Brain Function and Repair Symposia 2008

The 2nd Symposium on Brain and Mind Research in the Asia/Pacific (BMAP) and 6th Asia Pacific Symposium on Neuroregeneration (APSNR) will be held from 1-3 September 2008 and 3-5 September 2008, respectively.

For more details, please visit http://lsi.nus.edu.sg/brainfunction/

Mechanobiology Workshop@Engineering 2008

The Faculty of Engineering, Life Sciences Institute (LSI) and the Mechanobiology RCE Team are jointly organizing the Mechanobiology Workshop on Modelling, Nano Fabrication & Bioimaging 2008. It will be held at EA-06-02, Faculty of Engineering on Thursday, 26 June 2008. Distinguished Speakers like Prof Michael Sheetz, Columbia University and Prof Jacques Prost ESPCI, France will be speaking at this one day workshop. Please click here for more details on registration.

Antibodies to Laminin-5 (laminin-332) Modulate Tumor Growth and Interfere With the Metastatic Process

Professor Karl Tryggvason
Professor of Medical Chemistry, Department of Medical Chemistry and Biophysics (MBB)
Member of the Nobel Assembly for Physiology or Medicine; Division Chief of the Matrix Biology Division; Dean of Research at Karolinska Institute

Date:   Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Time:   12.00nn – 1.00pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

LSI hosted a seminar on Bio-containment Practices and Contamination Prevention in laboratories with DKSH Technology & Thermo Scientific on Wednesday, 30 April 2008. The seminar was organized to help LSI staff and students to get the best performance out of their biosafety cabinets and incubators. It also stressed on safe work practices to prevent accidental infection by biological agents. The seminar by Dr. John Hsu, Director of training for laboratory equipment was held in the CeLS Auditorium and attracted about 60 participants. The end of the seminar was marked by a lucky draw. Ten lucky participants won nanosilver cartridges that are used to kill bacteria and molds in laboratory water.

CeLS occupants were invited to the Annual Safety and Health Performance Award (ASHPA) Tea Party hosted by the LSI Exco at the CeLS foyer on Thursday, 29 May 2008. The tea party was organized to celebrate CeLS‘ achievement in winning the $10 000 Merit Award at the ASHPA ceremony held by OSHE earlier this year.

Assoc Prof Low Boon Chuan, Deputy Director, LSI introduced Dr Gavin Dawe, the new Chair of the Safety Committee to CeLS occupants. Ms Karen Wee from the Neurobiology Programme, was the winner of the CeLS Safety Slogan Competition. Her slogan “Safety By Everyone For Everyone” won her the $350 cash prize.

Congratulations to everyone in CeLS! Our safe practices have resulted in a deserving MERIT Award for CeLS.

Dr Gavin Dawe,  from the Neurobiology Programme and his research team have published a paper in the March issue of the prestigious Nature Cell Biology Journal. The paper describes the identification of a novel ligand for amyloid precursor protein(APP), which activates APP signalling leading to gamma secretase -mediated cleavage of APP to release the APP intracellular domain, leading to inhibition of neurogenesis. This discovery offers new insight into the physiological functions of APP, a key molecule in Alzheimer’s disease.

Assoc Prof Markus Wenk from the Neurobiology Programme has applied for patent on the development of a novel tool to search for lipid based biomarkers. He has already developed potential biomarkers for ovarian tumour.

Assoc Professor Lim Chwee Teck, Deputy Director, LSI, has been appointed to sit on the Editorial Board of the Journal of The Royal Society – Interface.

Associate Professor Sung Wing Kin with the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Programme was awarded the NUS Young Researcher Award (YRA) 2008. The YRA is conferred on researchers below 40 years of age based on their potential impact in their respective areas of research.

Prof Sung’s research focus is on algorithm and its application to bioinformatics. [READ MORE]

Congratulations to Assoc Prof Chang Young-Tae, Programme Leader for Medicinal Chemistry, who was one of five promising young researchers to receive the Young Investigator Award (YIA) 2007. The YIA Award which is administered by the Office of Deputy President (Research and Technology), offers up to $500,000 to each researcher for three years to work on projects that cross traditional boundaries or break new grounds. [READ MORE]

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

“The interplay between cell adhesion and ECM stiffness in the migration of single cells and epithelia”

Professor Paul Matsudaira
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Professor of Biology and Bioengineering, MIT
Director, WI-MIT BioImaging Center, Co-director, SMA CSB program

Date:   Thursday, 5 June 2008
Time:   4.00pm – 5.00pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

Two lectures were held in the month of May 2008 at CeLS Auditorium.

Dr Curtis C. Harris, Chief of the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Institute and Professor at the Department of Medicine (Oncology), Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington DC delivered a lecture on 8 May 2008. He spoke on “Inflammation and Cancer: Interactions of The MicroRNA, p53 and Cytokine Pathways”.

Dr Harris presenting his lecture.

Another lecture titled “MicroRNA Functions” was delivered by Dr Stephen Cohen on 15 May 2008. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory and is also an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS.

Dr Cohen delivering the lecture.