UNIVERSITAS AIRLANGGA NEWS – Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) sent its best student to an international conference, “Asia Young Scholar Summit”. The student is Novia Faridatus Sholihah. Not only as a participant, Novia also had the opportunity to become a speaker and present her paper at Tianjin University, China.
Novia Faridatus Sholihah, or known as Nova, won the best paper award at the conference. The paper she presented was entitled Development of Folic Acid Based Carbon Nanodots for Sypnotical Staining Agent of Hela Tumor Cell .
“The paper I presented was the result of the mini research that I did when I worked on my thesis,” said the student who is active in Student Creativity Program (PKM) activity managed by Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (Kemenristek Dikti).
In the research conducted, Nova analyzed the ability of folic acid as the basic ingredient of carbon nanodots for bioimaging agents in cancer cells.
“The study results from the characterization test and in vitro tests have shown that folic acid site in carbon nanodots for the pyrolysis method can facilitate absorption of intracellular folic acid through endocytosis mediated by receptors. So, it can be applied as a candidate for a bioimaging agent, “Nova explained.
The achievement made by Nova could not be separated from the supervision of FST UNAIR lecturers. There were two supervisors supported Nova, Mochamad Zakki Fahmi, S. Si, M.Si., Ph.D and Satya Candra Wibawa Sakti, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Nova’s struggle to become the best paper in the international conference was not easy. As a student who is working on her thesis, she has to manage to get funding and manage the time to carry out research during her busy schedule.
Getting a best paper award was a memorable achievement for Nova, especially when she was one of the three best paper winners out of 32 delegates coming from well-known universities in Indonesia such as University of Indonesia (UI) and Gadjah Mada University (UGM). (*)