A Senior Lecturer of IMU‘s Division of Applied Biomedical Science and Biotechnology (ABSB), Dr Wong Chiew Yen won the Best Poster Award for her research presentation based on a project conducted with a Medical Biotechnology final-year student, Praveen Kumaar A/L Selva Ganesa (MB1/18) and other co-researchers including two of her colleagues at IMU, Dr Kok Yih Yih and Dr Tan Boon Keat.
A total of 97 posters were submitted from various countries including United Kingdom, Poland, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia.
The conference was organised by the Malaysian Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology on a physical/virtual hybrid mode. The two-day conference addressed the current and latest advances in various biochemistry and molecular biology applications and breakthroughs. The annual gathering serves as a platform for practitioners, researchers, academicians and students to share their research findings, exchange ideas, research experiences and achievements in related fields with the prospect of fostering new partnerships, collaborations and joint projects.
Explaining more about the project, Dr Wong said, “Triclosan is a non-specific broad-spectrum antimicrobial compound commonly found in antiseptic over-the-counter household personal care and consumer products. The continuous use of these products results in discharge of the chemical into aquatic environments, causing toxic effects on non-target organisms, such as microalgae.”
“Hence, the study aimed to investigate the possible presence of non-monotonic dose response of microalgae towards triclosan at extremely low concentrations. Toxicity evaluation showed that acute exposure of triclosan was more toxic to the microalgae compared to chronic exposure. However, there was no non-monotonic dose response observed when the algal cells were exposed to extremely low concentration of triclosan.”
