Across all of our faculties, we’ve created a remarkable habit of winning presentation awards at national and international conferences.
The latest accolade belongs to School of Biological Sciences senior lecturer Ms Hemalatha Murugaiah, who grabbed the Best Oral Presentation Award at the Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Growth Triangle (IMTGT) Bioscience Conference 2025.
Organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia, the conference was attended by participants from Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Egypt’s Cairo University, Nigeria’s Umunze Anambra State University and Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Thailand’s Prince of Songkla University, Taiwan’s National Sun Yat-Sen University and Japan’s Kyoto University.
Her award came in the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology topic for a presentation titled “Elucidating the antibacterial mechanism of silver nanoparticles using in vitro and in vivo approaches.”
Bacteria are everywhere—some are harmless, but others, like Staphylococcus aureus (commonly known as S. aureus), can cause serious infections. Worse, many bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, making infections harder to treat.
That’s where silver nanoparticles come in. These are tiny particles of silver, known for their powerful antibacterial properties. But while we know they work, scientists are still uncovering exactly how they kill bacteria.
Hemalatha’s research focuses on understanding how silver nanoparticles destroy S. aureus by using in-vitro lab experiments to observe how the nanoparticles interact with bacteria under controlled conditions, while the computer simulations (in silico models) predict their effects at the molecular level.
By combining these two approaches, she was able to reveal how silver nanoparticles damage bacterial cells, disrupt their functions, and ultimately kill them effectively.
This is her second award after she won the Best Young Research Forum Presentation award at the Global Biotechnology Conference in 2021.
Kudos to Ms Hemalatha and the faculty for yet another impressive accolade!
