It was indeed a very proud moment for UTAR again when a UTAR undergraduate student was announced as one of the best poster winners at the 1st Malaysian Symposium on Biomedical Sciences, held at Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia from the 13th to 14th March 2010.
The symposium saw a total of 37 posters and 49 oral presentations on the final year undergraduate theses from renowned public and private universities in Malaysia, covering biomedical topics like anatomy, physiology, cell biology, biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, pathology, molecular biology and pharmacology. The outstanding UTAR biomedical science undergraduate was Liew Fung Kwong with his poster was titled Cellular Prion Protein is Neuroprotective in a Maneb-induced Parkinsonism Model in Human Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y Cells.
Liew who has just finished his final year undergraduate thesis on the anti-apoptotic property of the cellular prion protein said, "My study focused on how the cellular prion protein may prevent the brain cells from the death and toxicity from the fungicide, maneb, which has been linked to cause Parkinson's disease." The prion concept is conceived by the Nobel Prize winner, Stanley Prusiner, to describe a proteinaceous infectious particle which causes transmissible neurodegenerative diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and the 'mad cow' disease.
The functions of its non-infectious cellular form, which Liew was studying, are still poorly understood. He added, "The work I presented at the symposium describes a cellular model of how the cellular prion protein, when overexpressed, will rescue the nervous cells from toxicity and death due to the fungicide maneb. I am grateful to my supervisor Dr. Say Yee How for encouraging me to participate and to present in this symposium. It was indeed an eye-opening experience for me, listening to talks from undergraduates of other universities as well."
The 1 st Malaysian Symposium on Biomedical Sciences was jointly organized by the Biomedicine Club of Universiti Putra Malaysia with other biomedical science students from UKM, UM, USM, UIAM and IMU, with the theme "One Biomed - Enhancing Science, Innovating Knowledge."
The symposium provided an interacting platform for all the biomedical science students around Malaysia , to enable the sharing and exchange of ideas and knowledge. There were alumni and career talks and a lively forum among lecturers, students and professionals. Second year student Lao Kah Meng represented UTAR in presenting her views on the trials and tribulations of being a biomedical science student.
The two-day event also saw the launching of the Malaysian Biomedicine Society for the very first time. UTAR sent a delegate of 45 students and five lecturers as well as eight biomedical science undergraduates presented their final year theses at the symposium.
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