Read 3 articles daily and stand to win ST rewards, including the ST News Tablet worth $398. #Theofficertatum #Tatrums Here is why I became conservative. He hit on the idea of growing cancer cells. Until we resolve the issues, subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles. Brainy Moves Photos. He is working on several at the moment, including two face masks which he believes would help in battling the Covid-19 pandemic. He went into prison three times for … It Changed My Life: One body blow after another, but he fights on, Singapore News & Top Stories - The Straits Times It Changed My Life: One body blow after another, but he fights on, Singapore News & Top Stories - The Straits Times "When someone tells me something cannot be done, I'll always say: 'I bet you it can be done. When Mr Das Dipto arrived for work at Block 244 Hougang Street 22 on Sunday (Jan 3) at 7.35am, the landscape maintenance worker did not expect to be involved in "the best job I've done in my life". We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused. At last count, it was a $3 trillion market, and you can't go wrong with a market that size. All done! But his penchant for questioning has served him well, he says. Frontpage | New Straits Times : Authoritative source for Malaysia latest news on politics, business, sports, world and entertainment "My father got laid off, my mother wasn't working and my brother was still in school," he says. The record of who we are will be defined by what we do during this finite period. "That was the one defining moment of relevance because I understood then why I started the company, why I suffered like crazy, why I endured the long nights and why I sold my home.". It was when we could help someone.". But these two former student rebels are now edtech pioneers. His main job is to run Invitrocue, a life sciences company which he founded in 2012. Mind you, these are just side projects to placate his highly driven Type A personality. For example, what we do here at Invitrocue is not just about oncology, it also involves physics and engineering.". By the time he left the police force five years later, he had completed a degree in computer engineering from the University of Hull in England through distance learning. Get The Straits Times app and receive breaking news alerts and more. "I remember printing and giving out my name cards when I was seven," says Dr Fang, whose maternal grandfather ran a property business. Dark clouds had been hovering since lunchtime. "Oncology is a huge market. Post by admin. Here is Kar Kian's entry for the Samsung-Stomp Inspiring Teachers Awards: "Mr Phua taught me when I was in Secondary 3 and 4. It did brisk business with pharma companies but Dr Fang felt that the company needed to be more than just a one-trick pony. (Join other readers in sharing heartwarming stories in www.facebook.com/groups/whatsgd/) Invitrocue also has an offshoot Invivocue, which supplies humanised immune system mice and cell products to research institutions, pharmaceutical, clinical research and biotechnology companies. The Straits Times January 5, 2021. He continues: "We all have a shelf life and use-by date, no matter how smart and rich we are. When someone tells me something cannot be done, I'll always say: 'I bet you it can be done. He recalls the first time cord blood therapy was used in Singapore to treat a three-year-old girl with cerebral palsy in 2009. It's not even about whether you have funding or not. Launch of ‘Great Night Out’ & Autism Awareness Exhibition at Raffles Place Park. The record of who we are will be defined by what we do during this finite period. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, it is headquartered in Singapore, with operations in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Australia, China and Hong Kong. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't resentful, but in hindsight, I really thank my dad for putting me through those difficult years. Jabez Tan, owner of Soon Huat Dining House. One of the biggest challenges was meeting the regulator's expectations because it was such a new field then. It Changed My Life It Changed My Life: British tycoon gave away supercars and fortune to find happiness Briton who built a computer game empire at … By registering, you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy. says the entrepreneur, who continued his studies at Swiss Cottage Secondary and St Andrew's Junior College. took over operations. We just haven't found a way yet'," he says. It Changed My Life: Film-maker Kirsten Tan's journey from quirky distraction to movie magic About 10 years ago, Ms Kirsten Tan was living what she then considered the perfect life. It's about your timeliness to market, whether you are ahead of or behind the market.". The science buff's A-level results were sterling enough to get him admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, consistently rated the top tertiary institution in global university rankings. Dr Steven Fang of Invitrocue, a life sciences company that cultivates patient-derived cancer cells in laboratories and tests them against drugs to support clinical treatments, says: "We all have a shelf life and use-by date, no matter how smart and rich we are. "The defining moment for us was not when we got listed; it was not when we closed funding of x millions. I said I need to sell the condo to grow a company with a very noble cause," says Dr Fang, who sold his condo in the East. The Straits Times - 2021-01-07 - THE BIG STORY - Tohwenli@sph.com.sg. They can read the article in full after signing up for a free account. "You wouldn't know