With its Biopolis and related facilities, Singapore has established itself as a globally recognized centre for the development of biotechnology and biomedicine. The knowledge and practices that are emerging here have scientific, medical and economic significance,and are particularly aimed at generating breakthrough biomedical applications and therapies. Their significance does not stop there, however: the emergent forms of life and practice in Singapore and other Asian centres of excellence in biotech research have the potential to affect and re-order everything from the mechanics and meaning of ‘scientific research’ in the 21st century, to contemporary understandings of life, race, ethnicity, nation, and citizenship. It is therefore important that biotechnology/biomedicine initiatives in this part of the world are accompanied by sustained research into their social, historical, cultural, political and philosophical aspects. In this project, carried out by an interdisciplinary team of academics and supported by distinguished overseas collaborators, we trace the historical trajectories of Asian biotechnology, and how these contribute to its strong emergence at the present moment. We also trace networks of collaboration and influence in various areas of biotechnology and the life sciences, as these are developing in Singapore and on pan-Asian and global scales. Finally, we trace connections between the scientific content and the context of biotechnology and biomedical initiatives. Singapore’s Biopolis, for example, is a site for data collection, theorization, experimentation, and material support, but also for policy initiatives, institution-building, and social and educational reform.