2012 NUS Research Congress Part 2

On the 21st February 2012, a group of Secondary 3 students were sent to listen to a series of presentations by Professors and students of NUS high. There was a presentation by Professor Soo, a Head and Neck Cancer Specialist, as well as 4 presentations by the students on their projects, namely: Effect of Stress on Subsequent Performance in Observers during High Fidelity Simulator-based Training, Impact of Transverse Modes Interaction in Fiber Amplifiers, Ultrasmall Peptide Therapeutics for Inhibiting Amyloid Formation and Generalized Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe.

In continuation to my previous post, I would be sharing about some of my views towards some of the presentations I heard during the congress, as well as some of the booths and research projects which caught my attention as I was viewing the projects done by the NUS students. I would like to share my thoughts after I have listened to the presentations: Effect of Stress on Subsequent Performance in Observers during High Fidelity Simulator-based Training and Ultrasmall Peptide Therapeutics for Inhibiting Amyloid Formation.

The presentation on the effect of stress on subsequent performance in observers during high fidelity simulator-based training is a research project conducted by two NUS students whereby they wanted to find out whether stress would come in the way of training a person to perform well in an operation for instance, and their research would lean more towards benefitting the structure of Anesthesia training. The students first listed out what form of data they wish to collect to determine the stress levels of their test subjects on a regular basis, and they chose to record their test subjects' heart rate and salivary cortisol. (a hormones in saliva whereby high concentrations meant high stress levels) At the end of their experiment the managed to deduce that repetitive practice would lead to higher performance, however they also noticed that observation may influence performance negatively. In my point of view I find their research useful in the application to the real world situations, and that their concepts and hypotheses were well thought through and procedure were carried out relatively well. Their presentation left a positive impact on me as I managed to learn something regarding the collection of data and proper data analysis.

For the presentation on Ultrasmall Peptide Therapeutics for Inhibiting Amyloid Formation, the NUS high student conducted a research on amyloids and how the fold normally to form proteins which could benefit the human body, but when they are "misfolded", they could cause diseases such as Parkinson's disease etc.) He shared about alpha-helical breakers which are peptide-based as well as alpha-helical intermediate are ver probably intermediates in amyloid formation. Through his presentation I learnt about the different end products amyloids can produce and the possibilities of ensuring that they end up being beneficial to the body instead of harming it. This has a slight relation to Prof. Soo's presentation and could lead to a cure or prevention of Parkinson's disease as well as the other diseases caused by the misfolding of amyloids.

 Poster 1: Preparation and Characterization of Cocrystals Involving the Diuretic Drug, Hydrocholorthiazide

 Poster 2: Antimicrobial biomaterials to prevent biofilm formation by Acinetobacter baumannii

Poster 3: Study of Mechanisms of Traditional Chinese Medicinal Herbs

The three pictures of posters above are a few of the projects which caught my eye during the showcase. As I am in Chemistry Talent Development Program, these projects seemed to make a link towards what I  should be looking at.

Poster 1 is a project whereby they work toward seeing if cocrytalization of the drug would improve its physicochemical characteristics of the drug as well as the bioavailability of the drug. This project is more towards trying to improve the drug to serve its purpose better.

The second poster however would be more towards the biological side as to the prevention of formation of biofilm, which contributes to infections when formed on medical devices and are difficult to eradicate. The group works towards finding out if various antimicrobial coatings would help prevent the formation of the biofilm and what can be improved to the design to find an effective anti-biofilm coating. This would contribute to improving the sanitary aspect of medical device usage and help in reducing the chances of infection.

The last poster is about the mechanisms of traditional chinese medicinal herbs. This group compared western medication with TCM to see if there were similarities and concluded that they do in fact share similarities in mechanisms and that there is scientific reasoning to prove that TCM is a reliable form of medication. This could pave way to the usage of TCM in western medication to improve the drug's ability to cure an illness and I find this project most interesting out of the three as it gives way to more different projects with relation to both western and traditional chinese medicine.

Grace Tan Soo Woon (05)
S3-09

2012 NUS Research Congress

On the 21st February 2012, a group of Secondary 3 students were sent to listen to a series of presentations by Professors and students of NUS high. There was a presentation by Professor Soo, a Head and Neck Cancer Specialist, as well as 4 presentations by the students on their projects, namely: Effect of Stress on Subsequent Performance in Observers during High Fidelity Simulator-based Training, Impact of Transverse Modes Interaction in Fiber Amplifiers, Ultrasmall Peptide Therapeutics for Inhibiting Amyloid Formation and Generalized Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe.

