Keystone Symposia - World's top scientists meeting here

ONE of the world's most prestigious scientific meetings has landed on Singapore shores, the first time it is being held outside the United States.

LEADING LIGHTS: Experts, such as Dr Irving Weissman and Dr Suzanne Cory, are here for the prestigious Keystone Symposia, held for the first time outside the US.

Starting today, the five-day Keystone Symposia features international big names in stem cell and cancer research. About 500 scientists and doctors from the US, Europe and Asia are here to exchange ideas and network with the best in the field.

With experts such as Dr Irving Weissman, director of the Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Dr Suzanne Cory, director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, it had scientists the world over scrambling to attend. In fact, organisers had to turn down about 200 hopefuls.

The goal of the meeting is to explore the links between stem cell biology, ageing and cancer.
Stem cells can reproduce indefinitely and can potentially turn into very different tissues.

Interestingly, cancer cells have been found to resemble stem cells, with their indefinite growth and very primitive appearance. But while stem cells are highly organised and controlled, their cancerous counterparts are chaotic and in total disarray. So the idea is that if researchers can learn to control the inner workings of stem cells, they could in turn reverse the process in cancer cells and devise better treatments for cancer.

That the prestigious conference is being held here is a sign that Singapore - with its focus on both cancer and stem cell research - has achieved a significant level of international recognition.
Keystone Symposia CEO James Aiken said: 'Singapore has distinguished itself as an international biomedical hub.'

Some of the biggest corporate names and individual stars in biomedical science are here, he said, and high quality scientific manpower is complemented by state-of-the-art research facilities, good funding and a strong regulatory infrastructure.

Explaining the decision to move the conference here, he added: 'This steadfast commitment and international appeal makes Singapore an obvious choice.'

The executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and one of the meeting's co-organisers, Professor Edison Liu, said: 'Having the meeting here means a lot on the international scale; it means that we have arrived at a certain level of credibility.'

Progress in the field is still incremental, he cautioned, and it would still be years before stem cells would be used to treat cancer in the clinical setting.

The conference, apart from being a melting pot of ideas, would also be a good chance to highlight Singaporean science to the international community, he added.

One of the speakers who will highlight work being done here is Dr Lena Motoda, who is doing her PhD at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. Her research involves studying the relationship between leukaemia and stem cells.

Dr Ng Huck Hui of GIS will describe his work on mapping the control network of the master switches that maintain stem cell characteristics.

All in all, a good showing for Singapore.

On the international front are people like Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, a leader in the area of telomeres - the structures at the ends of chromosomes, and telomerase - an enzyme which prevents chromosomal fraying. Telomerases are essential for stem cell function and also important in maintaining the cancer state.

A professor at the University of California, San Francisco, her latest work has uncovered new findings about how telomerase is giving cancer cells stem-cell-like properties, and how this could lead to better targets in the fight against cancer.

Chang Ai-Lien
The Straits Times Interactive, 25 October 2005