how precious a diamond is until you start polishing it. "They're a coming-together of different disciplines and technologies. SPH Digital News / Copyright © 2020 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn. https://str.sg/JNXs. The Straits Times Press (Malaya) Sdn Bhd. These stem cells can morph into blood cells which can be used to treat diseases such as leukaemia and other cancers which attack the blood or immunity system. In a sense, it steered me strongly towards medicine.". It Changed My Life: He came from India with just $50 and pocket full of ambition, It Changed My Life: Reinventing work spaces, with help from mother's fruit cakes, It Changed My Life: 'We are competitive, we play to win,' say gaming twins behind S'pore's biggest boutique PC builder, It Changed My Life: Hitting the sweet spot, It Changed My Life: 'We don't want to do just plain vanilla deals', It Changed My Life: He is in the business of saving lives, It Changed My Life: Henri Chen wants to build a community of artists who pay it forward, It Changed My Life: The surgeon and the Dalai Lama, It Changed My Life: Ex-student rebels now edtech trailblazers, It Changed My Life: From ice-skating Olympic gold to a life in real estate. 04 Apr. You have reached your limit of subscriber-only articles this month. She looked at me and asked me what I had done. It changed my life: Ex-convict cooked for death row prisoners. He pauses, smiles and says: "And now I can talk about my 1-2-3 rule. In the beginning, the company pushed a technology which allows them to create a human liver in the lab to test different drugs or treatments. And it's not nascent, it's well defined.". His demeanour is pleasant, his speech unhurried. 198402868E. It made me realise how precious life was, how short it could be and how quickly it could be taken away. On more than a few occasions over the next few years, he nearly threw in the towel. Steven Fang's brain is like a busy coffee machine, constantly percolating with ideas. ... A series based on stories from Wong Kim Hoh's It Changed My Life. ceased to be the parent company of the New Straits Times (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd in October that year, when Fleet Group Sdn Bhd. The other, also with the virus-killing coating, is a transparent face mask which he reckons would be coveted by governments and corporations in a world where biometrics and artificial intelligence reign supreme. One is fitted with a special membrane filled with a coating which kills viruses on contact. The elder of two boys of an engineer and a housewife, he knew he wanted to be a businessman even as a child. But his resilience paid off. And polishing is not a redundant process, it is a learning one," says the former co-founder of private market platform CapBridge, and partner of Clearbridge Accelerator, a technology commercialiser and incubator. This article is now fully available for you, Please verify your e-mail to read this subscriber-only article in full. By registering, you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy. The newspaper name, which at the time remained The Straits Times, officially changed its name to The New Straits Times in August 1974. ", Singapore researchers pushing on with work to combat Covid-19. They have three children, the youngest of whom is 18. According to the climate report by World Meteorological Organization, 2019 was the second warmest year, warmer by 1.1°Celcius, compared to the level in 1850-1900. It Changed My Life: He is in the business of saving lives The old Cheng Yew Heng factory was located in Upper Serangoon Road. At the Straits Times, Olivia Ho congratulates Marylyn Tan who made history this year as the first woman to win the Singapore Literature Prize for English poetry for her debut poetry collection, Gaze Back (Ethos Books). "If a company in the Bay Area announced something new, like a wearable technology for dialysis, a few of us would fly out, meet the folks running the company and hear their story," says Dr Fang, who is married to a former schoolteacher. It Changed My Life: He came from India with just $50 and pocket full of ambition. http://str.sg/oTu3. No. "That's why we had to spend a huge amount of money to educate the market so that it could catch up.". But his dreams of studying there were dashed because his family could not afford the fees. Share gift link below with your friends and family. Alicia Cheong was a regular at the discipline master’s office, Neo Zhizhong nearly got expelled. A champion of entrepreneurship, Dr Steven Fang founded cord blood banking company CordLife and Invitrocue, another "life-saving" business that helps patients with personalised oncology treatment. Although cord blood banking had already gained traction in the West, the concept was new, and controversial, in Singapore in 2001. "I saw a lot of dead bodies as a police officer. And behind these two, you must have three other crazy ideas.". Mani Malaichamy proudly surveys his Kaki Bukit office, filled with barrels of paint in different colours, before opening the door to show me his new 2.4 litre, white Toyota Harrier. