Two teams from LSI won bronze awards for their Safety and Health Improvement Programme (SHIP) projects. The SHIP is a programme instituted by the NUS-Office of Safety Health and Environment (OSHE).

The CSI team, from Prof. Halliwell’s laboratory in the Neurobiology Programme, developed a holistic approach to chemical management.

The LSI-CELS Safety Team from the LSI administrative office developed improved ways of communicating safety information across CeLS.

The awards will be presented to the teams at the NUS Annual Safety and Health Performance Award ceremony on 22 April 2009.

Deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) is a chromosomal locus, which when deleted, is linked to the formation of various cancers, especially liver and breast cancers.

A study jointly published in the Journal of Cell Science by A/Prof Low Boon Chuan and A/ Prof Yang Daiwen, both members of the LSI Biophysical Sciences Programme and the Department of Biological Sciences, uncovers a mechanism of DLC1 regulation of cell migration that could shed light on tumor formation and metastasis. [READ MORE]

6^th Life Sciences Career Day

Guest-of-Honour, Deputy President
(Academic Affairs) and Provost,
Prof Tan Eng Chye, giving his
welcome remarks.

The 6^th Life Sciences Career Day 2009 workshop which was held on Saturday, 21 March 2009 at LT 32 was jointly organized by the Life Sciences Institute, Life Sciences Undergraduate Program Committee, Department of Biological Sciences and the Division of Bioengineering. [READ MORE]

NUS-Waseda Joint Symposium on Chemical Epigenomics

Dr Ng Huck Hui.

The NUS-Waseda Joint Symposium on Chemical Epigenomics in “Chemical Epigenomics-The fusion of epigenetics, stem cell biology and chemical biology” was held on Thursday, 12 March 2009 at the University Hall Auditorium, NUS. [READ MORE]

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

An LSI Distinguished Lecture was held on 5 March 2009 at the CeLS Auditorium.

Prof Kainosho delivering his talk.

Professor Masatsune Kainosho, Professor at the Center of Priority Areas, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan. His lecture topic was “SAIL-NMR Method for Protein Structure and Dynamics”. A/Prof Low Boon Chuan, LSI Deputy Director, chaired this lecture.

LSI Investigator Seminar Series

Dr Yeong (left) and Dr Angeli.

An LSI Investigator Seminar Series was held on 19 March 2009 at the CeLS Auditorium. The two speakers were Dr Yeong Foong May, Assistant Professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Dr Veronique Angeli, Assistant Professor from Department of Microbiology, NUS. Dr Yeong spoke on “Condensin II complex & Chromosome condensation” while Dr Angeli delivered a talk on “Is Cholesterol a Friend or a Foe of the Lymphatic System?”.

Visit by Dr John Parrish, CIMIT

From 3^rd left: Dr John Parrish and
Dr Gilcrest (CIMIT) and Dr Sharon Tay (A*STAR).

Dr John Parrish, Founder and Executive Director of CIMIT, Centre for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology visited LSI on Friday 13 March 2009. He met with Prof Ong Choon Nam, and A/Prof Lim Chwee Teck for discussion following which he met Prof John Wong, Dean, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS.

In March:
Animal Protocol Talk

Emeritus Prof Lam.

LSI , IACUC and LAC organized the first animal protocol talk at CeLS on Monday 2 March 2009 on “Pitfalls and Problems in Protocol Approval”. Presentations were given by Emeritus Professor Lam Toong Jin, Chairman of IACUC and Dr Patrick Sharp, Director of the Laboratory Animals Centre. About 80 participants found the session informative.

LSI, NMRC and BMRC jointly organized the Grantsmanship Workshop 2009 on the morning of Wednesday 4 March 2009 at the CeLs Auditorium.

The Workshop kicked off with presentations from speakers from BMRC, NMRC and Exploit Technologies.

Ms Lee Wanyu (Senior Officer, BMRC), Dr Thiyagarajan Jayabaskar (Assistant Director, NMRC) and Dr Ng Sean Pin (Manager, Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd, A*STAR) shared on funding opportunities in their respective organizations. [READ MORE]

LSI Distinguished Lecture Series

“Harnessing Transposons for Cancer Gene Discovery”

Prof Neal Copeland
Executive Director
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology

Date  :    Thursday, 9 April 2009
Time  :    4 – 5pm
Venue:    CeLS Auditorium       

 ”Directional Delta/Notch Trafficking in Asymmetric Sara Endosomes During Asymmetric Cell Division”

Prof Marcos González-Gaitán
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Sciences II, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Date  :    Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Time  :    4 – 5pm
Venue:    CeLS Auditorium 

____________________

“Discovery of Insect and Human Dengue Virus Host Factors”

Prof Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco
Director, Duke Center for RNA Biology
Duke University Medical Center
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School

Date  :    Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Time  :    12nn – 1pm
Venue:    CeLS Auditorium

 “Functional and Conformational Analysis of WASP-WIP Complex”

Dr Thirumaran Thanabalu
School of Biological Sciences,
Nanyang Technological University

Date  :    Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Time  :    12nn – 1pm
Venue:    CeLS Auditorium

Editorial Team

Lim Chwee Teck
Sumita Anant
Ellice Lim
Siti Haryanti
Aziz Salim