Top Poster Presentation Awards at 14th Malaysian Symposium of Biomedical Science 2024

Goh Chia Yee and Phang Chun Zhong, students of the UTAR Faculty of Science (FSC) Bachelor of Science (Honours) Biomedical Science programme, secured the first prize for Best Poster Presenter in the “Others” category and the second prize for Best Poster Presenter in the “Natural Products” category, respectively, at the 14th Malaysian Symposium of Biomedical Science 2024.

In addition to winning the Best Poster Presenter in the category of “Others”, Goh was also awarded the title of “Overall Best Poster Presenter” for the entire poster presentation category.

Goh received the Overall Best Poster Presenter award for her presentation titled “Screening for Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Effects of Synthetic Peptide PAM-5 on Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia coli.” She was supervised by Faculty of Science lecturer Dr Yuen Hawk Leong. She walked away with a total cash prize of RM300 and certificates.

Meanwhile, Phang won the second prize for poster presentation under the guidance of his final year project supervisor, FSC academic Dr Ho Lai Yee. His poster presentation was titled “Larvicidal Bioefficacy of the Methanolic Extract from Fruit Waste of Citrullus lanatus Rinds and Lansium domesticum Peels Against Aedes spp. Larvae”. Phang received a certificate of achievement.

The Malaysian Symposium of Biomedical Science is an annual academic event hosted by biomedical science students from various Malaysian universities on a rotating basis since 2010. It provides a platform for undergraduate students to share their research findings from their final year projects through poster or oral presentations. The 14th symposium took place from 1 to 2 June 2024.

This year, the symposium was hosted by the Biomedical Club, Department of Biomedical Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UPM. The theme was “Bridging the Gap and Breaking Boundaries”. A total of 32 UTAR students and three lecturers from the Bachelor of Science (Hons) Biomedical Science programme participated in the event.

As in previous symposiums, the scientific presentations were categorised into oral and poster presentations. Out of the 32 UTAR participants, 13 registered as presenters for the oral and poster presentations, covering the following four categories, namely Natural Products, Therapeutics and Diagnostics, Non-Communicable Diseases and Others.

There were 150 student participants from seven government and private higher education institutions offering biomedical science programmes. These universities were the University of Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Taylor's University, International Medical University and UTAR.

A total of 26 awards were presented to the winners.