MSBMB Activities

19th Intervarsity Biochemistry seminar 22nd March 2008
Download

25th Annual Conference - 3rd October 2000, Kuala Lumpur
Once again, the conference was organised by the society and was held at a leading hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Participation from the various universities was encouraging, from both principal researchers and graduate students alike. The invited plenary speaker was Dr. Andrew Rut from SmithKline Beecham (Singapore) who talked about the "Biochemical basis of Drug Action in Diabetes". In the course of the presentation, Dr. Rut discussed the efforts of SmithKline Beecham at developing new drugs and therapeutics to combat diabetes. He demonstrated the mode of action of these new drugs as well as enlightened the audience on the status of clinical trials currently being carried out worldwide. The second plenary speaker was a long standing member of the society, Prof. Zubaidah Hj. Rahim from the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya, whose seminar was entitled "The Oral Biology Teaching and Research at the Dental Faculty, Universiti Malaya".

12th Intervarsity Seminar - 20th January 2000, UKM
This year's seminar was organised by the Biochemistry and Microbiology Club of UKM. Students from UKM Bangi, UKM KL and UPM presented findings from their honours year projects ranging from heavy metal screening to mutagenesis and pathogenicity. Numerous accolades were awarded to the various presenters including best project to Alan Chin from UKM Bangi.

24th Annual Conference - 30th September 1999, Kuala Lumpur
The theme of this conference was "25 Years of Biochemistry in Malaysia" and was held after a break of one year due to the society having hosted the 8th FAOBMB Congress the previous year. Oral and poster presentations encompassed a wide range of biochemistry and molecular biology topics including Protein Structure and Function, Agricultural Biochemistry, Molecular Basis of Disease, Biotechnology and Plant Molecular biology.
The main plenary speaker was Prof. Mary Jane Cardosa of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) who presented a paper on "Molecular Biology in Disease Surveillance". Prof. Cardosa discussed the research efforts of her group in utilising molecular biology approaches for disease surveillance in Malaysia. She alluded to data obtained for disease such as the problems associated with infections by enteroviridae and the Nipah virus.

8th FAOBMB Congress - 22nd – 27th November 1998, Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Era of Biotechnology

Inaugural Lecture - 21st December 1996
Prof. Marziah Mahmood (UPM) who is a member of the society's executive committee gave her professorial lecture entitled "Plant Biotechnology: Strategies for Commercialization". In her lecture, Prof. Marziah discussed about the development of technologies with potential applications to plant biotechnology in respect to crop production and improvement of the supply and quantity of important plant biochemical products. She added that fundamental and molecular research as well as defined and economically viable strategies were essential for the achievement of commercialization and this could only be ensured by a team effort linking biotechnologies, plant breeders, agronomics, molecular biologists and economics.

Workshop on Bioinformatics, Biocomputing and the Internet - 29 August 1996, UM
The above workshop was also held in August in collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Tan Tin Wee with the purpose of educating researchers in biosciences on bioinformatics and biocomputing through the Internet by hands-on experience.

21st Annual Conference - 27-28 August 1996, UM
The highlight of the Society's activities for the second six months of 1996 was the 21st Annual Conference which was held in August at the Medical Faculty, University Malaya. The theme of this year's conference was " Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in a Progressive Economy". The programme consisted of three plenary lectures and nine oral presentations whilst poster sessions were spread over the two days.
The first plenary lecture was given by Prof. Garth Cooper of the University of Auckland, New Zealand entitled "Role of amylin in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDUM): insulin resistance, amyloid fibres and programmed cell death". Dr. Eric Blair of the University of Leeds talked about "Viruses and the regulation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene expression" focussing on human adenoviruses and interferons and their role on the regulation of MHC class I gene expression. "Bioinformatics and Biocomputing on the Internet", a current hot topic amongst scientists in Malaysia and the world over was discussed at length by Dr. Tan Tin Wee of the Internet Research and Development Unit, National University of Singapore. In his lecture, Dr. Tan differentiated between bioinformatics and biocomputing and also focussed on the current available bioinformatics and biocomputing in research pertaining to molecular biology.
The oral presentations covered a wide range of topics from mutations in Hepatitis B viral DNA to protein expression during mesocarp development of oil palm, enzyme activities in various species to the protective effects of beta-carotene in rats.

Biochemical Education Workshop on Improving Presentation Skills - 2 July 1996, UKM
The above workshops were co-sponsored by the society and the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Life Sciences, UKM. The fascilitator of both workshops was Dr. Trevor Anderson of the University of Natal, Pietermarltzburg, South Africa. In the first workshop, he discussed at length techniques in teaching of biochemistry with particular emphasis on the teaching of metabolism. The second workshop - "How to Improve Your Presentation Skills" - was aimed at postgraduate students with the objective of guiding the participants on ways of improving oral as well as written presentations. The response for both workshops was very good with participation from academics and students from UKM, UM and UPM.

11th Intervarsity Seminar - 21 March 1996, UPM
This year's seminar with a theme of "Biochemistry - The Pioneer Science" was organised by the Biochemistry and Microbiology Club of UPM. Students from UKM, UPM and UTM presented findings from their honours year projects ranging from heavy metal screening to mutagenesis and pathogenicity. The prize for best speaker was awarded to Ms. H'ang Ai from UPM.

MacLab Workshop - December 1995, UKM
A workshop outlining some of the MacLab applications in Life Sciences and Biochemistry was held to introduce these products, including the HPLC Powerchromatography System.

DNA Sequencing Workshops - 14-16 Jun & 16-18 November 1995, UKM
These workshops were jointly organized by the society. The Molecular Biology Laborotary (UKM) and a local scientific company. Response for the workshops was overwhelming.
20th Annual Conference - 19-20 September 1995, Seremban
The keynote address was given by Dr. G. J. Peters of the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The programme comprised of plenary lectures, oral presentations, posters as well as mini workshops on instrumentations. The standard of research presentations, was as usual very high.

10th Intervarsity Biochemistry Seminar - 21 January 1995, UKM
The theme for this year's seminar was "Biochemistry: Towards a Vision of Technology". Prizes were awarded for the best presentation from UM, UKM, UPM and UTM. A high standard of presentation as well as research undertaken was evident in these budding biochemists and molecular biologists.