Mark 19 September 2008 in your calendar as LSI is organizing the 2^nd CeLS Annual Safety Day. Explore safety related products at the vendor exhibition in the foyer.

Seminars in the auditorium will give you information on the regulatory requirements for your lab and the safety features of some of the services and products provided by the exhibitors. Take part in the safety quiz and finish off the day at the lucky draw. You might be the lucky one to walk away with some exciting prizes.

Seminars by Immunology Programme

“Differential modulation of TLR4 signalling as a paradigm for macrophage “desensitization””

Dr Subhra Biswas
Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN)

Date  : Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium
 
“New insights into erythrocyte invasion by malaria merozoites”

A/Prof Peter R Preiser
NTU School of Biological Science

Date  : Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: Seminar Room @ Level 3
Department of Microbiology
NUS, Block MD4
5 Science Drive 2, SG 117597

“uPAR induces shape changes in integrin CD11bCD18”

Dr Tan Suet Mien
NTU

Date  : Tuesday, 16 September 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

“Malaria Drug Discovery at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD)”

Dr Thierry Diagana
Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD)

Date  : Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

Editorial Team

Lim Chwee Teck
Ellice Lim
Siti Haryanti
Aziz Salim

Our congratulations to Assoc Prof Lim Chwee Teck, Deputy Director at LSI and member of the Bioengineering Programme. His nanobiomechanics research was featured in a cover story on “R&D at the Nano Level” in the Pharma Focus Asia magazine.

This magazine targets the leaders and readers in the pharmaceutical industries.

You may read the article at this link: http://www.pharmafocusasia.com/magazine/

3^rd Medicinal Chemistry Symposium

The 3rd Medicinal Chemistry Symposium on “Trends in Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology” was held on the 28 July 2008 at S8-0314, National University of Singapore.

Participants at the 3^rd Medicinal Chemistry Symposium.

The principal objectives of Medicinal Chemistry Symposium were to promote co-operation in Medicinal Chemistry amongst the various Universities and Research Institutes in the relevant field; and to stimulate collaborations between scientists in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology internationally and educate our students with the most updated current research topics in the field.

It was attended by over 80 participants from 6 institutions. There were 6 oral sessions and over 20 poster presentations. The participants comprised graduate students, post-docs, research fellows and faculty members. [READ MORE]

The  Medicinal  Chemistry  Corridor   was   officially   opened  on  6 August 2008 at LT 22 by Deputy President and Provost Prof Tan Eng Chye who was Guest-of-Honour at the event.

He was joined by Prof Hor Tzi Sum, Head, Department of Chemistry, Prof Andrew Wee, Dean, Faculty of Science, Prof Ong Choon Nam, Director, Life Sciences Institute and Prof Chang Young-Tae, Med Chem Programme Leader, in the ribbon cutting ceremony to signify the opening of the newly renovated Medicinal Chemistry laboratories.

It was attended by over 150 participants from graduate students, post-docs, research fellows and faculty members. The opening programme included welcome addresses, an introduction of the Med Chem programme, its facilities and lunch interaction.

The welcome speakers were Prof. Hor Tzi Sum, Head, Department of Chemistry, Prof. Tan Eng Chye, Deputy President and Provost, Guest-of-honour, Prof. Andrew Wee, Dean, Faculty of Science, Prof. Ong Choon Nam, Director, Life Sciences Institute. [READ MORE]

The CeLS Auditorium was overflowing with cancer survivors, researchers, clinicians, public health administrators and the public at the Breast Cancer Symposium held on 11 August 2008.

This half-day symposium was organized by the Life Sciences Institute Centre for Molecular Epidemiology (CME) in conjunction with the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the Department of Community, Occupation and Family Medicine (COFM), from which CME was spun off in April 2002 from the COFM’s Chronic Disease Research Programme.

Over 150 people came to mingle and hear 10 speakers share new findings on estrogen metabolism, genetic diagnosis of this disease in Finland, the protective factor of soy, mammographic density as a risk factor – automated methods of assessing mammographic density, as well as to get an update on the trends in breast cancer in Singapore and Sweden. [READ MORE]

LSI Young Investigator Seminar Series

A LSI Young Investigator Seminar Series was held on 21 August 2008 at the CeLS Auditorium. The two speakers were Dr Wong Boon Seng, Assistant Professor, LSI Neurobiology Programme, Department of Physiology, NUS, and Dr Lu Yixin, Assistant Professor, LSI Medicinal Chemistry Programme, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, NUS.

Dr Wong gave a talk on “Apolipoprotein E and Ab metabolism in Niemann-Pick Type C disease” and Dr Lu delivered a lecture on “Asymmetric Organic Reactions Mediated by Organocatalysts Containing Primary Amino Groups”.

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

Two LSI Distinguished Lectures were delivered in August 2008 at the CeLS Auditorium.

Prof Dedon and Dr Andrew Jenner
(above left), from Biochemistry
department, NUS, during the
networking session.

Professor Peter Dedon, Professor of Toxicology and Associate Head, Department of Biological Engineering and Deputy Director, Center for Environmental Health Sciences, MIT delivered his talk on 7 August 2008. It was entitled “Chemical and Biological Mechanisms Linking Inflammation to Cancer and Other Diseases”.

Prof Li Peng delivering her talk.

Professor Li Peng, Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, China and Visiting Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, NUS delivered a talk on 14 August on “Cide Proteins and Metabolic Disorders”.

Seminars by Neurobiology
Programme

“Colorful Chemical Genetics”

A/P Chang Young-Tae
Associate Professor
Department of Chemistry
National University of Singapore

Date  : Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Time  : 12 – 1pm
Venue: CeLS Seminar Room 1
 
“Asymmetric Divisions and Neural Stem Cell Self-renewal in Drosophila Larval Brains”

Dr Wang Hongyan
Assistant Professor
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore

Date  : Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Time  : 12 – 1pm
Venue: CeLS Seminar Room 1

LSI Seminar

“Biomarker discovery and validation for Alzheimer’s disease: the AddNeuroMed project”

Prof Paul Francis
Professor of Neurochemistry
Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases
GKT School of Biomedical Science
King’s College London, UK

Date  : Monday, 8 September 2008
Time  : 4 – 5pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

“The Genomic Code for Nucleosome Positioning”

Prof Jonathan Widom
Dept of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology and Dept of Chemistry
Northwestern University

Date  :  Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Time  :  4 – 5pm
Venue:  CeLS Auditorium

“Aβ oligomers as the diagnostic and therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease”

Prof Colin Masters
Executive Director & Laureate Professor
Mental Health Research Institute, National Neuroscience Facility
University of Melbourne, Australia

Date  :  Monday, 29 September 2008
Time  :  4 – 5pm
Venue:  CeLS Auditorium