IBN's YRP students have clinched 2 Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) Awards, which were announced at the Singapore Science Center on March 11, 2010. We are pleased to congratulate Amelia Tan Li Min and Jervis Xu Yiteng, both from Victoria Junior College (Year 1) for winning the SSEF Gold Award and Merit Award, respectively.

The winner of the SSEF Gold Award, Amelia Tan, was attached to IBN from November 9, 2009 to January 8, 2010 under the mentorship of IBN Research Scientist, Dr Majad Khan. Amelia conducted research on "Cationic Based Liposomes for Gene Delivery - The Effect of Amphoteric Behaviour on In Vitro Transfection". Jervis Xu, who won the SSEF Merit Award, did his YRP research attachment from November 16, 2009 to January 8, 2010. Jervis was mentored by Dr Andrew Wan, IBN Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist, and Dr Meng Fatt Leong, IBN Postdoctoral Fellow. They guided him on his project, "Incorporation of Biological Components into Electrospun Scaffold".

The Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) is an annual national competition organized by the Ministry of Education, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Science Centre Singapore. Outstanding entries from each year's SSEF are selected to represent Singapore in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held each May. Since 2003, 31 YRP attachment students have won 26 SSEF awards with the research projects they conducted at IBN.

Download the YRP Chronicles 2003-2009 (in pdf) to find out about IBN's past SSEF Winners.

IBN is the first research institute to establish formal agreements with four schools in Singapore to develop future scientists and technopreneurs. The School of Science and Technology, Singapore, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Singapore Polytechnic and National Junior College formalized their partnerships with IBN through Memoranda of Understanding on January 22, 2010 at the 7th IBN Young Researchers' Nite in Biopolis, Singapore. IBN will cooperate with its four official partner schools to create greater awareness among their students of the impact of bioengineering and nanotechnology research through IBN's Youth Research Program (YRP) outreach events such as open houses, science camps, seminars and career talks. IBN Director and YRP Chair, Ms Noreena AbuBakar said, "We are delighted to establish official partnerships with these schools to encourage more young Singaporeans to pursue scientific research. The Memoranda of Understanding symbolize our collective commitment to nurture more scientific talents to boost the biomedical industry in Singapore."

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IBN is pleased to announce that our Youth Research Attachment (YRP) student, Toh Tai Chong, from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Biological Sciences, has been named the Singapore winner of the Student Poster Competition organized by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) on June 1, 2009. Tai Chong’s winning poster was based on his IBN research project “Osteoinductive Effects of 1a,25 Dihydroxyvitamin D3 on Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells”. During his attachment, he was supervised by IBN Research Scientists Dr Yan-Ru Lou and Dr Zhilian Yue.

The Student Poster Competition is an annual contest held by local ISPE associations and affiliates. Winners will advance to the International Student Poster Competition at the ISEP Annual Meeting, where they will stand to receive cash awards and the opportunity to publish their findings in ISPE's magazine Pharmaceutical Engineering, as well as other chapter/affiliate publications. Tai Chong is the first YRP student to win this prestigious award and he will be representing Singapore at the international ISPE conference in San Diego in November this year. We extend our heartiest congratulations to Tai Chong for his outstanding achievement.

GOLD Award:

Roderica Ng Rui Ge (National Junior College) for “Membrane Development for Application in Bioartificial Organs”
Mentor : Dr Jeremy Teo, IBN Postdoctoral Fellow.

Vijay Ramakrishnan T. (NUS High School) for “PCR Array-based analysis of the p53 Target Genes Regulated by Small Organic Molecule in p53 Mutant Liver Cancer Cell line In Vitro.”
Mentor : Dr Began Gopalan, IBN Research Scientist

SILVER Award:

Benjamin Ng Chien Wei (Dunman High) for “A Novel Approach of Engineering Functionality of Primary Hepatocytes in Three-Dimension.”
Mentor : James Hsieh Tseng Ming, IBN Senior Lab Officer

Leanne Tan Qiaojing ( Victoria Junior College) for “ Synthesis and Characterisation of Disulfide-Linked Cationic Polymers and The Effect of Amphoteric Behaviour on In Vitro Tansfection.”
Mentor : Dr Majad Khan, IBN Research Scientist

James Chin En Wai ( Raffles Junior College) for “ Sustained Release of Small Water-Soluble Drugs with Double-Walled Polymer Microspheres.”
Mentor : Dr Pemakorn Pitukmanorom, IBN Research Scientist

BRONZE Award:

Lin Wanyun (National Junior College) for “Synthetic Anti-Oxidants as Novel Candidates for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Therapy.”
Mentor : Nur-Afidah Bte Mohamed Suhaimi, IBN Lab Officer

Jocelyn Lim Li Zhen ( National Junior College) for “Bicontinuous Microemulsion-based Polymer as Artificial Cornea Scaffold that Supports Ocular Surface Reconstuction.”
Mentor : Dr Edwin Chow, IBN Team Leader and Senior Research Scientist

MERIT Award:

Yu Zijun ( Raffles Junior College) for “Reversible Phase Transfer Into and Out of Micelles and Cell Membrane.”
Mentor: Yifeng Wei, IBN Lab Officer