The Young Scientists' Forum was established in 1995 as a competition for undergraduate research projects. This is to encourage students to actively pursue their research interests in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology. On its 21st year, a wise and talented set of young scientists are now included in the hall of fame. The announcement of winners happened during the closing ceremonies of the 25th FAOBMB International Conference and 43rd PSBMB Annual Convention.
First place was awarded to Mr. Arman Ali Ghodsinia of the University of the Philippines Diliman who presented his research about Finding Non-responders to Anti-EFGR Therapy: investigations on the functional sequelae of the novel PIK3CA Mutations, Q661K and C901R.
Second place was given to Ms. Mariah Mikhaela C. Chua of the same university whose topic was about The Induction of Tumor Cell Death by Combinatorial NIR-PEG-Lipidmagnetic Single-Walled CAR BON Nano Tube (SWCNT) Thermal Therapy. Both won the 2-month summer internship program in the Institute of Molecular Biology Academia Sinica.
Third place was awarded to Ms. Charlene Joyce Usacdin of the University of the Philippines Manila. She presented her work on the Antioxidant Property of NSIC RC 238 Rice Bran Extracts and its Cytotoxicity against Human Breast (MCF-7) and colon (HCT116) Cancer Cell Lines. All the winners were given tokens and cash prizes sponsored by Merck Philippines.
"We can't believe that they were just undergraduates. They presented like they are real scientists with the same caliber as that of senior scientists. Judging the competition was most difficult as all of them deserve to win"
"We can't believe that they were just undergraduates. They presented like they are real scientists with the same caliber as that of senior scientists. Judging the competition was most difficult as all of them deserve to win" Dr. Patrick Wayne of New Zealand, Chair of the panel of judges said during his short speech during awarding. The judges had a hard time determining the winners as this year's set of Young Scientists were the representatives of the Scientists of the Millenials.