Colman to move to Asia.

Another prominent scientist has been wooed by the highly lucrative research funds and amiable climate of Singapore. Alan Colman, head of research at Edinburgh-based PPL Therapeutics, who together with scientists from the Roslin Institute spearheaded the team that created Dolly the sheep, will move to Singapore this summer to develop embryonic stem (ES) cell treatments for Type 2 diabetes.

Colman joins a small but growing number of leading investigators who have been recruited to Singapore as part of the country's initiative to invest heavily in scientific research as a route to growing the economy (Nature Med. 7, 1169; 2001). He will join the stem cell company, ES Cell, which was started by researchers from Monash University in Australia and has a financial base in Singapore. The company owns ES cell lines that have been approved by the American government as being suitable for research with federal funding.

Colman's first task will be to put together a team of scientists proficient in ES cell techniques, which is not a straightforward mission since he acknowledges the limited R&D manpower within the country. He then plans to develop new ES cell lines since the existing lines are thought, like many others around the world, to be contaminated with products from mouse ES cells which were used to feed the human cells. New cells grown with human feeder material will avoid the possibility of rejection if used therapeutically.

Colman made the decision to leave the UK prior to the recent House of Lords ruling that research on human embryos no longer be restricted to fertility studies (see page 315). Nevertheless, he says that the funding available in Singapore outstrips that which he could obtain in the UK for such work. PPL plans to restrict its R&D focus to the production of proteins derived from the milk of animals and to divest its ES cell interests.