PKM as a form of implementation of the Three Pillars of Higher Education launched by the Directorate General of Diktiristek in 2022 under the management of Belmawa, is an effort to foster, accommodate, and realize students' creative and innovative ideas. PKM has an impact on improving student achievement and higher education achievement in the ranking of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology.

In an effort to accommodate the development of students' creative and innovative ideas, PKM continues to be developed and refined so that students are able to anticipate, understand and even contribute to realizing the goals of world life launched by the United Nations in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015-2030. PKM is also designed to adopt digital technology that has permeated almost all aspects of life.

In 2023, 42,368 PKM proposals were submitted, and only 5,102 proposals received funding. Two of these proposals were proposals from the PKM Karsa Cipta Team from the USU Faculty of Medicine. One of the teams raised the title “50 bp DNA Marker with PCR-based 50-1000 bp DNA fragments sourced from Human DNA.”

The team was led by Putri Chalya Firjatu and consisted of Muhammad Ilmam Bariqi, Bayu Harly Putra, and Nurhazlin. All four are from the Medical Education Study Program. This activity will provide a functional product output in the form of a 50 bp DNA Marker. Indonesia does not yet have a DNA Marker that is produced independently. It is hoped that this activity will produce the first DNA marker made in Indonesia, shorten the delivery time, and make the price more economical. In addition, there are also social media outputs such as Instagram, which contains educational content and updates on the development of activities, using the username @dnamarker.id.

The USU Faculty of Medicine Team's participation in PKM began in 2022. “That year, we participated in PKM Exact Research, and thank God we got funding. Our PKM struggle only reached PKP 2 because it did not qualify for PIMNAS. This year, we tried again to participate in PKM activities and thank God we got funding again. The PKM scheme we chose is PKM Karsa Cipta with the title “50 bp DNA Marker with PCR-based 50-1000 bp DNA Fragments Sourced from Human DNA”. Please pray that we can continue the struggle to PIMNAS and get the best results,” said Putri.

Putri further said that during medical school, they studied basic biomedicine in the Basic Biomedical Sciences (BBS) block. Many things were learned, one of which was about DNA.

“The new knowledge we gained about DNA made us interested in clinical implementation related to DNA. However, one surprising fact that we learned from the lecturer was that the DNA Ladder / DNA Marker used to determine the amplified DNA and plays an important role in the PCR process until now still depends on foreign production. This raises a big question mark for us, is Indonesia unable to produce its own DNA Marker? Moving from this curiosity, we gathered information related to the manufacture of DNA Markers and were guided by competent lecturers. We finally decided to make an innovation in making 50bp DNA Markers on 50-1000bp fragments and apply for funding in the PKM selection,” said Putri.

After obtaining funding, Putri and the team immediately prepared tools and materials to start the activity. The output of this activity is a 50 bp DNA Marker. Currently, the process has reached 45%. This product is expected to be used functionally after the activity is completed.

The PKM FK USU team personally also has impressive achievements. Putri Chalya Firjatu has won the title of USU's Outstanding Undergraduate Student 1 in 2023, Outstanding Undergraduate Student 3 LLDIKTI Region 1 in 2023, and 2nd place in the National Essay Hi-Festa Universitas Udayana 2022. Meanwhile, Muhammad Ilmam Bariqi won 1st place in the Scientific Essay of the North Sumatra-Aceh Nephrology Association 2022, 1st place in the Musculoskeletal branch of Pema Medical Olympiad 2023, and 3rd place in the Scientific Poster at SPORA University Sriwijaya 2022. Bayu Harly Putra was a Finalist in the Scientific Poster Competition of the 2022 Second Annual Scientific Meeting of the Indonesian Medical Herbal Discipline Association, a recipient of 2022 PKM-KC funding, and 1st place in the 2022 National Student Innovation Competition. (RJ)

Author: Renny Julia - PR Staff

Interviewee: Putri Chalya Firjatu - Student

Photographer: Special - Special