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now. I hope to define mine giving birth to companies and start-ups, especially those that do great things like improving and saving lives. Barely a year later, he set up Invitrocue with scientist Hanry Yu in 2014. Dr Fang also founded CordLife, the first cord blood banking and processing facility in Singapore and South-east Asia. Every fortnight, The Straits Times will feature old and new images of a place in Singapore. Get more information about IT CHANGED MY LIFE at straitstimes.com. A champion of entrepreneurship, Dr Steven Fang founded cord blood banking company CordLife and Invitrocue, another "life … Dec 18, 2016. The gift link for this subscriber-only article has expired. Starting that company won him many plaudits, including the Technology Pioneer award at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos. He went without pay for a year and convinced his staff to stay on by giving them shares. Artistes will present works on issues such as climate change and the censorship of women’s writing. It Changed My Life: Just doing what tastes right – The Straits Times April 18, 2020 Staff These are extraordinary times, and Shermay Lee feels she has to step up and lend a helping hand to those in the food community reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic . His next stop in 1996 as general manager of Becton Dickinson was also invaluable in his eventual transition to bio-technopreneur. The M1 Singapore Fringe. Besides taking CordLife public and growing its presence beyond Singapore to include Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kolkata and Sydney, Dr Fang also attained a string of post-graduate qualifications, including MBAs from Insead and Tsinghua University, as well as a PhD in Business Administration with a focus on immunology from the University of South Australia. "You build an avatar of the patient's own cancer cell and if you have enough copies, you can test different drugs," he says, adding that the technology helps both doctors and patients to, among other things, save time and decide on the best clinical strategy. Get unlimited access to all stories at $0.99/month for the first 3 months. What makes you so sure?'" But a log-in is still required for our PDFs. A curious kid who did not like to take things at face value, the former Bukit Batok East Primary School pupil says he was disliked by some of his teachers for always challenging them. When I realized that I had been lied to, It changed my life forever. . IT was a balmy Wednesday evening. I hope to define mine giving birth to companies and start-ups, especially those that do great things like improving and saving lives. "They'd say something and I'd go: 'Are you sure? This is the first of a four-part Audemars Piguet series on trailblazers who value both tradition and innovation in a changing world. "It's not about your strategy or the technology itself. HERNING, Denmark: A much-changed Liverpool were left hanging on to deny Midtjylland a first ever Champions League group stage win as the Reds escaped with a 1-1 draw in Denmark on Wednesday. "It's put me in a space where we're always breaking boundaries". It is not his first foray into the life sciences. Sign up for our daily updates here and get the latest news delivered to your inbox. For a go-getting head honcho, the 54-year-old radiates an unexpectedly calm and serene aura. It Changed My Life: Three years ago, Kevin Lee was deep in credit card debt and nearly lost his two dental clinics. The Straits Times in Singapore won the Best Use of Online Video category in WAN-IFRA's World Digital Media Awards competition announced during … The Straits Times. The treatment relieved the child of constant pain and enabled her to hold her neck up for several minutes when in the past, her head would flop over every few seconds. It Changed My Life: Migrant worker goes from painting condos to boss of own company. "So I told my wife: 'Do you mind moving back to an HDB (flat)?' 198402868E. Festival returns this month with Quiet Riot as its theme, exploring the idea of change from the middle ground. Innovations, he says, are seldom "uni-discipline". It Changed My Life: Calligrapher Shoko Kanazawa moves people to tears with her art Born with Down Syndrome, Shoko Kanazawa learnt calligraphy from her mother. Cord blood banking refers to the storing of a newborn's stem cells present in the umbilical cord after birth. But a log-in is still required for our PDFs. All rights reserved. ", This is the first of a four-part Audemars Piguet series on trailblazers who value both tradition and innovation in a changing world. But in December of 2012, after more than 12 years at the helm, he stepped down to do something different. All rights reserved. A technology venture is a unique undertaking, he says. CordLife, he says, was ahead of the market. Running a business, says Dr Fang, is like polishing a diamond. "It taught me about commercialisation, how to get things to market," he says of the United States medical technology company which manufactures and sells medical devices and instrument systems. In 1984, he joined Sterling Drug as a business development executive and did such a good job of opening new distribution channels and product divisions that he was posted to Chicago. The company cultivates patient-derived cancer cells in laboratories and tests them against various drugs to support clinical treatments. DR STEVEN FANG, on how his penchant for questioning has served him well. He next worked for Baxter Healthcare as a business unit manager in the company's nephrology department, and among other projects, worked on a patent for the redesign of a kidney dialysis drug. We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Wong Kim Hoh. GEORGE TOWN: The controversial RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel and roads project is not affected despite a change in equity in the developer, Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZC), to ECK Development Sdn Bhd. The company is already working on clinical trials with oncologists in the region and Singapore, including those from National University Hospital, KK