The last time I visited Singapore was in 2005, and when I came back this year - 2011, I hardly recognized it. Only a few years ago I was able to stand next to the Merlion by the Fullerton Hotel and enjoy the view of the open sea. Now it is just amazing to see what has happened there and, for example, to look at the new Marina Bay Sands with its infinity pool or at the Sinapore Flyer, which, with its total height of 165 m, is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. Next to the Marina Bay Sands one can see the Helix Bridge and a sign next to it saying: ‘This resembles the double helix structure of DNA and symbolizes life and continuity, renewal, everlasting abundance and growth'. According to the sign it reflects the key aspirations of Marina Bay, but in my opinion, this not only resembles the goal of this area, it also appears to be the goal of whole Singapore.

The area of Singapore is 712 sq km big and the population is about 5.08 million people. Approximately 25 % of the residents are from foreign countries. Nevertheless the country still wants to bring in more people.

But why is this? Singapore is a gateway to Asia, which is experiencing rapid growth. 60 % of the world's population lives in Asia. The potential is huge. Singapore plays an important role in assisting foreign companies in finding their way into the regional market. As the companies coming in from e.g. Europe, also need to find the best employees from all over the world, an Agency of the Singaporean government, Contact Singapore, has the primary function of drawing global talent to the city state.

In Singapore, there is an especially rapid development in biomedical sciences. Not only companies such as Lonza, Agilent Technologies or Bosch can be found here, but research and development centers that work closely with these companies, such as Fusionopolis and Biopolis are being built here too. Also there are five so called Research Centers of Excellence.

Biopolis, which consists of nine buildings, called Nanos, Genome, Helios, Chromos, Proteos, Matrix, Centros, Neuros and Immunos, was constructed in the time period 2003 to 2006.

One research group in the Nanos building, which is the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, is lead by Charlotte Hauser, who is Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist.

Her group found a new class of 30 ultra small peptides (3-7mers) that self assemble into a hydrogel. This hydrogel can then be used for example, as a scaffold for stem cells. The group is also doing research using these natural peptides in the area of amyloid research and organogels. Charlotte Hauser, who is originally from Germany, came to Singapore in July 2009. Parallel to her academic career she founded Octagene, Germany (now with Octapharm AG) and was CEO of from 1997 to 2006.

Fusionopolis is a science facility close to Biopolis, and A*Star, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore is located here. In total A*Star oversees 14 biomedical sciences, physical sciences and engineering institutes, and six consortia and centers.

One of these five Research centers of excellence, the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI), is located on the campus of the National University of Singapore (NUS). In this inter-disciplinary Institute Physicists, Chemists and Biologists - all of them expert in their own field - are working close together, to answer questions like (1) how does a cell generate force? (2) how does it respond? and (3) how does the cell know that it generates force? They ask and try to answer these questions in order to transfer basic discoveries to the clinic and the classroom.

Since people from all different scientific fields work here together, they need to be able to communicate their expertise to each other and also to take a look over the rim of their own working world. They admit that it is sometimes difficult to understand each other since a physicist has to explain his ideas for example to a chemist. But although this might be sometimes a challenge Michael Sheetz, Director of the Mechanobiology Institute and his staff are certain that with this kind of research, by exploring different possible angles of challenging problems, they will change science. Besides being an Executive Director at the MBI, Sheetz, is a distinguished Professor of the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore, and Professor of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. He stays in Singapore for nine months a year to oversee the Institute's programs.

Charlotte Hauser and Michael Sheetz are just two examples of researchers from abroad who were attracted to Singapore. Another example for someone who wants to start a new business here is Michael Tillmann. He is the Founder of Vela Diagnostics, a company within the field of molecular diagnostics, which has its Global headquarter in Singapore. He has over 20 years experience in senior executive positions in Multi National Companies in the Pharmaceutical and Diagnostics Industry for example as CEO for North America with Roche Diagnostics.