Asean Federation of Biotechnology Malaysia Chapter International Symposium (AFOBMCIS) is one of the annual events of the Asian Federation of Biotechnology Malaysia Chapter (AFOB-MC). As a record, the AFOB-MC had organized several prestige events such as; AFOB Regional Symposium 2014 (ARS2014) in Seri Pacific Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Asian Congress on Biotechnology 2015 (ACB2015) in Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur and AFOBMCIS 2018, at Pullman Hotel, Kuching Sarawak. This year, it was held on 20-23 October 2019 at The Everly Putrajaya, Malaysia. The 2nd AFOBMCIS 2019 was mainly organised by AFOB-Malaysia Chapter, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Teknologi Mara Sarawak (UiTM). The theme of the symposium was “Biotechnology for Sustainability and Social Well Being” and covers 12 technical sessions:

1. Agricultural and Food Biotechnology
2. Applied Microbiology
3. Biopharmaceutical and Medical Biotechnology
4. Biocatalysis and Protein Engineering
5. Bioprocess and Bioseparation Engineering
6. Bioenergy and Biorefinery
7. Environmental Biotechnology
8. Marine Biotechnology
9. Nanobiotechnology, Biosensors and Biochips
10. Systems and Synthetic Biotechnology
11. Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials
12. Bioindustry Promotion and Bioeducation

This symposium provided a platform for local and international scientists, academia and industries to present their current research findings, sharing ideas and opinions in various biotechnological fields. While from the Biosciences Department, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) there were 13 staff and 10 students who attended this symposium. Authors of the accepted contributions at AFOBMCIS 2019 related to bioprocessing were invited to submit manuscript under the special issue of BioProcessing Journal. Along with this symposium, a signing ceremony between AFOB-MC and Thai Society for Biotechnology (TSB) was held after the opening ceremony. Besides, a special session for a young scientist was also organized with a special award given to the poster and oral presenters. One of the best oral presenters was awarded to Mohd Redza bin Radzi, our Biosciences PhD student.

By: Madihah Binti Md Salleh