Four second year medical students from the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia recently completed a research project on drug discovery at the Research Center of Volgograd State Medical University, Russia as part of their elective attachment. This project in July 2019 was part of UiTM Student’s Mobility Programme which involved two weeks outbound research attachment with an international partner university. The students were under the supervision of Associate Professor Dr Igor Iezhitsa from UiTM and Dr. Victor Sirotenko, a renowned expert in the field of Hemostasis and Thrombosis Pharmacology from Russia.
Muhammad Amir Aizat MohdZamri, Norazlyn Azlan, Natasya Roslin and Nur Syafiqah Ahmad Syahril admitted that this attachment was a great opportunity for them to acquire knowledge and familiarize themselves with the methodology of drug development and pharmacological screening of potential antiplatelet agents. It was a once in a lifetime chance offered for them to be able to participate in daily research activities in Volgograd State Medical University, Russia.
After completing this project, and once they returned, they presented a poster entitled ‘Drug Screening of Potential Antiplatelet Agents among Benzimidazole Derivatives’ at faculty level. “The main aim of our study was to find new antiplatelet drug candidates, where a total of 6 benzimidazoles based compounds were screened. It was found that benzimidazole compounds DAB-31 has the most potent antiplatelet activity compared to the reference drugs, acetylsalicyclic acid and clopidogrel.” Their poster was selected as one of top three winners during the poster competition and was also selected as the “Best Elective Research Work in Lab Based Topics” category.
“Reconnect Your World beyond Boundaries”
Prepared by : Igor Iezhitsa (Dr.) UiTM
Edited by : Leny Suzana Suddin (Dr.) UiTM
Assoc. Prof Dr. Geetha Subramaniam, Fellow, InQKA, UiTM