Two undergraduate scholars, Emilia Corbo and Renata Kucera from Flinders University of South Australia spent a month studying Social Network Analysis and Antimicrobial Peptides at the Faculty of Science, University of Malaya under the Australian New Colombo Program (NCP).
The NCP scholarship was launched by the Australian Government in 2014 to provide outstanding Australian undergraduates to get a hands-on experience of Indo-Pacific countries by various modes such as internship, mentorship, long term study. The scholarship is also an endeavour for young Australians to learn more about the host countries cultural practises as well as build their knowledge on new research ideas. It is expected that 2016 will see 5550 Australian students funded to participate in this opportunity of academic and cultural enrichment, which takes place throughout 32 host countries. The two students were also provided a honorarium for local research materials and expenses by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & InternationalisatiDatuk Prof Dr. Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud.
Ms. Emilia Corbo worked on the basic ideas of Social Network Analysis (SNA) under the supervision of Prof Kuru Ratnavelu and Dr. Kwa Kiam Heong at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. She had the opportunity to develop some skills on various aspects of mathematical properties and analysis of networks systems as well as the visualisation tool Gephi. She worked on two case studies which was completed during the month-long stint at UM. Widely applicable to multiple fields, she explored the many uses of SNA from bibliometric analyis to improving national security strategies in the wake of terrorism. However, during her research, she has also outlined a proposal for future studies using SNA in Biomedical field.
Ms. Renata Lea Kucera was introduced to some basic concepts of peptides and its characterization using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) within an ongoing High Impact Research (HIR) Grant under Assoc Prof Dr Koshy Philip. The project was conducted using facilities of the Microbiology Division of the Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya and the central lab facilities of the HIR. Pure peptides prepared in the laboratory were used for structural investigations after fine purification using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This practical hands-on project exposes Renata to sophisticated spectroscopy, chromatography and NMR techniques to elucidate the peptides known to have significance antimicrobial activity and can develop into a new line of antibiotics.
They presented their work in a seminar at the end of their study at UM.
