Nottingham Students Win First Prizes in both Oral and Poster Presentations at the 27th Intervarsity Biochemistry Seminar

The Intervarsity Biochemistry Seminar is an annual event of the Malaysian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (MSBMB), jointly-organized at alternate year by either a public or private university in Malaysia. The aims of the seminar are to provide a platform for our talented undergraduates to showcase their final year research project findings; share their knowledge and experiences and build up networking that might steer their ambition to further their studies at graduate schools.

This year, the 27^th Intervarsity Biochemistry Seminar was hosted by UPM on the 14^th May with a theme of “Where Life meets Sciences”. A total of 10 universities participated in the event, namely UPM, UTAR, UKM, UCSI, UM, UMT, IIUM, Taylors, Monash and of course Nottingham. Around 30 academicians were present to serve their academic duties to more than 200 graduating undergraduates. It was a successful and enjoyable event, as the research standard of the presenters was high, sessions were properly paced and more importantly, all participants were well-fed and ‘entertained’!

Adding icing to the cake, Nottingham bagged both first prizes for the best oral and poster presentations! Miss Wong Xin Yi, the most charming oral presenter cum story teller on the stage, other than shared her insightful findings; she sparked the laughter across the lecture theatre. Her presented title was “Enhancement of bone cell growth and differentiation by using nanocomposite scaffolds with incorporation of Lignosus rhinocerus”, under the supervisions of Prof. Sandy Loh and Dr Lim Siew Shee. Miss Ling Sii Gii, with her marvellous calmness, enthusiasm and credibility, she managed to sell her research findings to the judges in 3 minutes! Her project’s title was “Assessing antifungal activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles against Saccharomyces cerevisiae”, supervised by Dr Yuh-Fen Pung.

These two students have shined the name of Nottingham in the event and this achievement is highly commendable. We would like to wish Xin Yi and Sii Gii to have a wonderful research career ahead and ground-breaking discoveries in the future!