S'pore tissue bank to help research

S'pore tissue bank to help research

SINGAPORE (DPA): A national bank storing healthy and diseased human tissue will be set up in Singapore to enable scientists to pursue cures for deadly diseases, organizers said on Thursday.

The facility boosting the city-state's drive to become a major research center in Asia will be spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and the Genome Institute of Singapore.

The formation of the bank, called the Singapore Tissue Network, was announced following a meeting on Wednesday of the Biomedical Sciences International Advisory Council.

The state-of-the-art facility will "encourage and attract worldwide academic and industrial collaborators," said Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan.

Dr. Sydney Brenner, co-chairman of the council from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the U.S., said the tissue network would be recognized internationally.