Fruitful and rewarding internship
A final-year Biomedical Science (BM) student at International Medical University (IMU), Chok Kian Chung had the opportunity to undergo his Phase 1 internship at A*STAR, Singapore. Chok recalled, “As a BM student, we need to undergo two phases of internship – Phase I for a research internship while Phase II for internship in a diagnostic laboratory. As I’m eager to work in Singapore after my graduation, thus, I thought doing my internship in Singapore would be a great start and A*STAR, which is a well-established research institute with many talents, technologies and resources, was my first choice.
“Since young, I have always found genetic subjects to be tough as it requires imagination to understand every abstract theory and practice in the field. However, the increasing attention in genetics therapy and growth of genetic modification tools – CRISPR-Cas have sparked my interest in genetics research and I’m eager to satiate my curiosity.
“Fortunately, I had the opportunity to have my practical attachment in Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore under the supervision of Dr Chew Wei Leong. It was an eye-opening journey as there are multi-talented colleagues with a variety of expertise contributing to genetic therapy research in their own way.
“Dr Chew practises ‘happy lab’ concept where everyone in the lab is equal and has his or her own projects to work on. Even as an intern, I was given the opportunity to design and conduct a research based on my interest. I’m glad to have the guidance from Dr Eddie Keng Choong Tat, a post-doc, to work on directed evolution of adenoassociated virus (AAV).
“Genetic modification is having limitation on delivery of therapeutics into targeted tissues or organs as present AAVs are low specific and induce unwanted immune response. I was mainly working on the design of virus capsid to produce highspecificity and efficiency virus serotypes to enable tissue-specific genetic therapy.”
Overall, Chok felt that he had a very fruitful internship in enhancing both his laboratory skills and knowledge as well as his interpersonal skills.
At IMU, the curriculum of the biomedical science programme is developed to meet international standards and is accepted by renowned international partner universities (University of Newcastle, Australia, University of Otago, New Zealand and University of Strathclyde, Scotland) for credit transfer into relevant programmes. Graduates of these degrees can undertake postgraduate degrees in any related disciplines.
The commencement dates for this programme are in July and September. If you have pre-university qualifications and have an interest in Biomedical Science, apply online now and join the university in your pursuit of a promising and rewarding career.
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 local degree programmes.
■ For details, refer to www.imu.edu.my or email start@imu.edu.my or call IMU at 03-2731 7272.