Sweden opens new medical research centre in Singapore
Sweden's largest medical university, the Karolinska Institute, opened its first overseas office at the National University of Singapore on 13 October. The two institutes have already been collaborating for five years on various projects. The new institute will pave the way for even more research collaborations in areas such as population-based epidemiologic research, dental tissue regeneration, breast cancer, childhood allergies, how the immune system is regulated and the effects of Western and Asian diets on people's susceptibility to colon cancer. 'For many years, KI has collaborated with other universities and research institutes, but we have chosen Singapore to establish our first office abroad as it is the research hub in this region,' said the Karolinska institute's president, Professor Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson. The Karolinska Institute, which was set up in 1810, ranks among the largest medical universities in Europe, with 320 professors, 150 associate professors and 2,500 PhD students. The resources it needs to maintain its leading position in medical research, however, are not available in Sweden, while the major investments are being made in Asia. 'We need to be here,' said Professor Wallberg-Henriksson. A joint PhD programme in molecular medicine has already been set up. Under this programme, genetic and molecular epidemiology (GAME), students will graduate with degrees from both universities. The next step, said Karolinska's dean of research, Professor Jan Carlstedt-Duke, will be to set up the institute's research laboratories in Singapore. Professor Wallberg-Henriksson, who is the first female president of the Karolinska institute, took this opportunity to call for more efforts to be made to help women break into the highest level of research, still dominated by men. In an interview with the Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, Professor Wallberg-Henriksson stated: 'As a scientist travelling to various international conferences and attending different board meetings, I've always found myself the only woman, or one of a very few. This means we're really losing out, because if you miss out on 50 per cent of the population in science, you miss 50 per cent of the good ideas.' At the Karolinska Institute, she explained, while the number of men and women are about the same at PhD level, the number for women then decreases dramatically, with only 17 per cent of them becoming professors. 'It's a leaky pipe. Women are leaking out of the system and disappearing,' she told The Straits Times. Professor Wallberg-Henriksson called for measures such as the setting up of a task force to find ways to close the divide, installing a leadership programme for younger women or providing extra funding for departments that appoint a woman professor. This would hasten a process that would otherwise take 50 years, she said.
Kraje
Sweden, Singapore