Society for Experimental Biology of Nigeria (NISEB) gets new National Executive Committee (NEC)

An election was held during the 18th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Society which held from July 1 to July 4, 2018 at , Omu Aran, Kwara State. The complete list of elected officers are as follows:

S/N Name Position Institution 1 Prof. Taiga Akpovughaye President 2 Dr. J. B. Minari Vice President 3 Dr. (Mrs) F. A. Sulaiman General Secretary 4 Dr. D. O. Adetitun Assistant General University of Ilorin Secretary 5 Dr.(Mrs) D.A. Omobrudu Financial Secretary Novena University, Delta 6 Dr. (Mrs) O. T. Kayode Treasurer Landmark University 7 Mr. U. E. Bassey P. R. O. Obong University, Akwa Ibom 8 Prof. (Mrs) E. U. Ex – Officio University of Benin Edosomwan

They are to steer the affairs of the society for the next two years with the support of the board of trustees (BOT), whose chairman is Prof. H. O.B. Oloyede, the Secretary is Prof. C.O. Bewaji and the support of all members of the society. Invitation of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to the forthcoming 2019 NISEB conference in Jalingo

The President, Prof. A. Taiga, at the 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM)/Scientific Conference/Dinner Award night of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Taraba State Branch, Jalingo; 25th July, 2018. In delivering his good will message to the association on behalf of NISEB, he informed them about the young chapter of NISEB at and the forthcoming NISEB conference to be hosted by the chapter in 2019.

He also introduced NISEB to the audience, requesting all life scientists to join NISEB and invited all members of NMA to the forthcoming NISEB conference in 2019. In attendance at the meeting were NMA members from Taraba state and North Eastern states, Pharmacists and top government officials.

Invitation of Biotechnology Society of Nigeria (BSN) members to the forthcoming 2019 NISEB conference in Jalingo

The President, Prof. A. Taiga at the 31st annual international Biotechnology conference of Biotechnology Society of Nigeria (BSN) at , Ota; 5th - 9th August, 2018. During his good will message speech on behalf of NISEB, he invited all participants to the 2019 NISEB conference to be hosted by the Vice Chancellor of Taraba State University (Prof. Vincent Tenebe) who is the current BOT Chairman of BSN

NEC Recent decisions to move the society forward

At the last two meetings of National Executive Council in July and September, 2018, the following decisions were made to move the society forward. Members are encouraged to be guided by them.

NEW EXECUTIVES’ MANIFESTO FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS.

 mobilization for good attendance at our conferences  announcing all conferences six (6) months earlier  encouraging all Journal Editors attend all annual conferences to give their annual reports at AGMs  encouraging all Journal editors to annually bring hardcopies of their journals for sale at conferences  well organized quiz competitions  well organized conferences  sanitizing our database to retain registered members only  functional rules to guide National group chat  increased revenue base for NISEB  functional quarterly bulletin  regularity of NISEB journals  visibility of NISEB website  visibility of members’ published articles on the internet

*NEC and all NISEB chapters are expected to help all future Chapter’s LOCs advertise their conferences. The LOC in turn has to make what is to be publicized; the date, venue, etc. (on posters and fliers) available on time, at least 6 months earlier. It was agreed that the PRO should contact the newly appointed coordinators in the various institutions where there are no NISEB chapter through their email addresses by providing them NISEB information such as the write up about scope of NISEB and copies of membership form with which they can invite more scientists to NISEB.

NISEB FACEBOOK PAGE The PRO was mandated to create a facebook account for NISEB. The link is here pasted https://www.facebook.com/groups/1840033292958200/permalink/1840033302958199/. All members are encouraged to visit and like the page regularly.

YOU NEED TO BE A REGISTERED NISEB MEMBER NEC at our last meeting suggest that inactive or members that are yet to registered are to be encouraged to do so by filling the membership form online at www.niseb.org or fill manually and submit through their chapters chairmen, with evidence of annual dues payment. The chapters are to forward such filled forms to the National Assistant Secretary [email protected] 08036910988; and the National Secretariat, [email protected] 08033576937, for proper registration. The entrance or membership fees should be paid directly into NISEB secretariat account and evidence of payment attached to the registration form.

