An exciting educational experience
TWO IMU final year pharmacy students, Jin-Ying Wong and Zhao Yin Ng, collaborated with two premier universities based at NSW, Australia, for their undergraduate research project – The University of Newcastle/Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and the Graduate School of Health, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
Their research project focused on assessing the potential of nano formulations containing Curcumin in the treatment of asthma and cancer.
Wong and Ng relate their experience, “Our work at HMRI was focused and well aligned to the ‘Viruses, Infections/Immunity, Vaccines and Asthma’ (VIVA) research programme. During our stay, we were fortunate to have acquired various laboratory skills from Dr Alan Hsu in both the planning and execution stages of our project such as cell culture and various molecular biology techniques.
“It was a valuable learning experience, especially in the laboratory, where we were introduced to several state-of-the-art facilities and equipment available. Our time in HMRI also exposed us to the importance of compliance to Good Laboratory Practices (GLP).
“Furthermore, we were fortunate enough to have the experts of this field give us their time in guiding and imparting their knowledge to us along the completion of our project.
“We were pleased by the warmth and willingness of our colleagues in sharing their expertise and knowledge while shadowing them during their experiments. We were thrilled to conduct our research in sophisticated and well-equipped laboratories using advanced testing facilities under the guidance of A/Prof Mary Bebawy (Laboratory of Cancer Cell Biology and Therapeutics head) and Dr Kamal Dua at UTS, a dynamic and innovative university in central Sydney. Our project involved testing our formulations on cultured cancer cell lines (HBEC, A549 and MCF-7).
“Most interestingly, we had the chance to use the Tali Image-Based Cytometer, a cutting-edge benchtop assay tool to analyse the cellular activities. With that, we were able to gain more experience in analysis of our result data.
“Overall, this was truly an exceptional learning opportunity and we would like to thank everyone involved. It would be an honour for us to work together again. This experience allowed us, as pharmacy students, to explore our interests in the research field and opened our future goals to one of the many career options. This was one of the best learning experiences we had and we are thankful to IMU and all our supervisors who made it all happen.”
IMU’s Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) students have the option to transfer credits in their first two years’ curriculum to the pharmacy programme in the University of Otago, New Zealand or University of Tasmania, Australia. These international partnerships are a clear testament of the alignment of IMU’s innovative education to global standards. Students could also complete the entire fouryear pharmacy degree in IMU.
The commencement for the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) programme is in July and September. If you wish to embark on a diverse career involved with the safe and effective use of medicines, make an online application today to study the pharmacy programme.
If you have just completed your SPM and do not have pre-university qualification, consider enrolling in the one-year IMU Foundation in Science, the preferred foundation and direct route for entry into any of the university’s degree programmes.
The next intake for the Foundation in Science is in April.
Find out more at the Foundation in Science Info Day on March 18 at the campus in Bukit Jalil.