JOHOR BAHRU – Mr. Lam Ming Quan, a PhD student under sponsorship of Yayasan Khazanah (YK), from Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia did his research internship twice at the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP), Department of Biology, University of York, United Kingdom (Nov – Dec 2017 & Jun – Jul 2018). His research is one of the main projects under an international collaboration: Newton Fund (UK-SEA-NUOF). As the main aim of the Newton Fund is to build the capacity and capabilities of Malaysians in terms of scientific research, Lam is supervised by experienced researchers from both universities: Dr. Chong Chun Shiong (main supervisor) & Assoc. Prof. Dr. Goh Kian Mau (co-supervisor) from UTM, and Prof. Neil C Bruce (external supervisor) from University of York, UK.
Photo 1: Mr. Lam Ming Quan did his research internship at University of York from Nov – Dec 2017 & Jun – Jul 2018.
The major objective of the research internship is to allow the student to have a different research experience at University of York, United Kingdom. Experiences such as culture and knowledge exchange, teamworking, problem solving skills and new facilities exploration were acquired by student.
The specific area of biological research that is explored by Mr. Lam in these research internships are: Multi-omics technology and bioinformatics. The use of latest technology in molecular biology: next generation sequencing (NGS) approach to sort out the microbial taxonomy and mining of new microbial products (enzymes & proteins) had been the centre of attention in the whole internship journey. Mr. Lam had chances to access world class facilities in laboratory which were introduced by host university to allow him to learn the operation of those facilities. Besides that, Mr. Lam also communicated with researchers from York to gain new insights and tips on high impact publication and lab management.
Photo 2: (up) Mr. Lam was doing lab work together with his supervisor Dr. Chong Chun Shiong; (down) Mr. Lam was learning bioinformatic data analyses under guidance of research associate, Dr. Nicola Oates.
Throughout the research internship, Mr. Lam was able to bring back some new skills which will potentially benefit the University. Furthermore, the relationships built will allow more chances in terms of international collaboration in the near future.
Mr. Lam would like to express his gratitude to UTM, Yayasan Khazanah, Newton Fund, BBSRC Partnering Award and all the parties involved in these two research internships.