Medical Writing

Another promising career for us science graduates involve the art of writing.
Our speaker of the day, Ms Anne, made it clear to us as to what a medical writer does.

I feel that medical writers will have a good job prospect in the near future in Malaysia--What with the increasing number of research based academic institutions which rely on publications to better their school rankings and credibility.
I just met a friend of mine who's currently pursuing her postgraduate studies at a local university and she felt the pressure of school work mounting up as the university required her to publish a paper in a scientific journal every semester!
I was surprised by the high demand of work put on the shoulders of graduate students right now and I wondered about the issue of the quality of the research findings and whether they were really worth publication or not.

It came down to the same old question: Quality or Quantity; Which is better?
Sometimes you really want both, but all the time you only get one.

But, with the increasing demand for publications, comes in the role of medical writers who are there to help researches write-up their results to make it available to public.

One of the important point stressed by Ms Anne was that a scientific paper should be written in a way so that the layman could understand. the easier the language, the better.
You know you've done a good job if your grandmother understands your paper.

Although I have never found a science paper that could be easily understood by your average joe with no science background, i feel that it is important to make a science journal simple and straight to the point.

Protect your ideas.

Since taking a class on intellectual property, IP and patent laws in my final year, I have had a keen interest in the field. Therefore I looked forward on the module in the program.
I have to agree with Prof that one day is not enough to look in-depth at the topic in hand.
She had to speed through her slides because of time limitation.
In my opinion, it would have been more fun if we did a case study on a certain product/drug's history in IP or patent application and apply it to the current laws available.

It was interesting to know that a career in patent drafting pays well; Prof said one could earn up to RM 10K a month just by drafting patents. There's even a postgraduate course offered by UKM, ( a Masters in IP) which if completed, will qualify one to draft after passing the professional exams required.

Overall, it was a good introduction to the field. I do hope Malaysian researches realize the importance of protecting their IP because you don't want all your hardwork's worth fall into someone else's hands, like the case of Tongkat Ali IP rights that are now owned by the US. Like seriously?

Site visit Report to Stellagen Sdn. Bhd.

Stellagen Sdn. Bhd. is a Bionexus status company located in an industrial park in Gombak, Selangor. The company was established in 2002 and is lead by Dato Khairi, the Chief Executive Officer. Mr Helmy, the Chief Operational Officer hosted our visit last Wednesday and introduced us to three of his colleagues who run the two-storey factory with him- Mr Othman, a Biotechnologist, Mr Azim and Mr Hafiz, their Operation Executives. Their collaborators include chicken farmers from across the country as well as researchers from leading local and foreign universities. They primarily supply their product to the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia-namely Singapore and Johor.

Their product, Stellarlac is a probiotic for chickens that was produced as a result of 15 years worth of research by UPM students and scientists. Stellarlac is a safe alternative to the Antibiotic Growth Promoters (AGPs) or hormones usually injected into chicken to quicken their growth and to avoid infection by harmful bacteria. However, the use of these antibiotics are dangerous to humans because of the residues left in the poultry meat. By feeding chickens with Stellarlac, the use of antibiotics can be eliminated and the growth of chicken can be induced naturally, since, the mix of bacterial strains present in their product are isolated from healthy chickens themselves. Four out of eleven strains in Stellarlac are Lactobacillus strains, therefore, the reason of “lac” being part of the product’s name. Besides probiotics for chickens, Stellagen is also looking into the production of their very own Stella Chicken, which are farm-raised chicken that are fed with Stellarlac. We were told that the second product of the company will hit the market two months from now.

Stellagen is equipped with one of each 1000 litres(L), 100L and 70L bioreactors, used for the production of Stellarlac. Besides that, two industrial centrifuges are also part of the production plant. They also own a freeze-dryer which is combined with a technology from Germany to freeze-dry their product for optimal production. In addition, they have built a wet lab for media preparation and culturing on the second floor of the building which is installed with state-of-the art equipments. A production cycle would take one whole week to complete and would yield around 70 kilograms worth of Stellarlac powder.

