Dr. Bill Cheng wins poster prize at Global Young Scientists Summit.
Dr. Bill Cheng, a postdoctoral researcher from the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), has won one of the Top 5 Poster Awards at this year’s Global Young Scientists Summit (GYSS), which took place 15 - 20 January 2017 at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Dr. Cheng’s poster, titled “Biomimicking Platelet-Monocyte Interactions as a Novel Targeting Strategy for Heart Healing”, was chosen for the award by a panel of judges that consists of Nobel Prize Laureates and Millennium Technology Prize Winners.
GYSS is an annual meeting that gathers young scientists and researchers under age of 35 from all over the world. It is a multi-disciplinary summit, covering topics ranging from chemistry, physics, medicine, mathematics, computer science and engineering. Speakers invited to are globally recognised scientific leaders, who are recipients of the Nobel Prize, Fields Medal, Millennium Technology Prize, Turing Award and IEEE Medal of Honour.
At the Summit, Dr. Cheng has learned that many Nobel Prize Laureates are concerned about disconnections between general public and scientists. Many Nobel Prize Laureates feel scientists need to do more in promoting science; otherwise people will never appreciate all the hard work that scientists have put in. Dr. Cheng feel although the current research environment in Taiwan is not at its best, he hopes this award would encourages young Taiwanese scientists and researchers to continue thrive in research.
Dr. Cheng’s postdoctoral research focuses on developing a novel drug delivery system for heart targeting. Currently there is no effect treatment for patients with myocardial infarction (MI), due to low efficacy of the administered drugs. Since platelets are known to bind to circulating monocytes that are recruited to the heart of patients with MI, Dr. Cheng developed a nanocarrier that mimicked platelet interactions for monocytes. Thus, the recruited monocytes act like “shuttle buses” carrying the nanocarriers directly to the heart, which significantly improve the therapeutic effect of drugs encapsulated in the nanocarriers. The study is published in Advanced Healthcare Materials 5: 2686–2697.