Malaysian ‘Cina Babi’ (Chinese Pig) achieves medical breakthrough

Malaysian ‘Cina Babi’ (Chinese Pig) achieves medical breakthrough

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) and The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) have featured that a 25-year-old Malaysian Chinese may have just solved the superbug problem.

Scientists in Australia this week took a quantum leap in the war on superbugs, developing a chain of star-shaped polymer molecules that can destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria without hurting healthy cells.

And the star of the show is Shu Lam, a Malaysian-Chinese PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, who has developed the polymer chain in the course of her thesis research in antimicrobials and superbugs.

What No News Is Bad News is curious about is whether Shu Lam has any plans to return to Malaysia after earning her Doctorate. Readers, what do you think?
Does Shu Lam want to return to a country that has racial and religious bigots, including politicians from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), who roam freely calling Malaysian-born Chinese as Cina Babi (Chinese Pigs), and also yelling Balik Tongsan (Go Back To China) wherever and whenever they wish.

Is it any wonder that Malaysia today is suffering from a brain drain crisis, losing all its talented individuals to foreign countries?

Here’s the SCMP and SMH stories:

"The 25-year-old Malaysian Chinese who may have just solved the superbug problem

PUBLISHED : Friday, 16 September, 2016, 5:33pm

UPDATED : Friday, 16 September, 2016, 10:41pm

She is all of 25 and may have already made one of the most significant discoveries of our time.

Scientists in Australia this week took a quantum leap in the war on superbugs, developing a chain of star-shaped polymer molecules that can destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria without hurting healthy cells. And the star of the show is 25-year-old Shu Lam, a Malaysian-Chinese PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, who has developed the polymer chain in the course of her thesis research in antimicrobials and superbugs.

A polymer is a large molecule composed of several similar subunits bonded together. Polymers can be used to attack superbugs physically, unlike antibiotics that attempt to kill these bugs chemically and killing nearby healthy cells in the process.

“I’ve spent the past three and a half years researching polymers and looking at how they can be used to kill antibiotic resistant bacteria,” or superbugs, she told This Week in Asia, adding the star-shaped polymers work by tearing into the surface membrane of the bacteria, triggering the cell to kill itself.

'Superbugs' could cost US$100 trillion and millions of lives globally by 2050

Using the polymer, bacteria doesn’t exhibit the same resistance as it does to antibiotics and can still be killed after multiple generations of mutations, Lam’s PhD supervisor Professor Greg Qiao said.

“The components of the polymer can also be tweaked differently depending on the application,” said Qiao, who also leads the Polymer Science Group and is a professor of macromolecular chemistry and engineering at the university’s School of Engineering.

The World Health Organisation lists superbugs as a key threat to human health, having adapted to become resistant to all forms of antibiotics. The UN General Assembly has called a meeting this month to address the superbug explosion.


“We think superbugs will cause around 10 million deaths per year by 2050,” Lam said.

Lam’s breakthrough with Qiao on polymers has been published in the research journal Nature Microbiology.

However, Lam’s research is still in early stages, according to Qiao, and much more work needs to be done to verify the best formula and structure, as well as to reduce the dosage and further test toxicity before the substance is completely safe for the human cell.

“Even with all the money in the world, it would take at least five years to go to the first human test, because many resources and work are needed for its commercialisation,” he said.

Lam is to submit her PhD thesis in two months and says she hopes to continue to work in research, rather than opt for medical training like her father, who is a paediatrician.

Doctors alarmed as nightmare superbug, resistant to every antibiotic, is found in first US patient

“I think my career will be mainly focused on research in the medical field,” said Lam, who has already begun pursuing her passion in polymer research during her four-year undergraduate degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering.

“As an undergraduate, she would come to our group for summer work when she had time,” Qiao recalled of Lam.

These days when Lam finds the rare downtime between researching polymers, she likes to watch TV and explore the city. “Being in Melbourne, I have developed an interest in food and really like exploring new cafes and brunch places, so I spend a lot of time trying new food and walking around when I’m not working,” Lam said.