Innobio, another Bionexus company located in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan was visited by the other half of the class. It is a different company as compared to Stellagen because Innobio is a contract manufacturing company, which provides a list of services to clients from the upstream to downstream processes involved in producing a product. Upstream processes includes from the development of cell lines and downstream processes offered are the biomanufacturing of a client’s product at their state-of-the-art facillity in Nilai. They specialize in mamallian cell culture and have a facility equipped for the production of biopharmaceuticals. Innobio also offers trainings to their clients as well as contract research which involves the transfer of technology from their customers and the verification of processing methods at a smaller-scale before being optimized for large-scale production. Therefore, Innobio’s product is actual the services they offer while Stellagen has a tangible product being Stellarlac. Both companies are receiving funds from Biotechcorp, hence the Bionexus status for each. In addition, Innobio is also getting government help primarily from the Ministry of Finance while Stellagen initially got their grants from Small and Medium Enterprises(SME). While both companies were initiated in 2002, Innobio has a larger number of employees as compared to Stellarlac. This is mainly because of the wide range of services offered by Innobio, which then require a larger workforce and expertise while Stellagen already has a focus, which is on the production of Stellarlac.
I predict a bright future for Stellagen in the next 10 years provided they are able to expand their clientele during that time. I feel that they have a reliable product in hand, in addition to the optimal production processes that they have patented. However, they must be extremely careful with the bacterial strain mix ingredients; Since naturally occurring bacterial strains cannot be patented, any party is open to use the recipe, if made available to public. I was not highly impressed with their processes because it was a rather simple process that could be duplicated easily by competitors in the future. Although they remain, for now, the only company in the market producing probiotics for chickens, I feel that they need to fully utilize more molecular methods in their production processes to make them stand-out more. A possible technology they could use is to insert their readily available Lactobacillus strains with genes for optimal chicken growth. This will then produce a genetically-modified organism that is unique to their company and can be patented. This would take more years in research but if executed properly, would result in positive growth for the company. It is important that they spend some time and money on educating, not only the farmers about the hazardous effects of AGPs but also among consumers themselves. Consequently, consumers would be more cautious about the choice of chicken they buy and demand for the probiotic-fed chickens. Once demands for this type of chicken is high, the demand for Stellarlac would also increase. In addition, it is crucial for them to continue studies and clinical trials on chickens pertaining to the benefits of Stellarlac as opposed to conventional methods. These findings should be made available for the farmer’s and consumers readings to further convince them of the importance of Stellarlac.
I have learned a lot from the site visit to Stellagen since the knowledge I have before on industrial scale production of bioproducts are mainly theoretical. It was interesting to see and understand how the production plant works in the process. I was proud as a Malaysian to see such good progress and technological advancements in a local company like Stellagen. I really hope that the company could fulfill their dreams of expanding internally as well as internationally so that their company can grow, at the same time contribute to our countries economical growth. I will be on the look-out for their second product, Stella Chicken in supermarkets and will support them by buying their product. I wish them all the best in the future.

Do you have what it takes?

I was inspired by Prof Dr Barjoyai, our speaker of 4 days under the innovation and creative thinking module.
First of all, he's jam packed with valuable information, second, he's super smart and third, he never fails to attract our attention by his fun class activities. His calm nature also adds to his coolness.
I actually missed the first day of his lecture, so I missed his background info.
But I was told that he's an adjunct professor at 7 local universities, owns his own business and was also a Harvard graduate! Impressive, no?

Some of the highlights of his lecture that I found interesting are the ways in which to generate ideas about a certain something; make it a new product or idea.
I was attracted the most to the random juxtaposition method where in our case, our products are force-related to a random word that is found on a random page in a dictionary.

To those unfamiliar with this method, you may think, how is this possible?
What if you get the freakiest combination like yogurt and coal tar?
how will you be able to relate the two most opposite objects in the whole wide world?

the answer is to identify each of the products features and then connect the two from there. Let me give you an example, some features of coal tar include being a black liquid with high viscosity.When we read more about it, we found that coal tar is also used in to treat dandruff. Therefore, we can come up with the idea of a Yogurt based anti-dandruff shampoo.

Picture just for illustration purpose.

