Chairman, Economic Development Board, At The MOU Signing Ceremony Between The Institute Of High Performance Computing (IHPC) And Sun Microsystems
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good Afternoon
1. Today we are witnessing the signing of the MOU between the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) and Sun Microsystems to jointly form a Centre of Excellence in Computational Structural Genomics.
2. Computational structural genomics is a multi-disciplinary area that combines both computer modeling and simulation with structural genomics. Structural genomics aims to understand the function of a protein through determining its shape and structure, which aid in designing drugs that can bind the protein. Since the completion of the first draft of the Human Genome Project in June this year, structural genomics has become ever more critical to build up our understanding of the functions of genes and proteins, which can only be achieved using large-scale computation.
3. Singapore has demonstrated its strengths in information technology and computation. Moving ahead, IHPC has identified computational biology as a key area. This is in line with our plan to catalyze Life Sciences activities in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics. The setting up of the IHPC-Sun Microsystems Centre for Computational Structural Genomics today is most timely. This initiative will complement the R&D capabilities of the Singapore Genomics Program (SGP), a national program launched in June this year to spearhead Singapore’s efforts in genomics research.
4. Simultaneously, we will strengthen the existing bioinformatics capabilities in Singapore. Over the next 5 to 10 years, we expect a large industry demand for bioinformaticians who can devise informatics tools to make sense of biological data generated in the post-genomics era. In order to build up our local talent pool to meet this new demand, we have launched the Life Sciences postgraduate scholarships to encourage students to pursue the study of various fields of bioinformatics.
5. The collaboration between IHPC and Sun Microsystems exemplifies the synergy between two dynamic and fast-growing industries, Life Sciences and Information Technology.
6. I am glad to note that Sun Microsystems has decided to partner with IHPC to set up this Centre of Excellence. IHPC is one of only three institutions in the world identified by Sun Microsystems for this important collaboration. The others are the San Diego Supercomputing Centre in the US and Edinburgh’s Parallel Computing Centre in Scotland.
7. This collaboration will facilitate the training and exchange of staff and manpower in computational genomics. The exchange will place Singapore a step closer to our vision of developing Singapore into a world-class Life Sciences centre with capabilities across the entire value-chain.
8. I congratulate IHPC and Sun Microsystems in setting up the Centre of Excellence in Computational Structural Genomics. Thank you.
Date: 28-August-2000
Source: Singapore Economic Development Board
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