February 2023
Prof. Dr. Jennifer Ann Harikrishna (Universiti Malaya)
“Malaysian mangrove microbes for crop protection”
Originally from the UK, Prof. Dr. Jennifer Ann Harikrishna completed her BSc in Microbiology at the University of Surrey, U.K. then was awarded a Whitbread Scholarship to pursue her doctoral thesis in molecular genetics at Cranfield University, U.K. for which she was awarded Chancellors Gold Medal for the most outstanding graduate student of the year in 1990. After post-doctoral fellowships at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF), and in Malaysia, she held positions at TropBio Research Sdn. Bhd., University Putra Malaysia and the Malaysia University of Science and Technology. Prof. Jenni is currently the Director of the Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture (CEBAR) at the University of Malaya and holds a joint appointment as a Professor in the Genetics Programme under the Faculty of Science at the University of Malaya. Prof. Jenni also holds a current appointment as an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology at the University of Leicester, UK.
Dr. Krystle Angelique A. Santiago (Monash University Malaysia)
“The role of metabolomics in plant-microbe interaction”
Krystle earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in microbiology from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. She then worked in the industry (brewery) for two years in 2011 and taught courses in applied microbiology from 2013 to 2016. After her 5 years of work experience in both academia and industry, she pursued her PhD at Monash University Malaysia, where she worked on the diversity and metabolomic profiles of lichens and endolichen fungi. During her PhD, Krystle received internal (Monash University – Tropical Medicine & Biology Multidisciplinary Platform) and external (Nagao Natural Environment Foundation) grants and participated in the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, where she won the People’s Choice Award. In 2018, Krystle had a research collaboration (Metabolomics) with Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland. She then earned her PhD in 2020. Currently, Krystle is a research fellow at Monash University Malaysia working on the metabolomics studies of oil palm and Ganoderma interactions, a joint project between Monash University Malaysia and Advanced Agriecological Research (AAR), Sdn. Bhd.
Dr. Normi Mohd Yahaya (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Perspectives on antimicrobial resistance: Causes, effects, mechanisms, and the quest onwards”
Dr. Normi Mohd Yahaya is an Associate Professor at the of Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia with a joint PhD with Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Saitama, Japan, in Molecular Biology, specializing in Protein Engineering. She received her postdoctoral training in structural biology, specifically in protein NMR at Université de Lorraine, France.
Her current research involves isolation of bacterial strains for industrial enzymes (chitinase), elucidating the structures and functions of medically important hypothetical proteins (metallo-b-lactamase) as potential drug targets, designing proteins and peptides as catalysts and therapeutics for various, potential applications.
She is a recipient of the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award 2015, 44th IUPACWorld Chemistry Congress 2013 Young Scholar Award and American Chemical Society PACIFICHEM Young Scholar Award 2010. She was one of the selected Young Scientists for the 60th Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners with Young Scientists in Lindau, Germany, 2010. She is an honorary member of the Young Scientists Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia, alumni of Global Young Academy, a member of Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biochemical Society UK.
October 2022
Dr. Federico Lauri (Nanyang Technological University)
“The molecular basis of deep-sea microbial life”
Dr. Mohd Firdaus Abdul-Wahab (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia)
“Microbiomes of dark fermentation for biological hydrogen and methane production”
Dr. Muhamad Arif Mohamad Jamali (Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia)
“Structure and kinetic study of nitric oxide reductase in Neisseria meningitidis“
June 2022
Dr. Hii Kieng Soon (Universiti Malaya)
“Transcriptomic analysis of saxitoxin-producing dinoflagellate, Alexandrium minutum“
Mr. Muhammad Zarul Hanifah (Monash University Malaysia)
“Developing skill sets in genomics and bioinformatics”
Dr. Norefrina Shafinaz Md Nor (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“SARS-CoV-2 in air detection: Our journey”
April 2022
Dr. Dzarifah Mohamed Zulperi (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Phytobacterial diseases: Unraveling the culprit”
Dr. Jason Lee Khai Wooi (Taylor’s University)
“Purification and characterisation of recombinant turnip yellow mosaic virus-like particles for drug delivery”
February 2022
Dr. Doblin Sandai (Universiti Sains Malaysia)
“Pathogenesis of Candida albicans“
Dr. Yuvarani Naidu Raju Naidu (Malaysian Palm Oil Board)
“Structural characterisation of biological pretreated oil palm wood blocks with wood decay fungi”
November 2021
Ms. Winona Wijaya (Nanyang Technological University)
“Slimes in pipelines: A metagenomics approach towards understanding corrosive biofilms“
Dr. Sylvia Chieng (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“Microbial leaching: Towards a sustainable environment”
Dr. Chin-Soon Phan (National University of Singapore)
“Cyanobacterial natural products – cyanobactin”
JULY 2021
Prof. Dr. Michael Manefield (University of New South Wales)
“Dioxin biodegradation in Sydney Harbour sediments“
After completing an undergraduate degree with honours in environmental microbiology and a PhD in Australia in 2000 on the ability of algal metabolites to inhibit bacterial quorum sensing Mike spent four years in the UK developing and applying RNA stable isotope probing. After returning to Australia in 2004 he developed a team pursuing interests in pollutant biodegradation, bioremediation, quorum sensing, stable isotope probing, activated sludge, biofilms and isoprene reduction. He has acquired over $20 million in research funding, published over 130 articles and supervised 15 PhDs and over 20 BSc Honours students to completion. He is co-founder and former Director of the Joint Academic Microbiology Seminars (JAMS Inc), author of a series of illustrated children’s books on microbiology (Micronovo Pty Ltd) and founder of Novorem Pty Ltd supporting industry with environmental microbiology expertise. By day he holds a Professorial appointment in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) teaching environmental science and engineering.