Local chapters are to organize quarterly programs in their various institutions, such as seminars, workshop, scientific talks, quiz competition, etc and send reports of such activities to NEC [email protected]; [email protected] and [email protected] 08087803564, 08051505889 and 08038349822 for publication in our subsequent quarterly bulletin, the first of which will be released this September and here attached.

After the Jalingo conference, only registered members will be retained on the national NISEB whatapp platform (NEC) and National NISEB register (BOT). All comments or posts will be signed or followed by individual’s membership number. This we hope will reduce and curb erratic postings on our National platform. In the same vain, another reason we need to get properly registered is that, subsequently, only registered members on National Secretariat’s Directory can go for electoral positions in NISEB during Electoral year AGMs.

1ST NISEB QUARTERLY BULLETIN / NEWSLETTER It was agreed that we sustain the bulletin on quarterly basis, starting with this September 2018 issue. NEC members agreed to make this a reality by showing a leading example in single-handedly submitting articles for the newsletter of the September, 2018 edition. The attached newsletter is from NEC members only. It was also suggested that NEC members introduce themselves to the larger house and include their Individual pictures, so that each executive can be identified by all NISEB members, especially those that did not attend the Omu-aran conference.

2nd NISEB QUARTERLY BULLETIN / NEWSLETTER In preparation for the production of the next quarterly bulletin, all NISEB members are encouraged to submit their articles to the National Secretary and the National PRO via [email protected] and [email protected] respectively between now and 1st of December, 2018. All chapters should report their local activities as news items with pictures where possible and send them in for publication in the next bulletin.

UPDATES FROM EDITORS OF THE FOUR NISEB JOURNALS The president contacted the editors of all the four NISEB journals for information and updates of their various activities. The editors of all NISEB journals have reported that their journals are receiving manuscripts and publishing articles, though at different pace. Bioscience Research Journal was recently taken over by Prof. M. A. Belewu, he will be able to give an all-encompassing report on the journal by the next NISEB conference in Jalingo

Patronizing all NISEB Journals All Journal Editors are henceforth encouraged to attend all annual conferences to give their annual reports to the larger house at annual AGMs. In addition, they are encouraged to annually bring hardcopies of their journals for sale at conferences. This will allow members to have physical access to the editors and more money will be generated for the society and for maintenance of the journals. We propose to henceforth add hardcopies of all NISEB journals to annual conference bags at an affordable price for all members. This token will be built into the registration fees to ease money collection and remittance to the editors or to the society.

NISEB QUIZ COMPETITION Every chapter is encouraged to key into the students quiz competition arrangement, they are to liaise with the Vice President (08032488513) on the details and modalities. He will be assisted by the treasurer (08037802662). We are all expected to encourage our undergraduates, Masters and Ph.D. students to participate fully in the quiz competitions and attend annual conferences to mentor them. UPDATE ON OUR WEBSITE VISIBILITY The NISEB website www.niseb.org is up and working. www.nisebpublications.com is another website created by one of our editors. The link to that website is already in the main NISEB website. It was agreed that it is needful to link all the journals to NISEB main website and also make all four journals, charge the same page charges. The www.nisebpublication.com site can take all the four (4) NISEB journals and one of the editors; who created the site have asked other editors to hook up with him on that. On the DOI, it was agreed that all editors should get one doi for every members’ published article to make them registered and visible online, this is applicable to all the four (4) journals, this will go a long way to aid members’ promotions and online visibility. CHANGE OF ACCOUNT SIGNATORIES

Efforts are ongoing to ensure the change of signatory letter gets to the appropriate quarters for signing out of past executives and signing in the new NEC before the end of this September. This will go a long way to assist NEC to run the society effectively, exco have thus far been running the society from their personal purses.

MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE: Efforts are ongoing on the part of Prof. C. O. Bewaji and NEC to ensure that all members, who are yet to receive their membership certificate get it soonest. Members are encouraged to be patient.

