Chee Kuan Kwei

PhD Candidate

BE (Chem) Hons (University of Adelaide)

Location: Room A210 Engineering Annex
Email: ckwei@chemeng.adelaide.edu.au
Phone: + 61 8 8303 3093
FAX: + 61 8 8303 4373

Supervisors

Dr David Lewis
Prof Keith King
Prof Brett Neilan
Dr Bill Donohue

Research Topic

Theraputic Potential of Spirulina for the Treatment of HIV

Research Abstract

Spirulina is a type of cyanobacteria, which is a filamentous, spiral shaped multicellular plant. Many researchers have shown that it has a very high nutritional value. Furthermore, the natural compounds extracted from Spirulina have found to bring benefits to human health. Most recently, Spirulina has been found to produce bioactive compounds that have potential to be used as anticancer, antiHIV, antioxidant and antibacterial agents. In view of the multiple uses of Spirulina, a lot of research focus has been applied to Spirulina, which is a promising source of novel pharmaceutical compounds.

The main objective of this project is to investigate metabolism within Spirulina. Coupled with the metabolic study, the comparison of three different strains of Spirulina from different continents will be tested to determine their bioactivity against a range of viruses including HIV. In addition, the project will also identify appropriate extraction methods to isolate the bioactive compounds from Spirulina.

Interests

• Pharmaceutical, biotechnology and biochemical engineering