We also had the chance to test our cooking skills by making nasi beriyani using just plastic containers and a microwave. The idea was to compare these two plastic containers Prof Barjoyai brought in; one was a microwave safe rice cooker which looked like a plastic version of a pressure cooker while the other container was just regular plastic tupperware. We wanted to see what was so special about the first container that made it possible for the manufacturer to mark up it's price to 8 pounds while the regular would've costed merely a pound. In the end, we found both containers could cook beriyani equally well in the microwave for about 20 minutes.

The container on the left is regular tupperware while on the right is the £8 plastic container.
The final product.
Mari makan!

Brains gone wild

last Tuesday was our final presentation day for the communication module.
I have to say I was quite impressed with everyone's presentation skills and final product that they came up with.
There was the compost bin and compost solution/mix from futura tech, artificial petroleum from pecah mental, feastic from bioself and phyto-mix yogurt from my group, E.cool--just to name a few.

I noticed that there were a whole lot of products that used waste as their raw material- which made me think, if one day, all those products were realized, the price of a tonne of garbage would sky-rocket, because of it's high demand.

I started to imagine a world where manufacturers would fight over the possession of a mountain full of garbage and wow, what a clean world it would be!

I digress.

It was an interesting event, our finale presentation. It made me reminisce about my uni days where we had to present our work and participate in academic discussions.
It made me miss school and the academic setting it provided.
I've tried to keep those memories buried momentarily while looking for a career unrelated to academia, but this day sparked those thoughts alive ones more and made me question myself.

I digress yet again.

But there you go, one month in just a blink of an eye.
Everyone deserves a pat on their back for their great work so far.
I couldn't agree more with the trainers choice for the trainee with the best potential- Yassin totally deserved it! Congratulations mister!

Neuro-what?

I'm going to be honest; I have never heard of Neuro-Linguistic Programmin (NLP) before in my life and have no idea what it's all about, except that it might have something to do with communication because of the "linguistic" in NLP and also because it's part of our communication module. taken from http://www.itanlp.com/images/NLPdiag.gif

The thing I remember the most from NLP is the activity where we tested which sensory system we react the most accurately with.
We divided ourselves into groups of 3 and tested each member on somatic sensation(touch), sound and visual sensors.
For somatic sensation, the test involved the member to close their eyes and identify the individual who is touching their hands.
For sound, the other two group members had to make a unique distinctive sound eg by clapping, and the member who is being tested had to identify who was making the sound with their eyes closed.
Lastly, the visual sensors were tested by changing the appearance of another member of the group after letting the tested individual view their initial appearance. Changes include moving a watch from one arm to the other or exchange of shoes or pins etc2.

You'd be surprised on how much you can get from such simple activities.
I found out that I'm more inclined to the somatic sensation sensory than the other two.
If you want to know what type of sensory you are, grab 2 friends and try the activity.
You'll be pleasantly surprised with the outcome!

Fourty?Ten can ahh??

When you shop down at Petaling street, do you just agree with the sellers price tag?

I know I don't.
I negotiate.
I beat them up until they give me the best price.

Negotiation skills are not only important to save some extra bills in your wallet, but also when trying to persuade your parents to extend your curfew or even to get a raise from your boss.

So, how do you be good at it?

First, identify the problem and digest it.
Then, make sure you're aware of the consequences of your requests.
Be certain you have a plan B-something to fall back on to, or what the experts call BATNA(Best alternative to a negotiated agreement) if your negotiation fails.
Avoid emotions or personal problems when on the business table.
Be professional.
Lay down the options clearly, and know your things well.
Finally, come to a consensus agreement, which should be the best option available.

Serious things aside, I had a lot of fun being the lead guitarist of Ribut band.hehe
Man, we rocked so hard, I think we actually cracked the ceiling.
Too bad our awesome lead singer has decided to leave us.
We're going to miss you dude.


When we were younger. Bandmates for life!

But you know what, it's quite a good deal that we agreed to;
50% from the profit of our albums sales and also free use of the studio.
Not bad.
We were some Rockstars with killer negotiating skills weren't we?haha

Thanks Mr Hisyam for making the topic so much more interesting.