MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore launches new research group, boosting nation’s cell therapies R&D

MIT’s Research Enterprise in Singapore, SMART, launches a new research group, Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP), as part of Singapore�s National Cell Manufacturing Initiative to overcome scientific and technical challenges in life-changing cell therapies

 

• S$10 million a year to be invested
  in SMART CAMP in a multi-year effort
• New interdisciplinary research group, SMART CAMP, will bring together 35 MIT
  and Singapore investigators
• Complementary and integrated programme with Singapore’s Agency for
  Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) cell manufacturing effort, supported
  by the National Research Foundation (NRF)
• SMART CAMP deploys MIT’s
  innovation methodologies in Singapore’s thriving biopharmaceutical industry,
  tapping market potential of billions a year

 

SINGAPORE - Media
OutReach - 15 July
2019 - Cell therapies, where
cellular material is injected, grafted or implanted into a patient to treat a
range of illnesses and medical conditions, are a vital and integral component
of medicine today – promising treatment of tissue degenerative diseases,
cancer, and autoimmune disorders.

    

However, significant challenges currently exist to prevent its
widespread adoption including problems such as safety, potency, efficacy, and
costs. To overcome these challenges, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research
and Technology (SMART), together with A*STAR Institutes and supported by the
National Research Foundation (NRF), has launched a new national initiative in
Singapore that deploys MIT’s globally renowned applied innovation methodology
combined with Singapore’s dynamic and growing biopharmaceutical manufacturing
industry.

    

As part of the national initiative in cell manufacturing, CAMP is a new
interdisciplinary research group within SMART that will focus on ways to produce living cells as medicine delivered to humans, leading to
improved health outcomes. The National Research Foundation will support this
multi-million, multi-year project that will bring together 35 MIT and Singapore
investigators. They will be
recruited from researchers working in SMART and Singapore institutes including
A*STAR, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the National University Hospital
and local universities. Investigators from MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts will
also be recruited to support the programme.

 

“This is a field that is ripe for innovation, and one which we believe
will benefit from both MIT’s and Singapore’s strengths,” said Eugene
Fitzgerald, CEO and Director of SMART. “By applying our problem-solving
research methodology, coupled with Singapore’s well-established biopharmaceutical
manufacturing ecosystem, we are confident that we will be able to achieve
market-ready breakthroughs.”

 

Since its inception in Singapore in 2007, SMART has pioneered
innovations that have transformed and are transforming fields such as
autonomous driving, agriculture, microelectronics, mechanics and microfluidics
platforms for biology and medical diagnostics, and antimicrobial resistance.

    

SMART CAMP will be helmed by
Professor Krystyn Van Vliet of MIT and Professor Hanry Yu of NUS and A*STAR. Professor Van Vliet is an engineer
with expertise at the interface of materials, mechanics, and biological systems
and is an experienced leader, currently serving as the Associate Provost and
the Director of Manufacturing Innovation at MIT. Her current research stemming
from earlier SMART collaborations is in clinical trials at the Singapore
General Hospital, and the prior SMART team that she led has spun off several
MedTech companies in Singapore.      

 

Professor Van Vliet explained, “By
addressing critical technology bottlenecks in how the next generation of
personalised medicines is made, SMART CAMP researchers will help set the
standards for innovating on quality by design. Imagine providing just the right
living cells — the most sophisticated drug factories we know — to each patient,
as quickly and safely as possible. Delivering on that promise requires exciting
changes in the way we understand, engineer, measure, and select cells that
offer a safe and effective medicine for that person’s ailment. And that goal,
in turn, benefits from this investment in the research and researchers that can
transform the manufacturing and analytics of biopharma products.”      

 

Professor Yu is a physiologist with expertise interface between
mechanobiology, biomaterials, imaging and AI-based data analytics. He is also a
serial entrepreneur, recently forming six companies, and the founding member of
the Mechanobiology Institute Research Centre of Excellence in Singapore.

    

“This programme integrates experts
from various disciplines, training staff and students who can think through the
translational pipelines from basic knowledge and technology into commercially
viable and clinically relevant solutions”, said Professor Yu.

 

“There is a global need for safe and cost-effective cell therapies,”
said Dr. Khiang Wee Lim, Executive Director of CREATE, NRF. “We believe that it
is an area in which Singapore can provide innovation space and bring these
transformational technologies to millions around the world. Advances in this
area will also boost Singapore’s biopharmaceutical industry, bringing
innovations and helping gain a lead in this promising market that is estimated
to be worth billions.”

About Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART)

Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) is MIT’s Research Enterprise in Singapore, established by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in partnership with the National
Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF) since 2007.  SMART is the first entity in the Campus for
Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) developed by NRF.  SMART serves
as an intellectual and innovation hub for research interactions
between MIT and Singapore. Cutting-edge research projects in areas of interest
to both Singapore and MIT are undertaken at SMART. SMART currently comprises an
Innovation Centre and six Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs):
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), BioSystems and Micromechanics (BioSyM), Critical Analytics for
Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP), Disruptive & Sustainable
Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP), Future Urban Mobility (FM)
and Low Energy Electronic Systems (LEES).

SMART research is funded by the National Research Foundation Singapore under
the CREATE programme.  For more
information, please visit – http://smart.mit.edu