Stem Cells on Molecular Perspective: A National Seminar/Workshop
A two-day national seminar and hands-on workshop on stem cells at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, on 28 and 29 April 2015, supported by Prima Nexus together with Bio-Rad.
· Workshop · Supported by Prima Nexus
About the programme
The National Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence for Research and Learning (NOCERAL) and the Tissue Engineering Group at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, organised the programme in the Datin Ragayah Lecture Hall, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. It was planned for students and scientists in biomedical science, life science and medicine who wanted to learn how stem cells are regulated at the molecular and cellular level, and how they are applied.
The course faculty were Tunku Kamarul Zaman, Shankar Esaki Muthu, Murali Malliga Raman and Gopal Kaliappan of Universiti Malaya; Cheong Soon Keng and Choo Kong Bung of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman; Rajesh Ramasamy of Universiti Putra Malaysia; and Ray Ong of Bio-Rad, Singapore.
What the programme covered
The first day was a seminar. The programme set out morning talks on stem cells from the clinical and tissue engineering side, stem cell therapy for regenerative medicine, induced pluripotent stem cells, and microRNA control of the cell cycle in stem cells. The afternoon talks covered how stem cells sense mechanical forces as they grow and differentiate, how mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) affect the immune response, and high-throughput molecular and proteomics tools for studying biological pathways.
The second day was a hands-on workshop. It opened with an introduction to where MSCs come from and how they are isolated and characterised, followed by hands-on training in isolating mononuclear cells and a demonstration of their typical features. The afternoon moved to gene expression: making cDNA, setting up samples on a PCR screening panel, running real-time PCR and analysing the results. The day also introduced droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) for gene expression studies.
Prima Nexus's part
Prima Nexus supported the programme together with Bio-Rad. Today, stem cell and organoid research is one of the eight core research domains Prima Nexus coordinates for researchers, as set out on its research capabilities page.
More of our work with UM, UTAR, UPM.
About Prima Nexus
Prima Nexus Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian research coordination group founded in 2014. It runs hands-on training for researchers across Malaysia and eight scientific platforms under one roof: proteomics (including ELISA and Luminex multiplex immunoassays), genomics, flow cytometry, stem cell research, animal research, clinical trials, bioinformatics, and regulatory and grant support. More about Prima Nexus.
