Seminars by Structural Biology and Proteomics Programme

“Assembly-dependent Activation of Protein Degradation Cinokexes”

Prof Bing K Jap
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

Date  : Friday, 3 October 2008
Time  : 4pm – 5pm
Venue: LT 20

“TBC”

Dr Manfred Koranda
Bioinformatics Institute (BII)   

Date  : Friday, 10 October 2008
Time  : 4pm – 5pm
Venue: LT 20

“TBC”

Dr Yasushi Ishihama
Keio University, Japan

Date  : Friday, 17 October 2008
Time  : 4pm – 5pm
Venue: LT 20

Editorial Team

Lim Chwee Teck
Ellice Lim
Siti Haryanti
Aziz Salim

Seminars by Neurobiology Programme

“Functional and Molecular Imaging of the Brain using MRI”

Dr Chuang Kai-Hsiang
Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium,
Biomedical Sciences Institutes, A*STAR

Date  : Wednesday, 22 October 2008
Time  : 12nn – 1pm
Venue: CeLS Seminar Room 1

“TBC”

Dr Thomas Leung King Chor

Date  : Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Time  : 12nn – 1pm
Venue: Seminar room M9, Blk MD7

“A Novel Platform that Enables Convenient Miniaturization of Heterogeneous Biological Assays for Scarce Samples”

Dr Leck Kwong Joo
Chief Scientific Officer, Curiox Biosystems

Date  : Thursday, 30 October 2008
Time  : 12nn – 1pm
Venue: CeLS seminar room 1

LSI, and its neighbouring A*STAR Institute, the Singapore Institute of Clinical Sciences (SICS), jointly organized a Safety Day on September 19th at the CeLS foyer. Over 200 people from NUS and Biopolis participated in this event.

The day started with a vendor exhibition of safety-related products and services, followed by talks by the sponsors and SCDF. There was a bit of action amongst the participants as the SCDF team trained them to put out fires using different kinds of fire extinguishers.

The various talks discussed the use of biosafety cabinets, shipping of biological material and the use of viral vectors in research. The high point of the event was the lucky draw where over 30 prizes were given out.

Ms Tan Gek San from the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS, walked off with the top prize, a mini laptop, and Mr Alan Koh from the Immunology Programme, NUS, won the second prize, a digital camera. LSI and SICS would like to thank all the sponsors, participants and organizers for making this event a success.

On another note, LSI is pleased to announce that Dr Justin Wong as the new deputy Chairman of the CeLS Safety Committee.

Occupants of CeLS can now refer to the safety noticeboards installed next to the lift on each floor for safety news and updates. Also keep a lookout for feedback boxes near the elevators, which will be up in the next few weeks.

Seminar by Cancer Programme 

“Use of SNP Chips for Gene Discovery and Cancer Classification.”

Prof Phillip Koeffler
Director, Division of Hematology/Oncology Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Professor of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine, USA

Date  : Monday, 13 October 2008
Time  : 12nn – 1pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

LSI Distinguished Lectures

Three LSI Distinguished Lectures were delivered in September 2008 at the CeLS Auditorium.

Prof Widom receiving a plaque from
Prof Low Boon Chuan.

Professor Jonathan Widom, William Deering Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology and Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, USA, gave a talk on 10 September 2008 on “The Genomic Code for Nucleosome Positioning”.

Dr Bruce signing autographs after his talk.

Dr Bruce Alberts, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, USA and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Science, gave a talk on “Biology Past and Biology Future: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?”. His talk which was held on 18 September 2008 attracted participants of more than 200.

Prof Masters giving his talk.

Last but not least, Professor Colin L. Masters, Laureate Professor, University of Melbourne, Executive Director, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Australia, gave a talk on 29 September 2008. It was entitled “AB Oligomers as the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Target for Alzheimer’s Disease”.

LSI Seminar by Prof Paul Francis

Professor Paul Francis, Professor of Neurochemistry, Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King’s College London, gave a talk on 8 September 2008. It was entitled “Biomarker discovery and validation for Alzheimer’s disease: the AddNeuroMed project”.

LSI Young Investigator Seminar Series

“Lipidomics, Novel Tools and Applications”

A/Prof Markus Wenk
Associate Professor, Assistant Head of Department of Biochemistry,
LSI Neurobiology/Ageing Programme,NUS
Member of the Executive Committee of the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering

“Is Cholesterol a Friend or a Foe of the Lymphatic System?”

