UM Faculty of Health Sciences hosts the science outreach activity ‘The Pursuit of Research’
To enhance Macao secondary school students’ interest in and understanding of health sciences, the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) of the University of Macau (UM) held the ninth session of its science outreach activity, ‘The Pursuit of Research’. About 40 students from seven local secondary schools participated, gaining hands-on research experience and discovering the excitement of scientific research.
Lei Chon Lok, assistant professor in FHS, gave a welcome address to students from Colégio Diocesano de São José (5ª), Instituto Salesiano, Kao Yip Middle School, Sheng Kung Hui Choi Kou School Macau, Escola Estrela do Mar, the Affiliated School of the University of Macau, and Saint Paul School Macau. He gave the students an overview of FHS’s academic offerings and research achievements. He noted that the faculty encourages undergraduates to engage in research projects from their first year to stimulate their innovation. The faculty also designs tailored science outreach activities that provide secondary school students with hands-on research experience and early exposure to scientific inquiry.
Led by Park Jung Woo, senior instructor in FHS and operation manager of the faculty’s Proteomics, Metabolomics and Drug Development Core, the participants toured several laboratories to gain a deeper understanding of cutting-edge research in health sciences. Under the guidance of faculty technicians and current students, the participants conducted a range of experiments in biomedical sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, and bioinformatics, acquiring experimental techniques and research experience.
Lo Hou In, a student from Colégio Diocesano de São José (5ª), said that it was his first visit to UM’s laboratories and he was particularly impressed by the advanced research equipment and the Animal Research Core. Through hands-on experiments, he learned that bioinformatics is crucial to biological studies as it makes significant contribution to genetic research and disease treatment through the integration of computational methods and big data.
Chio Weng U, a student from the Affiliated School of the University of Macau, said that in a bioinformatics experiment, she analysed the same gene sequence from different species to infer the evolutionary relationships between species. The experiment made her understand that bioinformatics requires not only the data interpretation skills of biologists, but also the tools of engineers and mathematicians to analyse and interpret the data.
Ng Weng San, a student from Saint Paul School Macau, shared her experience of making arbutin cream. She said that each step—from raw materials to formulating and adjusting the cream—provided her with invaluable experience. ‘The most challenging part was controlling the mixing ratio. Under the instructor’s guidance and after repeated trials, we succeeded in producing an arbutin cream with good moisturising effects. This experiment sparked my interest in pharmaceutical sciences,’ she said.
