Board of Advisors

Chris Tan, M.D.
Founding Director of the Institute
of Molecular and Cell Biology

Founding Director of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore, Chris Tan saw staffing increase from 35 scientists in 1987 to more than 500 by 2003 and oversaw an annual budget of about $40 million.

“My remit was to continually convince the government of Singapore the value of establishing a strong research culture, which to them was unfamiliar territory,” reflects Tan. “In the 10 years following its inception, the IMCB became a leading international research institute capable of competing with labs worldwide in cell biology, infectious diseases and neurobiology.

Articles and editorials appeared in Nature, Science, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Business Week, Nikkei Keizai Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Fortune Magazine and Time Magazine, reporting the IMCB as an international player in biomedical research.

The IMCB’s success eventually spurred Singapore to undertake biomedical R&D as a pillar for its knowledge based economy and this has since resulted in the establishment of Biopolis, where 2,000 biomedical research scientists are housed in newly built space of 2 million square feet.