24 May 2004

SINGAPORE STUDENT’S NOVEL APPROACH OF GENE KNOCKDOWN IN ZEBRAFISH RESEARCH WON PRESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR AWARD

1 18-year-old Leslie Beh Yee Ming from Raffles Junior College won the best award in the Microbiology category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the United States for his novel approach to gene knockdown in the zebrafish.    Leslie’s approach offers advantages over existing methods in terms of cost and versatility and opens up new possibilities in genomic research.  Leslie worked on his project under the supervision of Dr Laszlo Orban, a senior scientist from the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory.

2 Leslie is very passionate about science and research. He said, “I would love to be a researcher specialising in developing and testing novel approaches of gene suppression in zebrafish. What I find extremely appealing about research is that you are not simply acquiring knowledge from books or other sources; you "create" and find new and exciting knowledge through the experiments you perform and the creative ideas that you come up with. Being a researcher also involves the exchange of ideas and views between colleagues and even students, making it an incredibly rewarding experience. Also, I have chosen to specialise in this field of research since two years ago because of its sheer potential and beauty of the concept. It is amazing to be able to elucidate the function of a gene by suppressing its expression.”

3 ISEF is a prestigious international science and engineering fair held in the United States. Each year between 3 and 5 million students complete science research projects in 500 ISEF-affiliated fairs from around the world and the United States, and only two individual finalists and one team project from each fair compete at the international level. It is often regarded as the “Olympics, the World Series and the World Cup of science competitions”.

4 Leslie is one of only two who won the First Award of US$3000 in the Microbiology category and he clinched the overall best award in this category as well. The winner is presented with a US$5000 scholarship and a notebook computer. Leslie’s project also won a special award given by the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

5 Joanne Ho Ming Li, also from Raffles Junior College, won the Fourth Award of US$500 in the Biochemistry category for her investigation into whether direct cell-to-cell contact is required for bone marrow stem cell differentiation. To Joanne, “the act of doing research with the purpose of finding something new to add to the current store of information about the subject, and to satisfy my curiosity is very fulfilling”. Joanne’s mentor for the research project is Dr Hanry Yu, Group Leader, Cell and Tissue Engineering at A*STAR’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) and a lecturer at the Department of Physiology at the National University of Singapore.

6 In April this year, both Leslie and Joanne won top honours at the National Science and Talent Search (NSTS) and the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF), a local fair affiliated to ISEF.  Besides representing Singapore at the ISEF in US, both Leslie and Joanne received study grants and a provisional A*STAR National Science Scholarship. Dr Richard Roberts, Nobel Laureate (in Physiology or Medicine 1993) and Chief Judge for NSTS 2004, was very impressed by the originality, independence and drive of the two students.

7 SSEF is jointly organised by the Ministry of Education, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Singapore Science Centre.

Background

8 The students that represented Singapore at the ISEF were selected from the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) held in March this year.   Besides Leslie and Joanne, a team of 3 students from Victoria Junior College also participated in ISEF with their investigation on the antioxidant potential and immunomodulating activity of the dragon plant.

9 This is the third time that Singapore is participating at the ISEF. We had participated in 2001 and 2002. In 2002, Cai Shan from Hwa Chong Junior College won the Third Award in the Medicine and Health category and Tan Chun Ghee from Raffles Junior College won the Third Award in the Chemistry category, a Special Award from the Ashtavadhani Vidwan Ambati Subbaraya Chetty (AVASC) Foundation and an Honorable Mention Award from the American Chemical Society.

10 Details on ISEF and SSEF may be obtained from the following websites:
http://www.sciserv.org/isef/
http://www.science.edu.sg/ssc/events.jsp?type=17&root=0&parent=0&cat=268