[the Singapore Biopolis, photography by John Phillips]

News


About


With its Biopolis and related facilities, Singapore has established itself as a globally recognized centre for the development of biotechnology and biomedicine. The knowledge and practices that are emerging here are particularly aimed at generating breakthrough biomedical applications and therapies. Their significance does not stop there, the emergent forms of life and practice in Singapore and other Asian biotech research centres have the potential to affect and re-order everything from the mechanics and meaning of 'scientific research' in the 21st century, to contemporary understandings of life, race, ethnicity, nation, and citizenship. It is therefore important that biotechnology/biomedicine initiatives in this part of the world are accompanied by sustained research into their social, historical, cultural, political and philosophical aspects. "Asian Biopoleis" is the first Asia-based project to attempt this on a regional scale.