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About us
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About us

The Department of Experimental Surgery (DES) began as the Experimental Surgery Unit in 1982 and became a full full-fledged research department in 1989. With over two decades of experience in animal-based research projects, DES has highly skilled personnel and well-established infrastructure to carry out research projects according to the highest international standards. DES now offers an attractive combination of centralised professional (scientific, veterinarian, and technical) staff and contemporary research facilities to support a broad range of in-vitro and in-vivo animal research, as well as cadaveric-based research.

DES is funded through competitive, public grants to serve as a national translational research resource centre, catering to the needs of the entire local biomedical community. To meet increasing demand for biomedical research facilities, the department embarked on an extensive upgrading and expansion program in 2001 when the opportunity was also taken to have the new facilities meet requirements that will comply with the best international standards. DES is also served by the oldest and most experienced IACUC (institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) in Singapore. All these serve to ensure that research carried out in the laboratory meets the most stringent standards, and this has in turn attracted high-end international academic and industrial collaborations.

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Our services and facilities

While DES works with both small and large animal model, it is currently the only facility in Singapore with the facilities and capacity to carry out comprehensive large animal research. Additional offsite facilities acquired in 2001 expanded this capability significantly and increased the range of available large animal models and allowed large numbers of chronic models to be housed. Research using rodent models in Singapore also received a boost in August 2005 when DES commissioned its rodent Positron Emission Tomography (micro-PET) Service. In this, DES works closely with the Department of Nuclear Medicine in SGH (the first institution with clinical PET in Southeast Asia) and has access to its technical expertise as well as a cyclotron for specialised radio isotopes.

DES research activities are broad-based. It is involved in the creation of novel animal models that can be exploited for pre-clinical testing. There are specialised support facilities for cell and tissue culture, virology research, histopathology, animal biochemistry. A good range of equipment for Biomechanics research and a Cadaver Repository are also important resources. A molecular biology lab and an organic chemistry lab with full range of equipment dedicated to animal research are additional core support facilities found within the department.

In comparison with many other institutions that use animals in research, DES is capable of carrying out complex surgical and interventional research in large animal models (full set of instruments and staff familiar with surgical operations including microsurgery, liver and kidney transplants). A full range of dedicated imaging equipment is available to researchers ranging from ultrasonography machine, to angiographic C-arm to a gamma camera and a micro-PET scan. Operating microscopes are available for researches that require micro-vascular techniques.

In addition, in early 2005 DES commissioned an Animal BSL2 facility suitable for large animal models in its offsite facility. DES provides pre-clinical and ADMET research services to industry and is actively involved in contract research services with a number of biotech companies.

DES also provides professional support and consultancy services in veterinary and surgical sciences, and advises researchers on choice of animal models, protocol development and appropriate methodology and the sourcing of consumables and models. The professional staff in DES may also assist researchers in the execution of research projects.

In summary, DES today provides comprehensive translational research expertise and facilities within the confines of a single institution.

The close physical and professional proximity of DES to high through-put medical institutions on the Outram Campus including the Singapore General Hospital, the National Cancer Centre, the National Heart Centre and the Singapore National Eye Centre, is one of its greatest strengths. The Singapore General Hospital for example carries out more than 60,000 surgeries and accommodates half-a-million outpatient consultations a year. DES taps on the large number of high-calibre clinical specialists available in these institutions for the professional expertise so essential for preclinical testing and design. The high patient through-put in these institutions also allows investigational products to rapidly move into early phase clinical trials in a seamless manner.

DES provides state-of-the art clinical skills training facilities in a newly refurbished training hall (Learning Skills Centre) with state-of-the art AV equipment which it manages in collaboration with the Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) in SGH.

Microsurgery room	Primate Operating Theatre
Large Animal Operating Theatre	Angiographic C-arm Facility
Micro-PET facility	Micro-PET scanning result showing a visible tumour in a rat model

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Our current research

Collaboration with us

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