By Asmahanim Amir
Pix PPUKM

KUALA LUMPUR, 16 April 2015 – Bone Metabolism, Cardiovascular and Stress Enzyme studies contributed significantly to research grants and high impact publications from the National University of Malaysia (UKM).

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Industry and Community Partnership), Prof Dr Imran Ho Abdullah said researchers should continue interacting both within and outside UKM  in the best possible manner and disseminate their research findings at the global level.

Speaking at The 2^nd International Conference on Advances in Medical Science (ICAMS) 2015 here, yesterday, Prof Imran stated that ICAMS gives ample opportunities to researchers from all institutions.

“I’m proud to say that three research groups; Bone Metabolism, Cardiovascular and Stress Enzyme contributed significantly to high impact publications from UKM,” he declared.

He stated researchers naturally know the research problem and they need a ‘contact’ to help them to get a research sample.

“For example, if we are in a dengue-declared area. We should be able address the issues with dengue because this is the main problem to us.

“So recently I think researchers from the Medical Faculty, from Economic, Social Sciences and Information Technology, the Health Ministry and the local residents should work together to get comprehensive results,” he explained.

He noted that they have to be more organised in order to be disciplined as they are looking forward towards big challenges.

 “I am sure this conference will open the door for future networking. Medical science always needs effective research for better therapeutic options,” he said.

Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor of INTI University College Prof Datuk Dr Rahmah Mohamed in her keynote address said the research results show that so-called generation ‘Z’ and ‘Y’ young people are self-starters who are very connected with social media.

“They are very connected with social media. When I study the research that I did from the survey, I feel the world is a good place. When we have leaders like you (gen Y and Z), with potential, these are the kind of researchers we look for,” she said.

Prof Rahmah, whose field of research is the genome, clarified that the genome is an organism’s complete set of genetic instructions. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build that organism and allow it to grow and develop.

“Most of you are actually familiar with DNA by reading from text books, but it has come up now as a fundamental biological molecule that changes the space of how you do cancer research, how do you develop a vaccine to attack infection disease, how do you address obesity and how do you address new molecules in the context of drugs,” she explained.

Prof Rahmah said, advances in medical research in recent decades allow mankind to live longer with improved quality of life compared to just a few generations ago.

“Key milestones in the research are genome-sequencing leading to the development of therapeutics and new drugs, and personalised medicine based an individual patient’s genetic profile,” she said.

She said in order for research to serve society effectively, we need to develop several approaches, conduct high quality research encompassing biomedicine, opportunities for international collaboration, deliver research outcomes rapidly and close engagement with society at large.

More than 100 participants from UKM and other institutions including from aboard presented their papers at the ICAMS 2015 held for three days starting April 14, 2015.