{"id":6784,"date":"2012-10-08T03:59:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T03:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/?page_id=6784"},"modified":"2015-05-11T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T04:00:11","slug":"article-on-ukm-rd-in-readers-digest-frontiers-of-knowledge-supplement-september-2012","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/archive\/year-2012\/october-2012\/article-on-ukm-rd-in-readers-digest-frontiers-of-knowledge-supplement-september-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Article on UKM R&#038;D in Reader&#8217;s Digest Frontiers of Knowledge Supplement, September 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main \"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">0<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ukm.my%2Fnews%2Farchive%2Fyear-2012%2Foctober-2012%2Farticle-on-ukm-rd-in-readers-digest-frontiers-of-knowledge-supplement-september-2012%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/?p=6784&amp;via=https:\/\/twitter.com\/ukmtwit\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-toggle-container\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"newsitem_tools\">\n<div class=\"newsitem_info\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span class=\"createdate\">MONDAY, 08 OCTOBER 2012 11:54<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"newsitem_text\">\n<div class=\"news_item_article\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"border\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus2012\/ReaderDigest1.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Reader&#8217;s Digest Frontiers of Knowledge Supplement, September 2012<br \/>\nUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Research at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is marked by an audacious quest to constantly push boundaries and the recognition that strength follows from focus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to excel in all fields, so we build niche areas in which we can attain a leadership position,\u201d says Prof. Dato\u2019 Dr Rahmah Mohamed, a molecular biologist and deputy vice chancellor of research and innovation. \u201cWe align our research to national priorities and global challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">UKM has eight niche areas: nation building, regional sustainable development, renewable energy, health technology and medicine, climate change; nanotechnology and advanced materials, biodiversity for biotechnology development, and content-based informatics. These niche areas embrace 24 research clusters, 189 research groups and 2000 academics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe stand out through our multi-disciplinary approach \u2013 we harness expertise from various disciplines and address research challenges in a holistic manner,\u201d notes Rahmah.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">UKM ranks 98th on the 2012 Times Higher Education list of Top Universities Under 50 Years and is the only Malaysian university to place in the 2012 QS Top 50 Universities Under 50 Years. It stands 58th in the overall 2012 QS Asian University Rankings.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prof. Dr Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his research into eradicating poverty through microcredit to Bangladesh\u2019s poor, is Laureate-in-Residence and provides mentoring to faculty and students.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThese achievements reflect the enormous progress we have made in our 42 years,\u201d says Rahmah. \u201cTwenty years ago, we were known primarily as an undergraduate university; today our researchers attract substantial funding from national sources as well as from abroad, including Europe, Japan and the US.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">UKM\u2019s innovative approach to learning includes its seven Living Lab research stations where projects aim to conserve biodiversity and local communities, explains Rahmah. Sites include the Bangi Permanent Forest Reserve at UKM\u2019s doorstep, Mersing Marine Park in Johor, Fraser\u2019s Hill, the Langkawi Geopark and Tasik Chini in Pahang, Malaysia\u2019s second largest freshwater wetland and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">UKM has a number of specialist projects which further raise its profile in the international arena.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"border\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus2012\/ReaderDigest2.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"border\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Campus2012\/ReaderDigest3.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n\u201cReplacing fossil fuels with renewable sources like solar energy is imperative as we battle pollution and global warming,\u201d explains Prof. Dato\u2019 Dr Kamaruzzaman Sopian, director of the Solar Energy Research Institute, which has a sophisticated research park to study ways to increase the efficiency of solar energy collection and transmission.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In tissue engineering, researchers will soon conduct the first clinical trial of Kulitku, a breakthrough construct to treat skin injuries such as those caused by major accidents and burns. Traditional skin grafts risk infection and scarring, and may not be advisable for patients with significant skin damage or weak healing abilities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWith this new approach, we take a small piece of skin from a healthy part of the patient\u2019s body, engineer a piece of skin some 30 times larger, then graft it on to the wound,\u201d explains Dr Ruszymah bt Hj Idrus, a professor of human physiology who leads the project. \u201cThis method provides a full-thickness skin and eliminates the risk of immune system rejection and cross contamination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Also on the health technology front, UKM\u2019s genome sequence research in collaboration with the Malaysia Genome Institute and the University of Sheffield of the UK has identified the toxic protein present in Burkholderia pseudomallei, the bacterium that causes the tropical infectious disease meliodosis, which has claimed the lives of several Malaysians working in wet muddy areas in recent years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cNow that the toxin is identified, it may be possible to fight this deadly disease more effectively,\u201d says Rahmah, who heads the Malaysian research team. \u201cThis finding shows how applying modern tools in tandem with skills in genomics, molecular biology and biochemistry can provide new insights into a disease.\u201d<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/images\/stories\/Icon\/ukmnewsportal.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MONDAY, 08 OCTOBER 2012 11:54 Reader&#8217;s Digest Frontiers of Knowledge Supplement, September 2012 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Research at Universiti Kebangsaan<a class=\"tukm-readmore\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/archive\/year-2012\/october-2012\/article-on-ukm-rd-in-readers-digest-frontiers-of-knowledge-supplement-september-2012\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6785,"parent":1296,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6784","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6784"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6787,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6784\/revisions\/6787"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}