Two young researchers from Universitas Airlangga during their doctoral studies at Kobe University received an award from their faculty last October 2015. The young researchers were Laura Navika Yamani (researcher of Institute of Tropical Disease UNAIR), and Tutik Sri Wahyuni (researchers ITD and a lecturer from UNAIR Faculty of Pharmacy).
The award was Young Investigator Award (YIA) 2015, given by Prof. Kataoka, the dean of Faculty of Medicine, Kobe University. The award itself was a part of Kobe Homecoming Day (a welcoming day for new students, alumni, and public lectures on researches). The committee of the event invited professor assistants and students to participate in it. From 32 participants of poster competition, the judges graded the works based on the most votes.
In this poster competition, Laura presented her research Ultra-deep Sequencing for Detection of Quasispecies Variants in the Major Hydrophilic Region of Hepatitis B virus in Indonesian patients, while Tutik presented her research Antiviral Activities of Medicinal Plants from Indonesia against Hepatitis C Virus. Based on the audience and judges, Laura and Tutik succeeded in winning YIA 2015.
“The award is a blessing and the fruit of my research for my doctoral degree at Graduate School of Medicine of Kobe University. I have finished my paper publication as the requirement to graduate and in this event I presented the paper in a poster,” Laura said.
Tutik felt the same way. The lecturer from Faculty of Pharmacy hoped that their achievement can attract researchers from other countries to see the research development in Indonesia. “With this award, I am more motivated to create more morks and of course this will prove that they also pay attention to researches from developing countries like Indonesia,” Tutik said.
As appreciation, both of them got certificates and ¥100,000 prize money. Tutik planned to use the money to develop her research on hepatitis C anti-virus development with Indonesian plants.
“From the ongoing research, some active compounds as anti-HCV were acquired and will be developed for other anti-viruses. The possibility to acquire other anti-viral active compounds from other plants is being studied until now,” Tutik said.
Different plan was conveyed by Laura. After winning YIA 2015, Laura will prepare for her dissertation exam held in January 2016. “My dissertation exam is likely to be in January and hopefully I will graduate in March. Besides, with 5 months left in Japan I want to enjoy it and travel to places I had wanted to visit, especially the region which has Japanese traditional houses in snow, Shirakawa Go, in the last winter before going back to Indonesia,” Laura said.
Other than YIA 2015, both of them also awarded as researches with achievements from UNAIR rector during Universitas Airlangga Open Assembly in its 61st Anniversary on November 10, 2015. (*)
