Duke picked Singapore for its rich talent

How will Duke-NUS be different from the National University of Singapore medical school and from those in the United States?

It’s a graduate medical school, and unique (among US schools) in the sense that the clinical rotations, where students see patients, are very early in the second year. In conventional medical schools, this would take place from the third year onwards. Students gain a lot from this opportunity.

The third year is important. The students do research, scholarly work and many of them will take the opportunity to pursue a second degree.

Because of this, many of them will pursue a career beyond just the simple practice of medicine.

Why pick Singapore as a base for scientific innovation?

There’s no shortage of talent in this region, and Singapore is rich with talented, energetic young people who want to do the right thing.

So I’m going to go where the talents are and liberate their thinking. Don’t be constrained by your previous learning. Go ahead and think about new ideas.

How were Duke-NUS’ signature research programmes – in cancer, neuroscience, metabolic disorders, infectious diseases and health services research – selected?

Those areas, to me, are some of the most important areas in medicine. You have the maximum impact on health by studying these areas.

And they are areas in which we already have strengths at Duke. I think the only question is going to be: What research do you emphasise?

What’s your own research about, and how has it helped you as a leader?

One part is on the renin-angiotensin system. (Renin is a compound secreted by the kidneys which plays a role in regulating blood pressure.) I’m interested in what makes a renin cell, which is a rare cell in the kidney but is so important in cardiovascular regulation. My lab is also looking at using cardiovascular stem cells for repair and regeneration.

And something I’ve been working on since I was at Stanford is the concept of gene therapy to protect the heart during a heart attack. And we’ve taken some of these technologies to phase 3, the final stage of large-scale clinical trials before a treatment is approved.

As a leader, you’re closer to the people doing the work. You can understand their challenges and issues – what they need and how they think. You had better experience that before you tell people to do all that stuff.

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