A*STAR and MOE jointly organised the Local Student Attachment Programme from 23 November to 23 December last year. Two of our Biology students, Julia Loh Jie Min (0902) and Na Yi Ting (0901) successfully completed the programme. Both of them were attached to the Bioprocessing Technology Institute's Stem Cell Lab 1 and investigated the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into cardiomyocytes. They were mentored by Dr. Steve Oh, Dr. Marti Lecina and Mr. Sherwin Ting. The experience has inspired Julia and Yi Ting to be even more interested in the field of stem cell research and both of them aspire to be researchers in future.

"Learning to use the state-of-the-art equipment in the laboratory and analyzing experimental results were indeed tedious and mind-boogling at times. However, the programme was beneficial as I was able to gain experiences and new knowledge that are not taught in school."
- Julia

"The programme taught us to persevere as we often faced many obstacles whilst conducting our experiments at BTI. It also took us to a whole new level of understanding of Biology and changed my perception of what research is about."
- Yi Ting