19 March 2008

March 19, 2008 - 18-year old Ms Xin-Zi Tang co-authored a paper entitled “The Actomyosin Ring Recruits Early Secretory Compartments to the Division Site in Fission Yeast” in the March issue of Molecular Biology of the Cell, with her supervisors Mr Aleksandar Vjestica and Dr Snezhana Oliferenko.

Xin-Zi was a former participant of REAP (REsearch Attachment Program), which is a program jointly organized by Singapore’s Ministry of Education, National University of Singapore and TLL to stimulate interest in life sciences among junior college students and encourage them to pursue a career in life sciences. Conducted at TLL once a year, REAP placement provides students with hands-on training, exposing them to the research environment and gives the students an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with scientists.

During her two and a half months stint at TLL, Xin-Zi was attached to the Cell Dynamics Group and was supervised by PhD student Aleksandar Vjestica and Principal Investigator Dr Snezhana Oliferenko. Her contribution to the Molecular Biology of the Cell paper is from research work investigating the secretory machinery in dividing fission yeast cells that she performed during her REAP attachment.

Aleksandar Vjestica, was very impressed with her enthusiasm and attitude towards research. "Xin-Zi proved herself to be not only talented but hard-working and devoted to science. She asks thoughtful questions and thinks deeply about the subject of research. Personally, it was a great experience for me to share my work with someone, and especially, someone so good".

Dr Snezhana Oliferenko, added, "It was so rewarding to have Xin-Zi in the lab during her REAP project that we happily welcomed her back for three more months this spring. Xin-Zi has big future ahead of her and I wish her all the best as she transits from school to adult life".

Xin-Zi just completed her studies at Raffles Junior College last year, and achieved a score of 5As and a distinction for H3 (Molecular Genetics module at NUS) for her A levels examination.

When asked about her future plans, Xin-Zi said “I find research quite exciting, particularly working with micro-organisms. Therefore, I hope to do my undergraduate studies in Cell and Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins University. It’ll be nice if I could pursue research work related to viruses in the future.”.

Congratulations Xin-Zi and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors!