MONROE, La. — Abu Bakr Siddique, a graduate pharmacy student at the University of Louisiana Monroe, won the Thomas L. Lemke Outstanding Poster Presentation Award at the 43rd MALTO Medicinal Chemistry-Pharmacognosy Meeting-in-Miniature held May 22-24 at the University of Houston.
MALTO gathers the faculty and students from colleges of pharmacy from Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee and Oklahoma, and is an annual research conference forum where undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellows can present the results of their research in a collegiate atmosphere.
This year’s MALTO welcomed more than 70 attendees who shared their latest research in the discovery and design of synthetic compounds and natural products within the fields of medical chemistry and pharmacognosy for the treatment of cancer, inflammation, oxidative stress, and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.
Awards were given in three different categories for best podium and poster presentations.
Siddique’s winning poster presentation was a project named "Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Based Oleocanthal: A Promising Lead for the Control of C-Met-Dependent Breast Malignancies."
This was Siddique’s first-time participating in an out-of-state scientific conference while a graduate student at ULM.
“As a ULM graduate student, I am honored to be recognized with this prestigious award,” said Siddique. “I’m very optimistic this award will motivate forward my ongoing doctoral research and future career."
Beside Siddique, the project was also signed by Hassan Y. Ebrahim and Mohamed M. Mohyeldin who are coauthors of the project, while Dr. Khalid El Sayed, ULM Professor of Medicinal and Natural Products, sponsored it.
“This award is a great reflection of the high caliber of students from the ULM School of Pharmacy graduate program,” said Dr. Sayed. “The Thomas L. Lemke Outstanding Poster Presentation Award is highly competitive as our students compete with universities from all over the southeast.”
For more information about the annual meeting and the organization, visit http://www.uh.edu/pharmacy/research/malto/.