Vital information from BOT Secretary to all NISEB members

Greetings from NISEB Secretariat! We are in the process of updating the information in the NISEB database. Many of our members have changes titles (from Mr. Miss or Mrs. to Dr. or Prof.) and phone numbers. Some of the phone numbers in the database are landlines which were used in the pre-mobile phones era. Please find attached the current list of members. There are some "members" who will not find their names in the list because they did not formally register as members by completing the Application Form or their forms did not get to the Secretariat. Such "members" should submit fresh forms online by visiting www.niseb.org. All members should have NISEB Membership Numbers. All members should also be up-to-date in the payment of Annual Dues. We now have the opportunity of regularizing our membership status. Annual dues for Full Members is N5,000 and for Student Members (including Youth Corpers) is N2,000, payable to the NISEB Account at First Bank, Unilorin Branch. The Account Number is 2019962382. The next NISEB Register will contain only the names of active members.

Prof. Clement Bewaji Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin, Ilorin. Kwara State. 240001, Nigeria. Tel: +234 803 357 6937; +234 805 593 4021 CONTACTS OF ALL NISEB JOURNALS’ EDITORS

Kindly find listed below the contacts of the editors of the under listed NISEB journals:

1). BIOKEMISTRI; Dr. Femi Olorunniji +447586643884 [email protected]; [email protected] femi.olorunniji@ gnisebpublications.org; [email protected]

2). AFRICAN SCIENTISTS; Prof. O. Fafioye and Prof. Dan Femi 08023372455 [email protected] [email protected] 3). BIOSCIENCE RESEARCH JOURNAL: Prof. M. A. Belewu 08035817941 [email protected]; [email protected] 4). NISEB JOURNAL: Prof. C. C. Osubor 08023697783 [email protected]

Meet your New National Executives .

The National President: PROF. AKPOVUGHAYE TAIGA

Prof. Taiga is a Professor of Botany (Mycology/Plant Pathology) at the Department of Biological Sciences, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria. He joined NISEB in 2003 and has served as NISEB chapter president at Kogi State University NISEB chapter in 2003, at National, he was Assistant Secretary, Secretary and Vice President before he was elected President at Landmark University in 2018.

Meet your New National Executives

The Secretary General : Dr. (Mrs) F. A. Sulaiman

Dr. (Mrs.) Sulaiman Faoziyat Adenike was born in Ondo town, Ondo State, Nigeria. She had her secondary school education at St. Louis Secondary School, Odosida Ondo. She had her first (B.Sc., 2002), second (M.Sc., 2006) and third degrees (Ph.D., 2012) in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin.

She joined the University of Ilorin in 2008 as an Assistant Lecturer and rose through the ranks to the post of a Senior Lecturer. She has served the university in various capacities at the Departmental level, Faculty and University wide level. She has served as a level adviser, as welfare officer, as an Exam officer, as SIWES Co-ordinator, as a Member of University convocation committee, just to mention a few. She has supervised several students' projects both at B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels. Her area of specialization is Toxicology and Parasite Biochemistry. She has additional interests in prostate and breast cancer research collaborations with the University of Florida, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics and Drug Development. She has published about 40 articles in reputable national and international journals. She is a member of some reputable national and international societies namely; NISEB, NSBMB, NIM, SAN, NEAP, ANA, and CaPtc and FAAN. She is the current public relation officer of NISEB at the local Unilorin Chapter and at the national level, she is the General Secretary. She was recently appointed the Deputy Director (Research) of Centre for Research, Development and In-house Training (CREDIT). University of Ilorin.