Dr Veronique Angeli
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology,
LSI Immunology Programme, NUS

Date  :  Thursday, 16 October 2008
Time  :  4pm – 5pm
Venue:  CeLS Seminar Room 2

in September:

NUS-Baden Wuttemberg 2^nd Joint Scientific Conference

The NUS-Baden Wuttemberg 2^nd Joint Scientific Conference in Life Sciences was held at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg from 21 to 23 September 2008.

It was jointly organised by LSI and the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Wurttemberg and co-ordinated by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ).

Minister Peter Frankenberg addressing
the participants at dinner.

The Singapore 12 member delegation comprised speakers from NUS, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the National Cancer Center, Singapore.

Our German host arranged for the Singapore delegation to be given a tour of the Heidelberg before ending the evening with a sumptuous dinner hosted by Prof Otmar Wiestler, Director DKFZ, in a restaurant in the Heidelberg Castle.

The programme kicked off with speeches from Prof Otmar Wiestler, Dr Heribert Knorr , Prof Bary Halliwell, NUS Deputy President and Prof Ong Choon Nam, Director of LSI.

Dr Albrecht Jahn, Scientific Officer with the European Commission, was also present to give a presentation on the funding opportunities available from EU.

Singapore would stand to benefit from the generous funding available if it partnered with developing countries to work on projects that are of interest to the EU.

Some 80 participants from institutions from Baden Wurttemberg attended the conference. The scientific discussions were stimulating.

The two-day conference also provided the platform for the scientists to explore opportunities to see how they can work together to embark on future collaborations and also visits by junior scientists. Our German host also broached the subject of organising a third joint scientific conference in the months ahead.

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

“Beyond Bench to Bedside”

Prof John Potter
Senior Vice-President and Director, Division of Public Health Sciences,
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, USA

Date  :  Friday, 17 October 2008
Time  :  1pm – 2pm
Venue:  CeLS Auditorium

“Integrating Genomics into Population Health: Promises and Pitfalls”

Prof John Ioannidis
Prof and Chairman, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology,
University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Greece

Date  :  Monday, 20 October 2008
Time  :  1pm – 2pm
Venue:  CeLS Auditorium

“The Herbal Treatment of Epilepsy”

Prof Steven Craig Schachter
Harvard Medical School

Date :  Thursday, 23 October 2008
Time :  4pm – 5pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

Seminars by Immunology Programme

“Ap4A as a Second Messenger in a Novel Gene Regulation Pathway in Immunological Activated Mast Cells”

Prof Ehud Razin 
Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University, Israel

Date  : Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

“Sterile immunity against malaria after vaccination with live parasites”

Prof Laurent Renia  
Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), A*STAR

Date  : Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

“Conditional ligands for class I MHC products and their application to CD8+ T cell epitope discovery”
 
Dr Gijsbert Grotenbreg 
National University of Singapore

Date  : Tuesday, 28 October 2008
Time  : 11am – 12pm
Venue: CeLS Auditorium

On 23 September 2008, the NUS Division of Research Administration and the Defence Science and Technology Agency coordinated a visit to LSI by the MINDEF Permanent Secretary (Defence Development), Dr Tan Kim Siew. LSI Deputy Director Assoc Prof Lim Chwee Teck provided a brief overview of the research at LSI.

The delegation was then led through the Neurobiology labs by Assoc Prof Sanjay Khanna and Assoc Prof Ong Wei Yi, who highlighted the research and key achievements of the Neurobiology programme. The objective of the visit was to showcase the research at NUS as part of the annual meeting between the MINDEF Permanent Secretary (Defence Development) and the NUS President.

We were privileged to have President SR Nathan, NUS Chancellor to visit CeLS on Tuesday, 9 September 2008. This was part of his visit to the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSoM). President Nathan is making a series of visits to the faculties and schools in NUS.On arrival at CeLs, he was greeted by NUS Senior Management, Acting President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, Provost Prof Tan Eng Chye and Deputy President (Research & Technology) Prof Barry Halliwell and Dean (YLLSoM) Prof John Wong and members of the Medical Faculty.

During his visit, Prof John Wong, gave an update on the development of the National University Health System. This was followed by a tour of the research facilities in the Neurobiology labs. Assoc Prof Soong Tuck Wah with the Neurobiology Programme gave a brief explanation on the research activities undertaken by the Programme. The theme of the tour was focused on how the brain works, how it learns and memorizes. The visit to CeLS ended with a tour of the research labs and facilities.

Following the visit to CeLS, President Nathan then called at the Clinical Research Center where he toured the YLLSoM Museum led by Prof Lenny Tan. He also observed the simulation training session involving undergraduate students and met staff and students over tea.