Alan Colman, who has been leading Singapore’s efforts to establish itself as a global biomedical hub, has been appointed director of stem-cell research at King’s College London.

When Mr. Colman takes the new post, in May 2008, he will retain his title as executive director of the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium, which coordinates the country’s clinical stem-cell research. He will also continue as a principal investigator for the government’s Institute of Medical Biology.

But the announcement that the British scientist — who is best known for his work cloning Dolly, the sheep that was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, in 1996 — is moving to London does not bode well for Singapore’s aspirations to dominate the stem-cell-research field.

Over the past decade, the city-state has spent billions to establish itself as a center for biomedical research and development. It has worked hard to court and retain senior scientists in hopes of drawing investors and industry to Singapore.

Despite those efforts, Mr. Colman is only the latest high-profile researcher to announce he is leaving. In September the cancer researcher Sir David Lane and the skin-cell specialist Birgitte Lane, who are married, announced they were returning to jobs at the University of Dundee, in Scotland.

Written statements released by both Sir David and Mr. Colman have stressed how much their moves will benefit Singapore. Mr. Colman said his appointment at King’s College London would pave the way for laboratories in the two countries to collaborate.

But Lee Wei Ling, director of Singapore’s National Neuroscience Institute and a critic of the money being spent to attract foreign scientists, isn’t buying it.

“How can you run research in Singapore on one-third or one-quarter of your time? You must be extremely efficient or not involved enough and so are not worth the money,” Ms. Lee, the sister of Singapore’s prime minister, told the Reuters news agency. —Martha Ann Overland