Fundamentals of Molecular Science Research Workshop
Fundamentals of Molecular Science Research Workshop
Molecular biology techniques serve as the foundation of biotechnology with applications ranging from modern medicine (such as gene therapy and molecular diagnostics) to ecology and conservation biology. Therefore, most countries, including Malaysia, have been investing a good portion of their research budget into funding molecular biology-related projects. However this subject is typically complex, time-consuming and require expensive instruments and chemicals. As a result, many college or high school students only get to see demonstrations of techniques like PCR and cloning, and are not able to do these experiments themselves. Consequently, they do not truly appreciate the link between the theory and the practice of the subject.
To address the situation, INFORMM, USM has initiated a one day hands-on workshop namely “Fundamentals of Molecular Science Research Worskshop” on 7th February 2020 coordinated by Dr Leow Chiuan Herng. The course instructors include Associate Profesor Dr Sasidharan Sreenivasan, Dr Lai Ngit Shin, Dr Leow Chiuan Yee and lab facilitators from INFORMM. A total 16 of high school students coming from SMJK Jit Sin, Bukit Mertajam, and Jishukan Senior High School, Japan were participating in this workshop. The objectives of this workshop are 1) to understand the theory of molecular biology and its importance for disease diagnosis and therapy, and 2) to perform the fundamental techniques of molecular biology – DNA extraction, PCR, and DNA Imaging. After opening remarks given by Director of INFORMM, Prof Dr Rahmah Noordin, the students were given a briefing prior the experiments started.
The workshop ended with well response from the students and excorted teachers. All students were grateful with many knowledge and experience earned in the workshop. The teachers would hope to bring more students from Japan to participate in this programme again next year. After closing remarks given by Deputy Director, Associate Profesor Dr Sasidharan Sreenivasan, all students were awarded a certificate. An afternoon tea was severved while waiting their flight back to Japan on the same day.
