The Institute for Medical Research (IMR) began with a recommendation in 1900 from Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham, the Resident-General of the Federated Malay States to establish a Pathological Institute in Malaya to carry out scientific and sustained research into the causes, treatment and prevention of such scourges as beri-beri and all forms of malaria fevers.
This proposal was made following the resolution in Europe of the Conference of Berlin in 1885 to undertake such activities as "to promote the moral and material well-being of the native population and to explore the great and unknown field of tropical medicine".