The Malaysia Local Chapter: Chapter News 2021
With the world in the midst of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysia Local Chapter (MyCRS) has organised a series of virtual seminars to replace the in-person seminar in an effort to help members to connect and continue exchange expertise in delivery sciences. Since end of 2020, four virtual seminar series were conducted via the Zoom platform. In December 2020, Assoc. Prof. Midhat Nabil Ahmad Salimi and Dr. Dimitrios Lamprou (UK and Ireland CRS) shared their latest research on the Shifting Paradigm of Drug Delivery Technologies of COVID-19. On the 25th February 2021, Dr. Malinda Salim (Australia CRS), Assoc. Prof. Mahendran Sekar and Dr. Rosnani Hasham spoke on the emerging delivery systems for natural products. Dr Fu Ju Yen, Assoc. Prof. Ana Melero (Spain-Portuguese CRS) and Prof. Banciu Manuela (Spain-Portuguese CRS) were invited to share their thoughts on the latest of liposomal technology. Last August, Prof. Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin, Prof. Vandana Patravale (Vice President, India CRS) and Dr Farid Nazer Faruqu gave talks on nanomedicine and its emerging opportunities and challenges. This was an excellent line-up of speakers, and the virtual attendance of participants for each seminar was about 70. Most attendees for these seminar were academics and postgraduate students. In an effort to connect with the global CRS community, MyCRS included speakers from another local chapters in each seminar. In this year alone, we have involved speakers from CRS Local Chapters of UK-Ireland, Spain-Portugal, India and Australia.
Recently, MyCRS has formed a small crew under its wing called the Young Scientist Taskforce (YST), which is currently lead by a postgraduate student, Ms Geetha Maniam. The YST serves as a networking platform for young researchers in Malaysia. The team also leads and manages projects hosted by MyCRS. Early this year, a special career talk was organised for young researchers together with a MyCRS Virtual Seminar. In June, there was a Young Scientist Coffee Talk that provided an opportunity for the postgraduate students to connect and support each other amidst the pandemic. YST will also be hosting an exciting postgraduate seminar at the end of this year.
In an effort to recognise contributions of young scientists in Malaysia, Dr Goh Choon Fu is named as the recipient of the MyCRS Young Scientist Award 2021. Dr Goh, a young lecturer who has just begun his academic career at University Sains Malaysia, is an aspiring scientist in the field of topical and transdermal drug delivery and formulation, focusing on the biomaterial development from renewable biomass. His work on cellulose hydrogels fabricated from durian rinds, a non-woody biomass, earned him a place to speak at the 2021 CRS VAM Young Scientist session recently.
Last but not least, MyCRS is happy to announce that we have a twitter account (@CRSMalaysia)! In addition to Facebook, we hope to make better connections with the Local Chapters and CRS researchers via social media in view of the pandemic situation.
Connect with MyCRS now at:
Website: www.crsmalaysia.com
Email: crsmalaysia.info@gmail.com
Facebook: crsmalaysialocalchapter
Twitter: @CRSMalaysia
