LKCMedicine Brown Bag Seminar - Nanyang Technology University

LKCMedicine Brown Bag Seminar
Chaired by Dr Sreenivasulu Reddy Mogali, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University
Date:
Time:
Venue:
22 April 2015, Wednesday
1pm-2pm
Light Lunch will be available from 12.45pm onwards
School of Biological Sciences, Level B1, Classroom 8 in Quad Café (SBS-B1n-18)
60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637551
Host Defense Peptides -- Beyond Membrane Disruption
by Dr Rathi Saravanan, LKCMedicine Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dermatology and Innate Immunity
Laboratory
Host defense peptides (HDPs) are evolutionarily-conserved key elements of innate immunity. With
the growing antibiotic resistance problem, HDPs are well known for their robust anti-microbial
and cell membrane-disrupting activity. Numerous natural and engineered synthetic analogues
have been used as templates in the development of novel peptide based anti-infectives. Besides
their membrane-permeabilising properties, HDPs may also function through interactions with
various extra and intracellular targets. Recent evidences indicate that human innate immunity
expands to multiple peptide/protein-based defense systems in skin, wounds, and blood involved in
the response to injury and infection. For example, proteins involved in the coagulation cascade, an
evolutionary old and significant part of our innate immune system, have been shown to participate
in formation of multiple HDPs. This talk will address the strategies to identify new endogenous
HDPs, and the need to understand their diverse and complex biological functions, enabling
completely new uses for HDPs, such as immune-modulators, delivery vehicles and in the
generation of biocompatible biomaterials.
The Impact of eLearning in Medical Education
by Dr Monika Semwal and Dr Charoula-Konstantia Nikolaou, Research Fellows
Population Health and Living Laboratory
The 21st century health systems need to have the capacity to respond to populations’ needs, while
at the same time anticipate future scenarios to effectively plan for evolving requirements.
According to the World Health Report of 2006, 57 countries face severe shortages of healthcare
workers. The World Health Organization estimates that 2.4 million physicians, nurses and
midwives and 1.9 million health aid workers, pharmacists, technicians and auxiliary personnel are
needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. eLearning has an under-exploited
potential to support the growth of the healthcare workforce capacity in different contexts, and can
empower health workers to take charge directly of their own competency development. This
will enable them to play the full role as change agents in addressing the challenges that we
will face in the 21st century.