Mr. Marcus receiving the prize

Our PhD student, Mr. Marcus Chee Jenn Yang, has emerged as the first prize winner in the Biotechnology category at an International Conference on Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. The conference was held at Connexion@Nexus, Bangsar South City, Kuala Lumpur from 9 – 11 March 2016 and jointly organized by the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. His winning poster entitled “Transformation of Capsicum frutescens with vanillin synthase gene for the production of vanillin” showed the successful introduction of vanillin producing gene from vanilla plant to a capsicum species which is easier to be manipulated in tissue culture and with shorter life cycle compare to vanilla plants. As a result, significant higher content of vanillin can be obtained in the callus culture of Capsicum frutescens. Mr. Marcus is currently under the supervision of Dr Chin Chiew Foan, Dr Grantley Lycett and Dr Khoo Teng Jin.