On 12th April 2021, by invitation of the Office of Assistant Vice Chancellor Innovation and Enterprise (OAVCIE), the Department of Scientific Service (DSS), Ministry of Health visited the UBD Biosensors, Nanobiotechnology and Halal Science Laboratory of the Faculty of Science (FOS) to establish possible collaboration between UBD, FOS and DSS. Attending the visit from DSS were their Chief Scientific Officer Hjh Hasinahwati binti Hj Hanafi, Chief Scientific Officer Nur Nisrinah binti Hj Awang Yusof, Scientific Officer Dr Hjh Noorhasifah binti Awang Hj Tengah, Scientific Officer Nadiah binti Hj Amidon, and Scientific Officer Norkhuzaifah binti Kassim. The team from UBD were led by Prof Dr Mohd Ayub Sadiq @ Lin Naing (Assistant Vice Chancellor of Innovation & Enterprise), Pg Dr Emeroylariffion Abas (Director of OAVCIE), Assoc Prof Dr Lim Lee Hoon (Dean of FOS), Assoc Prof Dr Minhaz Uddin Ahmed (Principal Investigator and Lead Researcher), Dr Noor Faizah Mohd Naim, and a few other OAVCIE staff. Dr Minhaz and Dr Faizah briefed the visitors about past, ongoing, and future projects of the group during the meeting. This was followed by a tour around the laboratory where several students were able to showcase their research projects to the visitors to help them gain a deeper appreciation of the different projects carried out by members of the group. As of today, the group has published more than sixty research articles based on projects planned and executed in UBD, and several patents have been filed at the US and Brunei patent offices.

 

Chitra P. Kurup, a Ph.D. student in the lab, demonstrated how she used nanomaterial-modified disposable screen-printed electrodes in her electrochemiluminescence aptasensor project to detect a serum-based biomarker. Another Ph.D. student, Hong Pei Shyang, described how she created a disposable electrochemiluminescence immunosensor based on gold-printed electrodes and nanomaterials to detect allergens. Nur Areena Chin, an M.Sc. student in the lab spoke about her work that utilizes quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect bacterial strains from various food samples. Arifah, a final-year B.Sc. student shared the idea of her project that employs qPCR to detect porcine DNA from food samples, while Rayidah, another B.Sc. student, explained how she designed an immunosensor to detect porcine gelatine using carbon biochips and nanomaterials.

 

 

 

Students presenting their research projects to visitors from MOH-DSS.

 

 

Group photo of representatives from UBD OAVCIE, researchers from the Biosensor, Nanobiotechnology and Halal Science Laboratory and visitors from MOH-DSS.