Molecular Biology is one of the branch studies in biotechnology field. The study is basically research at the molecular level. This field of study is very unique because it overlaps with other combination areas mainly on biology and chemistry which we can call it genetics and biochemistry. In other words of understanding, molecular biology is the interactions between various systems of a cell, including the interactions between DNA, RNA, and protein biosynthesis as well as their regulations. There are many main techniques involved the molecular biology skills such as expression cloning, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis, macromolecule blotting, probing, and arrays as well.

In molecular biology lab, there are few projects have been set up mainly in molecular markers and gene isolation.

In molecular markers project, we are actively optimizing DNA markers protocols to develop unique barcode/s to be use in precise genotype ID’s, quality control in raw starting materials for commercial business, and also for marker assisted selection in selected chemotypes. Identification and correlation of genotype for bioactive compounds of each plants species collected from forests and fields, it is very important to have DNA barcode/s to exploit right variety to be use in further research especially in micropropagation of tissue culture plants and quality control in herbal drug preparation. We are successfully collected DNA for 688 plants accessions to be use as an ID’s for genotype identification. To further research about their bioactive compounds for commercial purposes, we are selected plants by batches according to their demand ranking in herbal industry. Figure 1 above shows DNA barcode/s for 15 accessions of Hibiscus rosa-sinensis as one of the medicinal and ornamental Malaysian plant.

In gene isolation project, we also actively isolate gene for vitamin A and vitamin E for value-added fruits. This gene will be genetically modified to enhance certain nutritional value in selected local Malaysian fruits.

BIOINFORMATIC LABORATORY

Bioinformatic is the combination of molecular biology and computer technology application which is very important application in systematic management and analysis of scientific data. Computers are being used to gather, compile, store, analyse and retrieve biological data. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area that is becomes the interface between the biological and computational sciences. The ultimate goal of bioinformatics is to uncover the wealth of biological information hidden in the mass of data and obtain a clearer insight into the fundamental biology of organisms. This new knowledge could have profound impacts on fields as varied as human health, agriculture, and biotechnology.

The bioinformatic platform, hosted at the Melaka Biotechnology Corporation in Melaka, Malaysia aims at development of database covering on laboratory information management system (LIMS), development of new bioinformatic tools, analysing, storing, retrieving and organizing scientific data coming from internal projects and research partners. The platform has been created from the molecular biology unit through DNA Marker project which is fully funded by Melaka State Government of Malaysia worth RM 120,000. There are four phase in the platform which is called phase 1 (system definition), phase 2 (system design), phase 3 (system implementation), and phase 4 (system testing). Phase 1 and phase 2 are already completed; while phase 3 is still going on to populate all the data into the respective system. All 4 phase are included in stage 1 for this bioinformatic project.

While bioinformatic stage 2 will be the extension from the current stage 1 project. The stage 2 project will cover the data mining integration between the existing data and relevant databases to identify and create commercially viable knowledgebase using high performance computing. Both applications are called Xmeld and MP2/Quascade. This stage also will include the major public domain database in a databank appliance to the system.