Despite billions of dollars invested by the Singapore government to turn the country into a global biomedical research hub, another prominent researcher is leaving, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported yesterday. Alan Colman, who contributed to cloning Dolly the sheep, is abandoning his post as executive director of the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium. He is the third top stem cell scientist in six months to leave Singapore.

Colman will start as head of stem cell research at King's College London in May of 2008, the school announced this week. But Colman will keep his title as executive director of the Singapore consortium, and continue as a principle investigator for the Singapore government's Institute of Medical Biology.

In September, cancer researcher David Lane and skin stem cell biologist Birgitte Lane also left Singapore for positions at the University of Dundee, Scotland, Reuters reported.