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
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