She is the author of several novels and other literary books, currently in use by some Primary and Secondary Schools across the country. She is a United States Fulbright Scholar Alumni (2011). She is happily married to Dr. Abdulfattah Afolabi Sulaiman and the marriage is blessed with children. BACTERIA IN YOUR GUT CAN bacteria in your intestines. While some AFFECT YOUR WEIGHT may cause disease, most of them carry out essential tasks to keep you healthy. By Dr. D. O. Adetitun For example, your gut bacteria produce Your body contains trillions of bacteria. certain vitamins, including vitamin K, The majority of these bacteria are and communicate with your immune located in your intestines. Gut bacteria system to help your body fight off play several important roles in your infection. They also influence how you health, such as communicating with digest certain foods and produce your immune system and producing chemicals that help make you feel full. certain vitamins. Your gut bacteria can Therefore, your gut bacteria may also affect how different foods are influence your weight. digested and produce chemicals that help make you feel full. As a result, They Affect How Your Food Is they can affect your weight. This article Digested explains how your gut bacteria affect Since your gut bacteria line your your weight and what foods promote intestines, they come into contact with healthy gut bacteria growth. the food you eat. This may affect what nutrients you absorb and how energy is stored in your body. One study What Are Gut Bacteria? examined the gut bacteria in 77 pairs of twins, one of whom was obese and one of whom was not. The study found that those who were obese had different gut bacteria than their non-obese twins. In particular, obesity was associated with lower gut bacteria diversity, meaning there were fewer types of bacteria in the gut.

Trillions of bacteria and A recent study found that the ratio of microorganisms live on your skin and two types of bacteria in your intestines in your body. In fact, there are likely may determine how much weight you more bacterial cells in your body than lose when given a particular diet. These human cells. It is estimated that in a two bacteria are Prevotella, which 154-pound (70-kg) man, there are digests fiber and carbohydrates, around 40 trillion bacterial cells and and Bacteroidetes, which people who only 30 trillion human cells. Most of eat more animal protein and fat have these bacteria live in a part of your more of. In this study, 62 people were large intestine called the cecum. There given a high-fiber, whole grain diet for are hundreds of different types of 26 weeks. Those who had more Prevotella in their intestines lost They Produce Chemicals That Help 5.1 pounds (2.3 kg) more body fat than You Feel Hungry or Full those with more Bacteroidetes in their Your body produces a number of intestines. Your gut bacteria also digest different hormones that affect your certain antioxidants found in plants appetite, including leptin, ghrelin, known as flavonoids, which may help peptide YY (PYY). Some studies have prevent weight gain. Finally, your gut shown that different bacteria in the gut bacteria can influence how dietary fats can affect how much of these hormones are absorbed in the intestines, which are produced and whether you feel may affect how fat is stored in the hungry or full. Short-chain fatty body. acids are chemicals that are produced They Affect Inflammation when certain species of gut bacteria Inflammation occurs when your body break down fiber. One of these is activates your immune system to fight known as propionate. One study in 60 infection. It can also be caused by overweight adults found that taking an unhealthy diet. For example, a diet propionate for 24 weeks significantly containing too much fat, sugar or increased levels of the hormones PYY calories can lead to elevated and GLP-1, both of which influence inflammatory chemicals in the hunger. People who took propionate bloodstream and fat tissue, which may also had reduced food intake and contribute to weight gain. Your gut reduced weight gain. bacteria play an important role in inflammation. Some species produce The Best and Worst Foods for Your chemicals like lipopolysaccharide Gut Bacteria (LPS), which cause inflammation when A number of different foods are good for gut bacteria, including Whole they pass into the blood. grains, Fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, polyphenol-rich foods, Studies in mice have found fermented foods, probiotics, eating that Akkermansia can reduce weight some foods in excess may harm gut gain and insulin resistance by reducing your bacteria, including sugary foods, inflammation. Similarly, when mice artificial sweeteners, foods containing were fed prebiotic fibers to help unhealthy fats. increase Bifidobacteria in the gut, weight gain and insulin resistance Culled from decreased without affecting energy https://www.healthline.com/nutrition intake. This is a relatively new area of /gut-bacteria-and-weight#section6 research. Therefore, it is still not clear how gut bacteria affect inflammation and weight in humans. Meet your New National Executives

Ex Officio, Professor (Mrs.) Evelyn Uwa Edosomwan

Professor (Mrs.) Evelyn Uwa Edosomwan is a Professor of Parasitology in the Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. She is currently the Director, Centre for Gender Studies, and member, Governing Council of the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. Prof. (Mrs.) E. U. Edosomwan who is a well sought after speaker has authored over 40 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and presented over 40 scientific papers at both national and international conferences, symposia and workshops. She possesses excellent leadership skills which has enabled her to serve meritoriously in over 30 committees in the University. She tak