AbdalRahim F. A. Aisha

A Lil Bit About Me:

Abdalrahim was born and grew up in small village near Nablus city of Palestine. His Bachelor’s degree was in Medical Laboratory Analysis in 1997 and his Master’s degree was in Biological Sciences in 2002 and both were obtained from An Najah National University of Palestine. He was working six years from 2002 to 2008 as a teacher in governmental section in Palestine. Since June 2008 he is enrolled in PhD programme at Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM. His research area is cancer therapeutics from natural products and especially from medicinal plants. His principal goal is to find a potent and coast effective anticancer drug from medicinal plants. He realized that a researcher life is his life and so he devoted most of his time for his research. He likes cooking especially Barbeque. Here he enjoys the beautiful nature of Malaysia with his beloved wife and his daughters Marah and Jana.

Research interests:

I'm interested in studying the anti-angiogenic activity of low molecular weight natural products for the treatment of different kinds of cancer. Besides that, I’m also want to explore the potential of natural products that I selected as anti-androgens and anti-estrogens for the treatment of both prostrate and breast cancers respectively.

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Nahdzatul Syima Binti Muslim

 A Lil Bit About Me:

Syima was born in Alor Star, Kedah in 8th of May 1985; where her family was living back then, before they moved to Kulim due to her mother and father’s work. She happily enjoyed her small town life in Kulim until she completed her high school days in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Badlishah, Kulim in 2002. Then she continued to study Industrial Chemistry (Diploma) in Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis (a small state, yet a great place for cheap but yummy delicacies, lots of places to tour in with unique culture blending in and not to mention the chance to cross the border to Thailand!) until she graduated in September 2006. She went to study for bachelor degree in Applied Chemistry in Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam (the capital of Selangor with attracting shopping malls, near to KL, Klang, pricey food though) until she graduated in November 2008. Currently she’s a M.Sc student under the supervision of Dr. Amin Malik Shah Abdul Majid and her work involves bacterial work in which she is keen to study the expression of IFN – α in E. coli strains. The production of interferons shall be upscaled using our own 3-L biofermentor. The medium to be used will also be replaced with non – animal based medium. Previously during her undergraduates’ days, Syima had experiences of working with HPLC for her final year thesis. Apart from that, she also had experiences of working with AAS, UV-Vis and GC. Syima enjoys gardening around her family house, playing with her cats, playing games, watching movies and listening to music to fill in her free time. Syima is now residing in Seberang Jaya, Pulau Pinang with her family.


Research Interest:

I’m interested in expressing interferon – α using E. coli as the host and cloning the protein so that greater amount of the protein can be produced using a biofermentor. In order to do so, we need to setup the most suitable operating conditions, so that to ensure highest yield and purity of protein can be achieved. The media that will be used in the study will also be replaced with non – animal based media. In this study, interferons is the proteins of interest because interferons generally have the potential of anti – viral, anti – tumor and immunomodulatory activities, which in turn will enables them to be used as therapeutic agents (Nagamine et al, 2009). For these reasons, we are interested in expressing the stated protein, so that if we are capable to produce the product in greater amount, it might have potential to be combined with other kind of drugs to serve as therapeutic agents. We are also interested in optimizing the operating conditions of the biofermentor since it affect cell cultivation performance, and also gene expression. The knowledge of the biofermentor can then be applied in cultivating other types of cells in future.

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Muath Hekmat Helal

A Lil Bit About Me :

Muath was born and grew up in small village surrounded by olive and orange trees named Qalqilia, Palestine. He graduated form Pharmacy school from the An-Najah National university in 2007. He joined Pharmacology department at Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2007 under the supervision of Dr. Amin Malik Shah Abdul Majid. During his master work, he had to work with different techniques and machines such as spectroscopy, cytotoxicity, and angiogenesis. He was more interested furthering his studies, therefore he proceeded with his master directly after graduation. He was awarded a scholarship from Malaysian Government during his Master studies. His research area is in Cancer pharmacology and focused on DNA and DNA-binding agents for treatment. Here, he lives happily in lovely-flat nearby in Penang.

Research Interest:

I am interested in studying DNA binding compounds. My main purpose for these is cancer treatment, but keeping in mind viral treatment as well. For the past several decades DNA has been the main target for cancer treatment. Unfortunately, these compounds tend to cause side effects including cancer. The main reason for causing side effects is the lack of sequence selectivity. These compounds do not have the ability to discriminate between DNA sequences. I am interested in studying the mechanism of how these compounds tend to bind with DNA in order to modify or synthesis new compounds that would have better sequence specificity. I am also interested in gene therapy as a potential cancer treatment method. Although peptide compounds might have better selectivity, it is known to have some difficulties in administering the products to human body.

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Nozlena Binti Abdul Samad

A Lil Bit About Me:

Nozlena Binti Abdul Samad was born on August 8 in Penang , Malaysia.She is the youngest child in a family of three. She happily lived in Bayan Lepas,Penang until finishing her High School.She had her early education at Sungai Ara Primary School and her secondary education (high school) at the Sungai Ara Secondary School.She did her Diploma in Science, Uitm in year 2004, Malaysia and received her BSc (Hons) in Biohealth from UM, Malaysia in year 2007. Currently she is registered to receive her Master degree from Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, USM. The title of her research is “Anti-angiogenic properties of Labisia pumila and its components”. Her research is being supervised by Dr Gurjeet Kaur a/p Chatar Singh (AMDI), Dr Amin Malik Shah Abd Majid (School of Pharmaceutical Sciences) and Dr Tan Mei Lan (AMDI ), Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her research area is in molecular pharmacology. Topics of M.Sc , posters and as well as her oral presentation , reflect her work and involvement in various techniques and machine handling such as angiogenesis , basic cell culture, media preparation, culturing techniques , cell maintenance, cytotoxicity , apoptosis and spectroscopy machine (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy,Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy). She was a recipient of the Academic Staff Training Scheme (ASTS) Scholarship.