Dal Shabet, MediaCorp artistes to add shine to NTU Fest 2015

Dal Shabet, MediaCorp artistes to add shine to NTU Fest 2015

K-pop girl group Dal Shabet will perform at a free concert held on Aug 29 at the Marina Bay Promontory, as part of the Nanyang Technological University’s NTU Fest 2015, an event which marks the start of NTU’s new academic year.

NTU Fest is also part of the university’s celebration of the Singapore's Golden Jubilee.

“University life holds our best memories of school, especially when we attend live concerts and have fun together. We’re very excited to be in Singapore performing for such a meaningful event and we will do our best to put up a good show for all our fans here. We hope everyone will come and support NTU Fest!” said Dal Shabet in a media release on Tuesday (Jul 21).



Sealed With A Kiss cast members (from left) Jeffrey Xu, Rebecca Lim and Elvin Ng are heading for NTU Fest 2015 on Aug 29. (Photo: Channel 8)

Over a dozen MediaCorp artistes, such as the stars of upcoming Channel 8 drama Sealed With A Kiss, Elvin Ng, Rebecca Lim and Jeffrey Xu, will also take to the stage at the event. Nat Ho, Eswari Gunasagar, Elfaeza Ul Haq along with other cast members of Channel 5’s 199-episode drama Tanglin will make an appearance at NTU Fest 2015 as well.

“Music and performance have the power to bring people across generations and communities together, and we are delighted to support the NTU Fest through the participation of our artistes and personalities.

"This is also an opportunity for us to support NTU students in a major initiative they are running. We’re truly impressed by their ideas, energy and drive to put together a great event for the community in a very special year for the nation," said Mr Lai Mun Dart, Head, Youth Segment, MediaCorp. MediaCorp is a Platinum Media Partner of NTU Fest 2015.



Tanglin cast members (from left) Eswari Gunasagar, Nat Ho and Elfaeza Ul Haq will make a special appearance at NTU Fest 2015 on Aug 29. (Photo: Channel 5)

Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education and Chairman of the Singapore50 (SG50) Steering Committee, will kick off the evening concert by performing a National Day song, with the finalists of this year’s The Final 1 televised singing competition.

Apart from the evening concert, which will be hosted by 987FM radio deejays Gerald Koh and Joakim Gomez, there will also be a carnival and a charity run at NTU Fest 2015.

This is the second year that NTU Fest is being organised. Last year’s NTU Fest at the Padang, which featured Running Man’s Kang Gary, Korean singer Jung In and a slew of MediaCorp artistes, drew more than 8,000 people.

~News courtesy of Channel News Asia~

Anti-malaria drugs could treat Parkinson's disease

Anti-malaria drugs could treat Parkinson's disease: NTU scientists

Two anti-malaria drugs have been found to be a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease by scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.

The multi-year research project was a partnership between Associate Professor Yoon Ho Sup from NTU’s School of Biological Sciences and Professor Kwang-Soo Kim from McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

According to a news release by NTU on Thursday (Jul 16), the team of international scientists discovered that activating Nurr1, a class of proteins found in the brain, protects the brain’s ability to generate dopamine neurons. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that affects motor control and movement of muscles in the body.

Parkinson’s disease disrupts the production of dopamine neurons and progressively causes the loss of motor control.

In laboratory tests, the scientists found that by activating Nurr1, the rats which had Parkinson’s disease appeared to improve in their behaviour and showed no signs of suffering from the disease, said NTU.

Assoc Prof Yoon said the team had screened about 1,000 FDA-approved drugs before they found two anti-malaria drugs which worked - Chloroquine and Amodiaquine.

“Our discovery brings hope for the millions of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, as the drugs that we have found to have worked in the laboratory tests have already been used to treat malaria in patients for decades,” said Assoc Prof Yoon, an expert in drug discovery and design.

“Our research also shows that existing drugs can be repurposed to treat other diseases and once several potential drugs are found, we can redesign them to be more effective in combating their targeted diseases while reducing the side effects,” he added.

Prof Kim, a leading expert in Parkinson’s disease, said the current golden standard of treatment is to replenish the patients’ dopamine levels through medication or by using a surgical method to do deep brain stimulation using electric currents.

“However, these pharmacological and surgical treatments address the patient’s symptoms, such as to improve mobility functions in the early stages of the disease, but the treatments cannot slow down or stop the disease process,” Prof Kim explained.

The scientists aim to design better drugs for the disease by modifying Chloroquine and Amodiaquine. They also aim to carry out clinical trials with these modified drugs.

Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative conditions in Singapore. It affects three out of every 1,000 people aged 50 years and above, according to the news release.

~News courtesy of Channel News Asia~

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