Firstly, we listened to a Keynote address by Professor Soo, who covered the importance of basic scientific discoveries, translational experiments and clinical research with regards to his area of expertise, Head and Neck Cancer. He revealed that Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, when used together after surgery on a cancer patient, yields better results than Radiotherapy alone when it comes to chances of survival. How is this proven? Through Clinical trials! These trials are necessary to test for a better cure of a disease, and randomized clinical trials have the basis of use of hypothesis, risk stratification, allocation to treatment arms by computer randomization and sufficient patient numbers to measure small but statistically different differences.

What does this show? This structure is a basic structure of a randomized clinical trial, and similar to any other science project, would ultimately lead to a solution for the problem. The solution would be the cure for the disease, which could apply to any other disease other than Head and Neck Cancer. Prof. Soo shared with us the important factors that affect the survival in Head and Neck Cancer patients—stage of disease and the extra-capsular spread in nodal metastases. ( how fast the cancer virus enters the capsule of the human lymphnods.)

In this circumstances, the hypotheses were that patients who are young (< 45 years), is a female and have no known risk factors were "bad players" in head and neck cancer, meaning that it is harder for them to be cured as they show different responses in clinical performance as compared to other patients. This was probably due to the stem cell population being disproportionally high or certain biological determinants within the tumor itself.

Prof. Soo also explains that the need for basic research is mainly to understand biological complexities. An example which he used was Photodynamic Therapy as a cure for cancer. Photodynamic therapy is the insertion of a drug in the tumor, and when the concentration of this drug in the tumor is significantly higher, light is shone onto the lesion, and since the drug has a substance that reacts similarly to chlorophyll found in plants, it would kill the cancer cells and the cells become hypoxic. There was also research conducted to the use of Avastin, which is a compound that blocks vascular endothelial growth (prevents vascular regrowth) and the use of this along side photodynamic therapy proves to be more successful in getting rid of the cancer cells. During the course of research there would be a need to vary the dosages and sequence of treatments to find the most suitable one, and this process is biological research itself.

Hence, in conclusion, Prof. Soo said that biomedical research in Singapore with regards to cancer is extremely important as it is relevant to the issue of constantly increasing numbers of diagnosed patients as well as annual deaths with cancer in Singapore alone. This research would also prove to be intellectually challenging as the researcher has to improve the therapeutic index ( a dose which would kill the cancer and not the patient), however it could also result in personalized medicine which would benefit the society. Through this presentation I learnt the importance of basic research and clinical research, as well as what it can do to benefit humans in general. I also had a glimpse of what Professor Soo's profession was, and what we can do to improve current medical technology.

Grace Tan Soo Woon (05)
S3-09

Chemistry of Love (What is love?)

14th Febuary 2012, Valentines Day, there was a science lecture on Love by Dr. Christopher Slatter, Chemistry teacher in SST. So, what is love in the science world?

Love is...
—> an interdisciplinary subject (a mixture of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Psychology)
—> based on carbon (organic element)

Carbon:
-> possesses a strong covalent bond. (said to catenate)
-> joins in long chains and rings

Hormones: Chemical messengers (slow in reaction, has long-lasting effects)
-> Male—Testosterone (Lower levels are more attractive to women)
-> Female—Oestrogen (steroidal) Higher levels mean female is prettier/more fertile

Chemicals that are involved during the process of love:
-> Endorphins: produced by pituitary gland & hypothalamus ( produce analgesia and human sense of well-being)
-> Pheromones: makes one develop attraction
-> Dopamine: stimulates brain's reward centre (person feels good)
-> Serotonin: high levels of this causes people to be excited
-> Phenylethylamine: found in chocolate
-> Oxytocin: cuddling chemical
-> Vasopressin: monogamy chemical (found in Prairie Vole, only 3% of animals have it)

Neurotransmitters: have structure containing carbon with hydrogen and nitrogen. (Dopamine, Seronin, Norepinephrine, Phenylethylamine etc.)

These are the notes taken by me during the lecture, and the lecture has given me more insights on how science has a link with the processes that animals and humans experience, even love. This allowed me to know more about the chemicals found in the body which enables us to have certain reactions or feelings to our surroundings as well as what the chemical does to generate certain feelings and emotions.

—Grace Tan Soo Woon (05)
    S3-09