biochemistry buzz volume: 10 issue

BIOCHEMISTRY BUZZ

Volume 10, November 2010 Issue

In This Issue… Congratulations Staff!

Welcome to the Family

Page 2

Students Conferment

Page 2

Our New Staff

Page 3

New Postgraduate Students

Page 4

Recent Events

Page 5 – 7

Publications

Page 8

Grants Awarded

Page 9

Upcoming Events

Page 9

Bon Voyage

Page 10

Staff

The Stars @ NUHS’ Awards Presentation Ceremony was held on 25

October at the NUHS Tower Block Auditorium. We are proud to

announce our Biochemistry awardees. Congratulations to all!

Faculty Teaching Excellence Award AY2008/2009 : A/P Maxey

Chung

Faculty Research Excellence Award 2010 : A/P Markus Wenk

Long Service Award

o Long Lee Hua, Senior Lab Executive (20 Years)

o A/P Khoo Hoon Eng, Associate Professor(20 Years)

o Chan Siew Lee, Lab Technologist (25 Years)

o Kalimuthu Malihay, Operations Associate(25 Years)

Congratulations to Prof Barry Halliwell whose paper, “Are

polyphenols antioxidants or pro-oxidants? What do we learn from cell

culture and in vivo studies?”, is one of the Top 10 most cited articles

published in the journal Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics

during the period 2008 – 2010.

Congratulations to A/P Tang Bor Luen for being re-appointed as a member of the URC Biomedical

Engineering and Life Sciences Expert Panel.

Congratulations to Dr Deng Lih Wen for being appointed as member of the URC Biomedical Engineering

and Life Sciences Expert Panel.

Congratulations to Teaching Assistant Lim Shen Jean for being awarded the Education Conference Grant

in support of her presentation (Title of paper: Integration of E-learning Tools with Problem-based

Learning Approach to enhance Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate Bioinformatics Modules).

Congratulations to Zhou Lihan, Research Assistant from A/P Too Heng-Phon’s lab, for being awarded the

Best Poster Award for OzBio 2010 Young Scientist Forum.

Please inform Firah ([email protected]) if your awards have not been announced and we will include it in the next issue.

mailto:[email protected]

BBBIIIOOOCCCHHHEEEMMMIIISSSTTTRRRYYY BBBUUUZZZZZZ

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Welcome to the Family!

We welcome the latest baby additions to our Family:

Baby Girl Putri Alysha Chai Abdul Rasied, first child of

Chai Siaw Ching (of Prof Jeyaseelan’s lab).

Baby Boy Atharv Joshi, first child of Dr Himani Kukreti

(of A/P Mridula Sharma’s lab)

Students Conferment

Congratulations to the following students on the conferment of their postgraduate

degree. Well done!

Name Supervisor Prog Month of Conferment

Annette Shoba Vincent Prof Barry Halliwell

Prof Sit Kim Ping

Dr Phan Toan Thang

PhD February 2010

Alvin Eng Kim Hock Prof Kon Oi Lian MSc July 2010

Li Hongyu Prof Hong Wanjin PhD September 2010

Samantha Quah Yiling Dr Zeng Qi MSc September 2010


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Our New Staff

Adjunct Staff

Prof Ralph Nigel Martins

Edith Cowan University

Assumed Duty:

1 August 2010

Prof Kishore Bakhoo

Singapore Bioimaging

Consortium, A*Star

Assumed Duty:

1 October 2010

Lab Executive Operations Associate

Lee Wah Yean

Supervisor: A/P Chua Kim

Lee

Assumed Duty:

16 September 2010

Ng Yoon Qiu, Roy

Assumed Duty:

2 September 2010

Research Assistant Research Fellow

Ye Mon Than

Supervisor: Dr Takao Inoue

Assumed Duty:

1 August 2010

Vinod Verma

Supervisor: Prof Fu Xin-Yuan

Assumed Duty:

20 October 2010


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New Postgraduate Students (August 2010 Intake)

Name Prog Supervisor

Christine Hu Zhi-Wen MSc Dr Thilo Hagen

Daphne Wong Pei Wen PhD Dr Thilo Hagen

Faranak Ghazi Sherbaf PhD Prof Edison Liu

Gireedhar Venkatachalam PhD A/P Clement, Marie-Veronique

Kunde Ramamoorthy Govindarajan PhD A/P Tan Tin Wee

Lau Wai Hoe PhD Dr Chen Ee Sin

Lee Seow Chong PhD A/P Chung Ching Ming, Maxey

Ma Hui PhD Dr Wu Qiang

Ma Wei Msc A/P Han Weiping

Prof Hong Wanjin (co-sup)

Maulana Bachtiar PhD A/P Lee Guat Lay, Caroline

Ng Choon Keow MSc A/P Chung Ching Ming, Maxey

Prof Manfred Raida (Co-Sup)

Tang Peng PhD Prof Fu Xin-Yuan

Wang Jingjing PhD Prof Yoichi Taya

Zahra Kabiri PhD Prof David M Virshup

Zhao Qianyi PhD Dr Wu Qiang


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Recent Events

3rd Annual Biochemistry Student Symposium (BchSS)

The 3rd Annual Biochemistry Student Symposium (BchSS) was held on

4 October 2010 at MD11, CRC Auditorium.

The BchSS was organized by the Postgraduate Student Committee

(PgSC) consisting of Sarah Ho Yoon Khei, Chin Cheen Fei, Patrick Goo

Chong Kiat and Wang Xiaorui.

Congratulations to the PgSC for organizing another successful

Student Symposium in 2010.