Lam moved to Australia for her foundation studies after finishing primary and secondary school in Malaysia, and is likely stay on in Australia after graduating at the end of the year.

“My main preference would be to continue to stay in research, but I am also looking at career fields outside of polymer research,” she said. “This research is going in different directions,” said Qiao. “One is killing the bug, the other is treating cancer.”

That sinking feeling: ‘superbugs’ may be multiplying in China’s tap water due to world-low hygiene standards, scientists say

Her group is also examining the use of polymers as a drug carrier for cancer patients as well as the treatment of other diseases.

A key project at the moment is the synthetic transplant of cornea in the eye, which involves the use of polymers grown from the patient’s own cells in the lab to replace the damaged cornea.
The operation has already been tested multiple times successfully on sheep, and Qiao hopes to begin the first human trials in Melbourne within two years, working with the Melbourne Eye and Ear Hospital. - South China Morning Post"

"SEPTEMBER 13 2016
Beyond antibiotics: star-shaped protein kills feared superbug

It's a promising step into a post-antibiotic world.

A PhD student at Melbourne University has developed a star-shaped protein that can rip apart the walls of resistant superbugs – and kill them.

Shu Lam, 24, has had her research published today in the prestigiousNature Microbiology journal.

Bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, evolving into feared "superbugs" that threaten to kill millions of people a year.
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In the US, the Food Drug Administration is pulling anti-bacterial soaps off the market for fear that they are exacerbating antibiotic resistance in some bacteria.

"Our project is to build better alternatives to antibiotics," Ms Lam told Fairfax Media.

Ms Lam and her team from the Melbourne University School of Engineering designed a star-shaped polymerised peptide – which is a large repeated chain of proteins.

"It kills bacteria in multiple ways," Ms Lam said. "We designed it to break the cell wall apart but we also found it can trigger the cell to kill itself."

Professor Greg Jiao is Shu Lam's PhD supervisor. Photo: Supplied

Ms Lam and the team have given their polymers the perhaps not-so-snappy acronym SNAPPs: structurally nanoengineered antimicrobial peptide polymers.

A peptide is a short chain of amino acids. Scientists have experimented previously with antimicrobial peptides but have found that while they kill bacteria, they are also hugely toxic to the hosts.
The star-shaped peptide polymers - chains of amino acids - have been designed with 16 or 32 arms. Photo: University of Melbourne

Ms Lam has designed her protein chains in star shapes with 16 or 32 arms that are about 10 nanometres in diameter, much larger than other antimicrobial peptides.

Professor Greg Qiao is Ms Lam's supervisor. He said that what is novel in her design is that their relatively large size means it doesn't seem to affect the healthy cells around the bacteria.

A bacterium cell before (left) and after being treated by the star-shaped polymers. Photo: University of Melbourne

"With this polymerised peptide we are talking the difference in scale between a mouse and an elephant," he said. "The large peptide molecules can't enter the [healthy] cells."

Ms Lam and her team tested six different superbugs in vitro, meaning outside a living body. They found that the star-shaped peptide polymer killed the bacteria and did not damage red-blood cells in the in vitro environment.
Shu Lam has developed a star-shaped protein that can rip apart the walls of resistant superbugs – and kill them. Photo: Supplied

They also tested the efficacy of the polymer in vivo, inside mice, against one type of superbug bacteria. That bacteria,Acinetobacter baumannii, was killed and the researchers "did not observe any resistance acquisition by A. baumannii".

Associate Professor Cyrille Boyer, at the University of NSW, said it was very promising research but warned its use was still a long way from clinical application.

"The main advantage seems to be they can kill bacteria more effectively and selectively" than other peptides, said Associate Professor Boyer, who is not associated with the research.

Professor Qiao said one of the next steps is to look at how different shapes, such as rings, will work against the superbugs. He also said there will need to be a lot more in vivo research to explore the limits of their toxicity.

However, first signs are promising. The tests undertaken on red blood cells in vitro showed a low toxicity threat. - The Sydney Morning Herald"