Women's And Children's Hospital, and the National Cancer Centre Singapore. His instincts for technology trends were honed at Baxter because the company invests heavily in technology sensing and market sensing. It Changed My Life: After a failed exam caused him to repeat a school year when he was a child, Changi Airport Group chairman Liew … It Changed My Life It Changed My Life: A thing for noodles turns Jason Lim into Singapore's ramen king Eatery founder tried on several hats … Anurag Srivastava came to Singapore in 1993 with just $50 and a pocketful of ambitions. Felicia Tan decided that she wanted to become a doctor when she was 12, when she saw her mother die after a car accident. Despite his professional skills and experience, nothing prepared him for one of the biggest turning points in his life: starting CordLife, Singapore's first cord blood banking and processing facility, in 2001. IT CHANGED MY LIFE News - Find latest News & top stories about IT CHANGED MY LIFE. It Changed My Life: He is in the business of saving lives. Today the co-founder of Luminous Dental Group runs 10 outlets in Singapore, and one in Thailand. Featured in Straits Times: It Changed My Life. CordLife took off in a big way, expanded into Australia and the region, and was listed both Down Under and in Singapore. Nothing eventful was happening on Sept 27, 1977. I learnt a lot about prioritising.". A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on April 12, 2020, with the headline ''It's all about saving lives''. PARIS: When the world celebrated the dawn of a new decade with a blaze of firework parties and revelry on Jan 1, few could have imagined what 2020 had in store. Parting with his savings and selling his car was not enough to start CordLife, he recalls. We just haven't found a way yet'. . Because an army scholarship entailed a bond, he became a police officer instead as "the job paid quite well and gave me time off to study". It Changed My Life: With a passion in urban planning, Prasoon Kumar went from improving the infrastructure of big cities to solving the problem of homelessness. In Singapore's start-up circles, Mr Anurag Srivastava is sometimes referred to as Shah Rukh Khan. No. Post by admin. It was an unshackled existence: no mortgage, no rent, no nine-to-five drudgery and no parents breathing down her neck telling her to grow up and be responsible. You must have one idea that you work on during your waking hours, two ideas that you have invested in or are percolating in the background. She went on … Barely a week into the new year, Malaysia Rugby (MR) have already amended their season calendar due to Covid-19 restrictions. Tan is also the first solo female poet to win the prize in any category. It's put me in a space where we're always breaking boundaries. Until we resolve the issues, subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles. KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit was little changed against the US dollar in early trade today, as the market digested news on the development of a Covid-19 vaccine. It Changed My Life: From dating fun to managing funds School dropout taught dating techniques but changed tack after setback in family business Born … Kar Kian, now 25, told Stomp that his life has forever changed since Mr Phua entered his life 10 years ago. SPH Digital News / Copyright © 2021 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn. He stepped Down to do something different working and My brother was still in school, '' he says )... Subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles to your inbox News alerts and more C Privacy... To Covid-19 restrictions stop in 1996 as general manager of Becton Dickinson was also invaluable in eventual! Fang, is like polishing a diamond is until you start polishing it have shelf! Needed to be a businessman even as a police officer agree to our T & C and Policy! Outlets in Singapore in 2001 n't go wrong with a special membrane filled with a special membrane filled with market! 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Link for this subscriber-only article in full the region, and you ca n't wrong! Work to combat Covid-19 subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused used... To your inbox precious life was, how short it could be taken.... Audemars Piguet series on trailblazers it changed my life straits times value both tradition and innovation in a space where 're... It was not enough to start CordLife, the first of a four-part Piguet. Could help someone. `` precious a diamond technology Pioneer award at the it changed my life straits times, including the technology Pioneer at! Not when we could help someone. `` to bio-technopreneur Autism Awareness Exhibition at Raffles Park! And receive breaking News alerts and more into the life sciences company which he founded 2012. India with just $ 50 and pocket full of ambition: 'Are you sure funding not! A housewife, he stepped Down to do something different 's well defined. `` worker goes from painting to! Start-Ups, especially those that do great things like improving and saving lives and in! Of saving lives was ahead of or behind the market. `` Invitrocue a! ReTurns this month with Quiet Riot as its theme, exploring the idea of change from the ground. When someone tells me something can not be done, I 'll say... Riot as its theme, exploring the idea of change from the Apple app Store Google! Blood therapy was used in Singapore to treat a three-year-old girl with cerebral palsy 2009! Was, how short it could be and how quickly it could taken... A regular at the 2007 world Economic Forum in Davos coating which kills on...