Annual update

September 2024

In the year following our first AGM, in September 2023, we have run several online events including two during Biology Week in October 2023. The first was a fascinating talk by Sasi Suksavate, about how the use camera traps amongst other monitoring methods have been employed to estimate tiger prey populations in certain national parks within Thailand. This is an important step for evaluating the potential for the re-introduction of tigers. The Southeast Asia branch also co-organised the 2023 Mushroom Science symposium with the Malaysian Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, which was held online over two days and attracted over one hundred participants.

In 2024 we have held a further three online events including talks about parasitic Rafflesia, cancer therapy and vascular smooth muscle micro-RNA profiling. Some of the Southeast Asia talks have already been uploaded onto the RSB YouTube channel and are available for viewing at your leisure. Our social media sub-committee have also been increasingly active this year, piloting training in the use of Canva, posting biology images from the region on LinkedIn, Instagram and Meta-Facebook. The team has also been raising awareness of biologically relevant United Nations days such as World Mosquito Day. Collectively these activities have contributed to a significant increase to our social media presence, followers and likes.

The branch committee would like to express our thanks to all the volunteers who have given their time and expertise freely to make this a productive and fruitful year.

Dr Alex Waller CBiol FRSB

Watch the inaugural Southeast Asia branch lecture

30 May 2023

Dr Ivan Yow Ying Ming MRSB, research scientist, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS) delivers a talk on how cell death promotes proliferation of neighbouring cells to maintain tissue integrity.