The PgSC (from left to right):

Patrick Goo Chong Kiat, Chin Cheen Fei, Sarah Ho Yoon

Khei together with Deputy Head A/P Tan Tin Wee

Poster Presentation

Eager Speakers The Audience

More pictures can be found at http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/bioweb/3rdstudent.html.

http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/bioweb/3rdstudent.html


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Recent Events

The 2nd Biochemistry Research Symposium, “Frontiers in Fundamental Biochemistry and Molecular

Medicine” was successfully held on 22-23 October 2010 at Furama City Centre.

The Research Symposium was for all academic and adjunct staff of the Department to come together and

have stimulating discussions in the areas of their research and future plans. This symposium also created a

platform for cross-fertilization of ideas and collaborations based on the group discussions over the two

days.

The Department was honoured to have the presence of two distinguished Keynote Speakers, Professor Tak

W. Mak and Professor Sir George Radda during our symposium.

Keynote Speaker, Professor Tak W Mak Keynote Speaker, Professor Sir George Radda

The discussions… The avid listeners…

More pictures can be found at http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/bioweb/2ndsympo.html.

http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/bioweb/2ndsympo.html


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Recent Events

Staff Welfare Event - Raft & Roll @ Sentosa

The Biochemistry’s Raft & Roll @ Sentosa was a full day staff welfare team-building event that was held on

Tuesday 16 November 2010. It was a day filled with fun, laughter and lots of challenging activities. This

team-building activity was supported by OHR which sponsored the facilitators’ fees.

Thank you to the Staff Welfare Committee - Dr Yew Wen Shan, Aniza, Terence Tay and Wu Guoxiang for

organizing this event. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Biochemistry Staff & Students

Teambuilding Teambonding

Rafting Roller Coaster Assembly

More pictures can be found at http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/bioweb/raftandroll.html.

http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/bioweb/raftandroll.html


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Publications

Zheng*, YL, BS Li*, P Rudrabhatla*, V Shukla, ND Amin, D

Maric, Kesavapany S, J Kanungo, TK Pareek, S Takahashi, P

Grant, AB Kulkarni and HC Pant, "Phosphorylation of p27Kip1

at Thr187 by Cyclin-dependent Kinase 5 Modulates Neural

Stem Cell Differentiation". Molecular Biology Of The Cell, 21,

no. 20 (2010): 3601-3614. (United States). (PMID: 20810788).

Meng, J, W Xia, J Tang, B L Tang and F Y Liang*,

"Dephosphorylation-dependent inhibitory activity of

juxtanodin on filamentous actin disassembly.". Journal Of

Biological Chemistry, 285, no. 37 (2010): 28838-28849.

(United States). (PMID: 20610382).

Young*, BP, JJ Shin, R Orij, JT Chao, SC Li, X L Guan, A Khong, E Jan, M R Wenk, WA Prinz, GJ Smits* and CJ

Loewen*, "Phosphatidic acid is a pH biosensor that links membrane biogenesis to metabolism. (Report)".

Science,

Parayil Kumaran Ajikumar, Wen-Hai Xiao, Keith E. J. Tyo, Yong Wang, Fritz Simeon, Effendi Leonard, Oliver

Mucha, Too Heng Phon, Blaine Pfeifer, Gregory Stephanopoulos. “Isoprenoid Pathway Optimization for

Taxol Precursor Overproduction in Escherichia coli”. Science. 330, 70-74 (2010)

Na-Yu Chia, Yun-Shen Chan, Bo Feng, Xinyi Lu, Yuriy L. Orlov, Dimitri Moreau, Pankaj Kumar, Lin Yang,

Jianming Jiang, Mei-Sheng Lau, Mikael Huss, Boon-Seng Soh, Petra Kraus, Pin Li, Thomas Lufkin, Bing Lim,

Neil D. Clarke, Frederic Bard & Huck-Hui Ng. “A genome-wideRNAi screen reveals determinants of

human embryonic stem cell identity”. Nature. 468, 316-321 (2010)


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Grants Awarded

Month

awarded Staff

Amount

awarded Project title Source of Fund

August

2010

Dr Takao

Inoue $178,941.00

Cell type-specific pattern of chromatin

modification ARF

Dr Chen

Ee Sin $179,990.00

Study of fission yeast HMGB proteins in

regulating chromatin-dependent processes ARF

Dr Yew

Wen Shan $178,500.00

Enhancing biomining of electronic waste

via synthetic lixiviant enzymology ARF

September

2010

Dr Chen

Ee Sin $787,516.00

Investigation of the role of CENP-A amino-

terminus in preventing aneuploidy ARF

Prof Fu

Xin-Yuan $821,870.00

Molecular Mechanism of Stat3 Regulated

tumor angiogenesis ARF

October

2010

A/P Chua

Kim Lee $200,000.00

A biomaterial strategy to prevent

Acinetobacter biofilm formation NMRC EDG

Dr Yew

Wen

Shan

$200,000.00

Quorum-based technology: Developing

anti-virulence therapeutics targeting fram-

positive bacterial pathogens

NMRC EDG

Upcoming Events

The Department is arranging visits by shortlisted faculty candidates early next year.

The Staff Welfare Committee will also be organizing a buffet lunch for staff in early next year as well. Look

out for more details.


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Bon Voyage

We bid goodbye to Nallamal who has been in the Department as an Operations Associate since 1984.

Thank you, Nallamal for your dedicated 26 years of service. Happy Retirement!

We also say farewell to Ong Joo Yong, Lab Executive of A/P Chua Kim Lee’s lab who has transferred to a

Research Institute after working with the Department for almost two years.

We also bid adieu to Elaine Ang who has been Personal Assistant to HOD since 2008. Our deepest

gratitude to Elaine for her commitment to the Department.

Editorial Team

Advisor:

A/P Tan TinWee

Deputy Head

Editor:

Ms Aniza A Wahid

Manager

Writer:

Ms Musfirah Musa

Management Assistant

biochemistry buzz volume: 10 issue

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