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Student Projects
This section highlights abstracts of student
projects that SIBiol and/or its members have been involved with
in various ways (e.g., project supervision, financial support,
etc.). This is in line with the Institute’s objectives of
promoting and raising awareness of biology, and biology education
and training.
Projects involving SIBiol Members
Featured here are abstracts of prize-winning
projects from programmes that SIBiol members
have been involved with:
From the SRP:
(Silver medal winner at the Singapore
Science and Engineering Fair 2006)
Transient expression of mutant and wild type forms of α-synuclein in
two different cell lines affects cell viability
Sng Weizhong Jonathan1, Koh Kai Sheng Kevin1,
Zhou Zhidong2, Lim Tit Meng2
1 SRP
Student, Raffles Junior College
2 Department of Biological Sciences, National University
of Singapore
Abstract – The pre-synaptic protein, α-synuclein,
has been associated with the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s
disease, as well as it being a major feature found in Parkinson’s
disease. The present study indicates that α-synuclein, but
not its mutants can protect CNS dopaminergic cells from the parkinsonism-inducing
drug 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP +), whereas MPP + has no
effect on non-dopaminergic neural blastoma cells. The study also
indicates that the mutants have a greater neurotoxic effect on
cells without MPP + challenge to a much larger extent then wild
type (WT) α-synuclein.
From the NRP:
(Gold medal winner at the NRP 2005 Symposium)
Biomedical Potentials of Marine Organisms from Singapore
Ong Yan Zhi 1 , Alfred Seng 1 , Peter Lee Peng Foo 2 , Tan Lik
Tong 2
1 Hwa Chong Institution (College Section)
2 National
Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
Abstract – Scientists all over the world have
been looking into marine organisms for naturally-occurring secondary
metabolites that could be developed into important therapeutic
agents. Singapore’s offshore islands boast a rich underwater
biodiversity, so there is good rationale in screening local marine
organisms for biologically active compounds. Thirteen marine organisms,
mainly sponges, were collected from two places in Singapore, St
John's Island and Raffles Marina. Organic extracts prepared
from these organisms were screened on two cancer cell lines, human
leukemic cells(MOLT-4) and human breast carcinoma cells (MCF-7).
The cytotoxicity of each extract was assessed using the MTT assay.
One marine organism, RM5, from Raffles Marina exhibited high levels
of cytotoxicity towards both cancer cell lines, which suggests
the presence of bioactive compounds that have a general killing
effect on both kinds of cancer cells. Another marine organism,
RM4, also from Raffles Marina, appeared to be much more active
on MOLT-4 cells than on MCF-7 cells, indicating the presence of
bioactive compounds that may exhibit some specificity, targeting
mainly MOLT-4 cells. In general, extracts from all the marine organisms
collected showed significant levels of cytotoxicity towards cancer
cells, a good indication that local marine organisms possess many
useful bioactive compounds waiting to be discovered. During the
course of screening the extracts for cytotoxicity, problems met
are the difficulty in collecting a large and continuous supply
of sponges for screening and the detrimental effects of such collection.
To solve this problem, DNA has been successfully extracted from
sponges and their symbiotic bacteria. We can then use this extracted
DNA for other purposes such as amplification of gene of interest.
From the Biological Science Graduate Congress:
(First prize
oral presentation winner under Cell and Molecular Biology theme)
Gene structures of two functionally diverse prothrombin activators,
trocarin D and coagulation factor X, in Tropidechis carinatus snake
Md Abu Reza1,
Sanjay Swarup1, R. Manjunatha Kini1,2
1
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore
2 Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond, Virginia, USA
Abstract – Recently
we have shown that Australian rough scaled snake, Tropidechis carinatus possesses two
parallel prothrombin activator systems. Trocarin D, a venom prothrombin
activator plays an offensive role as toxin, whereas factor X (FX)
plays role in hemostatic function. These two proteins are structurally
similar and have identical domain architecture. But, their functional
difference mandates a highly tissue-specific expression; trocarin
D is expressed ~1150 times higher in the venom gland compared to
FX expression in liver. Moreover, the expression of FX is constitutive,
whereas that of trocarin D is inducible. Therefore, it is interesting
to study the gene structure and regulation of expression of these
two closely related proteins with divergent functional roles in
snake. Here we present the complete gene structure of trocarin
D and FX from T. carinatus. Both of the genes have 8 exons
and all the exon-intron boundaries are almost at the same position.
Introns of these two genes show high identity (>85%), indicating
a recent gene duplication event. Interestingly, the promoter of
trocarin D has a big insertion of 264 bp (-29 to -293). This region
of trocarin D promoter may be responsible for high level of tissue-specific
expression.
Other Student Projects
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