for 47 years and so has not been able to produce enough scientists yet. For this reason, it is trying to lure them from abroad. I arrived here in 2007 from the University in Milan-Bicocca to set up a completely new research center, SIgN, which is part of the A*STAR government agency for science and technology, and which incidentally comes under the Ministry of Industry and Trade and not the Ministries of Education or Health. A*STAR has established 20 research institutes at Biopolis, where around 3,000 researchers in all work, half of whom are foreigners. This country has decided to focus heavily on research because the government believes that one of the 4 pillars of the national economy is in fact knowledge. While the level of investment in research and development ten years ago stood at 1.9% of GDP, today it has reached 3%.
What opportunities does a project like Biopolis offer for foreign talent?
At SIgN alone, there are 27 principal investigators from 15 countries, including 6 Italians, and 26 different languages are spoken. Singapore has realized that investing in international talent rewards and contributes to innovation, thanks also to the integration of different disciplines. In fact, at Biopolis, there are 10 research institutes in the biomedical field and as many bioinformatic engineering and materials science institutes, with A*STAR seeking to maximize the interaction between them.
However, the opportunities are not just for those who come to live here. We form a real bridge with Europe, and we have several partnerships in place with Italian and European research institutes and universities. In addition, we have signed 12 agreements with major pharmaceutical companies, especially European ones. The reality is that biomedical research is becoming increasingly more transnational, and therefore applied, as is clearly evident from the new European Union Framework Programme in the area of health, Horizon 2020. At the same time, Asia offers excellent opportunities for collaboration in this field.
What does Italy need to be able to replicate this successful model?
It is not difficult to see what the possible starting points for Italy might be. First of all, a regulatory framework that encourages investment in research and development is required. Then there is a specific issue relating to biotech, namely, the lack of business angels and venture capital funds willing to get involved in the early stages of product development. The problem particularly concerns pre-clinical trials, a veritable “valley of death” for projects, where there is a great need to find adequate funding. In fact, this is the product development phase that carries the greatest risk, which makes it difficult to find investors. Also, the limited public resources available are often not used appropriately, which is a real shame given that biomedical research in Italy is of an excellent standard.
Finally, it should not be forgotten that the creation of biomedical research and development hubs is crucial for raising the visibility of Italian research, whilst fragmentation does not pay dividends. Currently, the big pharmacos are closing many of their research centers because they think that future products will come from the biotech sector, private research institutes, or public centers such as large universities. This represents a real opportunity, and that is what tiny Singapore, thanks to projects like Biopolis, is trying to build on, attracting small and medium-sized businesses that want to be close to basic research. I think this is a very sound approach for Italy too, not just because we have excellent expertise in the field of biomedicine, but also because this model rewards the kind of creativity to be found in abundance in the Italian production system.
Paola Castagnoli, Scientific Director of SIgN (the Singapore Immunology Network), was the former Chair of Immunology and General Pathology at the University of Milan-Bicocca.
After graduating from the University of Florence and obtaining a PhD in Immunology at the University of Louvain-la Neuve, Belgium, she carried out research for the Italian National Research Council in Milan, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and a visiting scientist at MIT Boston. A member of both EMBO (the European Molecular Biology Organization) and the German Leopoldina Academy of Sciences, she was awarded a European Union Marie Curie Chair at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 2006, and is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. She has had over 180 works published in international journals, which have received 25,000 citations.
