UNAIR NEWS – Dr. Alexander Patera Nugraha, drg., M.Imun has showed the quality of the teaching staff at Faculty of Dental Medicine (FKG) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR). FKG young lecturer has won 1 st Place in Poster Presentation Young Investigator Award 2021 in an international conference on Saturday, March 20, 2021.
In 18 th International Virtual Conference of Asia Pacific Association of Surgical Tissue Bank (APASTB), Dr. Sandro, presented a research on Gingival Medicinal Signaling Cells Secretome Effect in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Bone Resorption Murine Model and gained interests from the three judges, who are from Indonesia, Japan and the Netherlands.
Through this piece, Dr. Sandro attempted to explore the residual production of the metabolic mesenchymal stem cells in the gingiva or gums. As a result, Dr. Sandro found that the remaining production of stem cells that was cultured was able to release good compounds that could be used as therapeutic drugs.
“This research is a continuation of my dissertation’ results which initially only focused on gingival stem cells. So instead of being thrown away and stopping at basic research, I explored the metabolic residue of stem cells and finally found this potential, ” explained the researcher at National Research (PRN) FKG UNAIR Porous Dental Implant Development.
Asked about the motivation for his participation, Dr. Sandro said that initially he just wanted to use his spare time. “But apart from that, the obligation of lecturers and researchers is to spread knowledge. And I think the international conference yesterday was a valuable event to disseminate dentistry studies that have not been explored much, “said the lecturer named in 210 top UNAIR 2020 Google Scholars researchers.
There are challenges during preparation made for the conference, from the initial research during a pandemic, Dr. Sandro also feel limited due to the social restriction policy for the entire UNAIR academic community.
“Many laboratories have to queue, research logistics are hampered, and mobility was difficult. Thankfully, I was finally able to complete the research at the UNAIR Stem Cell Research and Development Center at Campus C, “said the young lecturer who was named the Best Graduate from Doctoral Program in FK UNAIR for March 2021 period.
Moreover, Dr. Sandro also experienced difficulties because he had to adapt to technology for the conference, which was one hundred percent held online. Dr. Sandro finally tried to make the most of the features in PowerPoint and Zoom for his poster presentation which was limited to two to three minutes.
The struggle of Dr. Sandro paid off with the achievement of first winner defeating other national and international participants from Europe, Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, to Timor Leste. Furthermore, Dr. Sandro also managed to outperform participants from various other disciplines such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and life sciences.
With this achievements, Dr. Sandro wants to convey an important message about the publication and downstream research efforts. He sees that there are many fields of dental and oral medicine that have not been explored and have great potential to be promoted in national and international events.
“Don’t let the research stop at your desk. Spread it through publications, downstreaming, and conferences. Hopefully, in the future, we will be more productive and spread benefits, especially when FKG and UNAIR themselves have provided qualified facilities to accelerate our research, “he said.
The international conference itself is one of the largest annual events on the study of biomaterials and tissue engineering related to stem cells, scaffolds, and growth factors. It was a collaboration of Tissue Bank Dr. Soetomo with the Faculty of Medicine (FK) UNAIR, this event presented participants from various knowledge clusters from the Asia-Pacific to European regions. (*)
Author: Intang Arifia
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
