Home| Visiting Professor |
Contact details:
| Tel: | (65) 6475 7133 |
| Fax: | (65) 6475 2133 |
| Email: | sl@susanlimsurgery.com |
| Address: |
Gleneagles Medical Centre
|
Biography
Dr Susan Lim is widely known in Asia and Singapore for being the first surgeon to have performed a successful liver transplant in 1990. She is also widely known as the "Spirit of the Century", an Award conferred to her by the Singapore public in a national contest held to identify the role model for the 21 st century. She is in active general surgery practice at the two premier hospitals in Singapore (Mount Elizabeth and Gleneagles Hospitals) with a special focus on breast cancer and surgery, abdominal and gastrointestinal surgery, liver, gallbladder and pancreatic surgery, advanced laparoscopic surgery, transplantation, colon and rectal diseases and cancer, and in particular robotic surgery and its specialised applications.
Dr Susan Lim has gone on to further pioneer in the field of general surgery, two new surgical technologies for Singapore, the mammotome minimally invasive breast biopsy and robotic surgery for the private sector. She founded and is Chairman and CEO of Centre for Robotic Surgery and spearheaded the Robotic General Surgery Program for Singapore in October 2004. To date, the Centre is the leading clinical Robotic Surgery Program in the Private Sector. She is also the Chairman of Parkway's Centre for Robotic Surgery for Training & Research.
Dr Lim is the founder of various surgical practices including Susan Lim Surgery, Centre for Breast Screening & Surgery, Centre for Advanced laparoscopic Surgery, Centre for Robotic Surgery, Lifestyle Surgery, Centre for Weight Management and Stem Cell Technologies (i). She has under her, a team of 22 staff including doctors, nurses and administrative staff. Both Practices are located at the Gleneagles Medical Centre and Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre in Singapore .
Dr Lim graduated from Singapore Chinese Girls School and Raffles Institution. She was awarded the Colombo Plan Scholarship to study Medicine in Melbourne , Australia from 1974 to 1979. She graduated with First Class Honours from Monash University , Melbourne in 1979, and was awarded the David Rosenthal Memorial Prize for the highest aggregate marks in preclinical years.
She decided to pursue a career in Surgery at an early stage of her training. She obtained her Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1984, and was awarded the GB Ong Gold Medal for being the most outstanding candidate in General Surgery in that year. She was also awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Master of Medicine from the National University of Singapore, and Fellow of the Academy of Medicine , Singapore .
Following her surgical degree, Dr Susan Lim received the Winston Churchill Scholarship to undertake a PhD in transplantation immunology at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom from 1985 to 1988. During her time in Cambridge , she was awarded a string of awards and prizes, which included an Ethicon Travelling Scholarship to Minneapolis , USA to understudy islet cell transplantation and participate in the human pancreas transplant program.
After having spent 6 years in Australia , and 4 years in UK and USA , she returned to Singapore in 1990 to assume the position of Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Surgery at the National University Hospital . At the age of 36, she rose to the position of Associate Professor in Surgery the following year.
In 1990, Dr Susan Lim made local medical history when she performed successfully the first Liver Transplant in Singapore . She was also the Director of the Liver Transplant Program at the National University Hospital .
Between 1990 - 1995, Associate Professor Susan Lim was the Principal Investigator of a National Science and Technology Board funded pioneering research project on islet cell transplantation from tissue derived from human fetal pancreases. In 2003, she founded Stem Cell Technologies (i) to research into adult stem cells for cell therapy. The Company has since entered into collaboration with the National University of Singapore to research a cure for diabetes using adult stem cells. This reflects Dr Susan Lim's continued interest in islet cell research. The research program at Stem Cell Technologies (i) is also supported by the Economic Development Board (EDB) since 2006. More recently, Stem Cell Technologies (i) has entered into collaboration with the Andalusian Centre for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Seville , Spain . Most recently, Stem Cell Technologies (i) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Monash University and Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, Monash University , Australia . In February 2007, Stem Cell Technologies (i) entered into research collaboration with the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, with regard to dental stem cells.
Dr Susan Lim was recently conferred upon the position of Fellow of Trinity College, University of Melbourne , Australia in 2005. Dr Lim is the youngest ever to be elected Fellow of the College. She has also just been awarded the Monash University Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2006, and Visiting Professorship to the Blizard Institute of Molecular and Cell Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Denistry, London.
Research Activity
Dr Susan Lim's biotechnology company 'Stem Cell Technologies (i)' is pursuing the idea of generating insulin-secreting cells from human adipose tissue, and is therefore collaborating with our Centre (Malcolm Alison, Paolo Pozzilli and Giuditta Valorani) who are purifying mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from rodent and human fat tissue with the same goal in mind - the generation of insulin-secreting cells for the treatment of diabetes. Collaboration includes the exchange of cells and methodology for the expansion of highly purified MSCs.
Recent Publications
• Soria B, Bedoya FJ, Tejedo JR, Hmadcha A, Ruiz-Salmer, Lim S, Martin F. Cell Therapy for Diabetes Mellitus: An Opportunity for Stem Cells? Cells Tissues Organs. 2008 Feb 29. [Epub ahead of print]
• Alison MR, Choong C, Lim S. Application of liver stem cells for cell therapy. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2007; 18: 819-26
• Roche E, Reig JA, Campos A, Paredes B, Isaac JR, Lim S, Calne RY, Soria B. Insulin-secreting cells derived from stem cells: clinical perspectives, hypes and hopes. Transpl Immunol. 2005; 15(2): 113-29.
