Seminar & Symposium By Medicinal Chemistry Programme
 
1. Seminar

“MEMRI and the ‘resting’ Brain: Neurobiological Applications from MRI Technology Development”

Dr Elliot Stein
Chief, Neuroimaging Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA-IRP), USA

Date:   Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Time:   11.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: CRC seminar room, Blk MD11, Level 1 
 

2. Medicinal Chemistry Symposium

Date:   Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Time:   9.30am – 4.00pm
Venue: LT 31, Faculty of Science

“Chemical Biology of Protein Lipidation”
Prof Dr Herbert Waldmann
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology,
Dormont, Germany

“Target identification of bioactive small molecules”
Dr Motonari Uesugi
Kyoto University, Japan

“Current Drug Discovery Process using Molecular Diversity and Chemical Biology”
Dr Seungbum Park
Seoul National University, Korea

“Challenges in TB Lead Finding and Lead Optimization”
Dr Jan Jiricek
Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore

“Challenges in CNS Drug Discovery”
Dr Neil D. Miller
GlaxoSmithKline

Editorial Team

Lim Chwee Teck
Ellice Lim
Siti Haryanti
Aziz Salim

3^rd Tohoku-NUS Joint Symposium 2007

The 3^rd Tohoku-NUS Joint Symposium 2007 on Nano-Biomedical Engineering in the East Asian-Pacific Rim Region was held from 10-11 December 2007 at CeLS NUS.

Prof Takami Yamaguchi, Leader, Tohoku
University, giving the Opening Address.

The programme kicked off with an Opening Address by Prof Takami Yamaguchi, Leader, Tohoku University Global COE Program on the Tohoku University 2007 Global COE Programme – Global Nano-Biomedical Engineering Education and Research Network Centre. This symposium had 6 plenary lectures and attracted about 100 participants.

A heavy downpour on the 18 December 2007 caused some flooding at the CeLS lobby.

The Office of Estate and Development(OED) assisted with the investigation of the flooding and found that the leaves on the slope behind the CeLS building were washed down choking the drainage at the building rear. OED is working very closely with OLS to put in preventive measures and will be doing whatever it takes to resolve this problem. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to those working in CeLS.

Staff assisting with cleaning  the CeLS foyer.

The OLS Exco would like to extend their heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all OLS Programmes and their members for the invaluable contributions made and for another successful and productive year. We look forward to your continual support and participation in the various OLS activities. Here’s wishing you and your family a joyous and prosperous 2008!

Environmental Toxicology Course

Group photo of Course Leaders and some of the participants.

The Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine together with the OLS Toxicology Programme jointly organised a one week short course on Environmental Toxicology from 10-14 December 2007 at CeLS. The course leaders were Prof Michael Trush of John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Prof Ong Choon Nam , OLS Deputy Director and Toxicology Programme Leader. The 27 participants came from petrochemical industry, research scientists in NUS, Biopolis, Duke Graduate School of Medicine, DSO as well as several statutory boards and governmental agencies.

The Office of Safety, Health and Environment appointed an external inspector to conduct the Petroleum and Flammables material audit on 26-27 November 2007. The audit revealed that the amount of flammable material stored at CeLS was within the prescribed limits. While a few practices needed to be improved, the overall safety level was considered good.

OLS Distinguished Lecture Series

“Chemoprevention of Prostate Cancer by Silibinin: Bench to Bedside”

Dr Rajesh Agarwal
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy,University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

Date:   Monday, 14 January 2008
Time:   4.00pm – 5.00pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium, Level 1

“Medicine on a Chip – Digital Microfluidics for Synthesis and Analysis of Biomolecules and Cells”

Prof Abraham P Lee
Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies – Department of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Director, Micro/Nano Fluidics Fundamentals Focus (MF3) Center, University of California at Irvine

Date:   Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Time:   4.00pm – 5.00pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium, Level 1

Seminar by Cancer Programme

“IL1B Gene Expression Control and IL-1 Signalling: A Molecular Overview and Mapping of Novel Modes of Protein-Protein Interaction”

Dr Nawarat Wara-aswapati Charoen
Department of Periodontology, Faculty of Dentistry, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand

Date:    Monday, 14 January 2008
Time:    12.00 pm – 1.00 pm
Venue:  CeLS Seminar Room 2
Host:     Prof Daniel Tenen

Seminar By Neurobiology Programme

“Computational Functional Anatomy”

Dr Qiu Anqi
Division of Bioengineering
National University of Singapore 

Date:   Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Time:   12.00pm – 1.00pm
Venue: CeLS Seminar Room 1

“Inflammation and Neurodegeneration”

Dr Stuart Allan
Faculty of Life Sciences,
Manchester University, UK 

Date:   Thursday, 17 January 2008  
Time:   12.00pm – 1.00pm
Venue: CeLS Seminar Room 1

Staff helping themselves to the sumptuous
buffet spread.

About 350 staff from the various OLS programmes attended the OLS Year End Party held on Friday, 14 December 2007, at the CeLS foyer. Participants interacted through games and a sumptuous lunch.

OLS Deputy Director, Prof Ong Choon Nam, took the opportunity to share his Tibet travel experience with some insightful stories and amazing photos of Tibet.

Prof Ong (extreme left) with the Tibetan people.

Please click on the links below to view beautiful shots of Tibet taken by Prof Ong Choon Nam.

Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 | Image 4 | Image 5 | Image 6

OLS is pleased to highlight Associate Professor Madhav Bhatia who has been appointed Interim Programme Leader for the Cardiovascular Biology Programme with effect from 1 December 2007.

He has been providing leadership to a large research group and was the Deputy Programme Leader since the inception of the Programme in 2003. [READ MORE]