Assc. Prof. Dr. Zetty Norhana Balia Yusof (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Microalgal biotechnology for disease control in aquaculture”
Dr. Zetty is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She graduated from University of Cambridge, United Kingdom with a PhD in Plant Sciences under the supervision of Professor Alison Smith from the Department of Plant Sciences. Her Ph.D. thesis work focused on the regulation of thiamine (vitamin B1) biosynthesis in a green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. She is currently the head of Plant-Algae Biochemistry and Biotechnology Laboratorary (PABB), FBSB UPM, associate researcher at Aquatic Animal Health and Therapeutics Laboratory (AquaHealth),Institute of Bioscience (IBS) UPM and principal investigator at Bioprocessing and Biomanufacturing Research Complex (BBRC) UPM.
Her research interests include looking at thiamine (vitamin B1) biosynthesis pathway in plants, specifically in oil palm, microalgae and seaweeds. She currently holds a number of research grants worth more than RM1 million with collaborations with both national and international counterparts. She is interested in investigating the role of thiamine in plants defence system, specifically in Malaysia’s golden crop, oil palm (Elaies guineensis). Besides that, she is interested in the hunt of riboswitches, an RNA regulatory element in oil palm’s thiamine biosynthesis genes. Dr. Zetty is also currently involved in a research project on the development of microalgae as a vaccine carrier system for aquaculture organisms and she is a member of the SATREPS-COSMOS research collaboration team between Malaysia and Japan.
Dr. Zetty is an internationally recognized scientist. She was the recipient of the 2015 Australia-APEC Women in Research Fellowship where she went for a research attachment at South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) under this fellowship. In SARDI, she looked at the potential of selected marine seaweeds collected from the South Australian coastline as a source of useful bioactive compounds. Due to her experience in Australia, she is now looking at the potential of Malaysian seaweeds for the same purpose.
On top of that, Dr. Zetty was selected as the recipient of Malaysia’s prestigious 2017 Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment. She explored the potential of Malaysian seaweeds as the source of antifungal compounds for application in the oil palm industry where she carried out a short research attachment at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge.
Recently, Dr. Zetty was awarded as the Outstanding Woman Researcher in Plant Biochemistry in the 6th Venus International Women Awards – VIWA 2021 and the Leave A Nest Award at Tech Planter Malaysia 2021.
Besides doing research, Dr. Zetty is also teaching undergraduate students at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UPM. Her core teaching subjects include Principles of Biochemistry and Comprehensive Biochemistry, the two most fundamental biochemistry subjects offered by the department. Besides that, she has been teaching various metabolism courses namely Protein and Nucleic Acid Metabolism and Lipid and Membrane Metabolism due to her expertise in metabolism. She has also been given the responsibility as the department’s Industrial Training coordinator since she has various local and international industrial contacts and linkages which have been proven useful in getting placements and sending students for various activities. On top of that, Dr. Zetty has supervised more than 20 undergraduate students for their final year projects and currently supervising and co-supervising up to 15 graduate students. She has authored and co-authored more than 30 research papers, 5 book chapters, filed 1 patent and presented at more than 40 international conferences and have won several best paper and best poster awards as well as innovation awards along the way.
JUNE 2021
Dr. Chris Greening (Monash University)
“Metabolic flexibility: A universal trait of environmental and pathogenic bacteria”
Bacteria are traditionally classified by their energy and carbon acquisition strategies. While some bacteria are known to be highly flexible, especially within the Proteobacteria, most are thought to be metabolically constrained. Here I provide evidence that most bacteria worldwide are in fact surprisingly versatile. Through culture-based work, we have observed that many bacteria adapt to energy starvation by consuming inorganic energy sources and survive hypoxia through fermentation. For example, bacteria from at least eight dominant phyla have been experimentally shown to scavenge atmospheric hydrogen and carbon monoxide, including those traditionally thought to be limited to organic carbon, methane, iron, or nitrite oxidation. Through culture-independent work, we have observed that these processes are widespread and active at the ecosystem scale. Most bacteria inhabiting environments worldwide, whether in soils, waters, sediments, or eukaryotic hosts, express enzymes to use alternative inorganic energy sources or mediate fermentation. Metabolic flexibility provides different advantages depending on whether environments are characterised by depletion (e.g. desert soils), variability (e.g. beach sediments), or competition (e.g. human gut) of resources. Finally, I will summarise genomic surveys and genetic studies that suggest human pathogens are also unexpectedly versatile. Metabolic flexibility is likely to be crucial for gastrointestinal colonisation and environmental survival of diarrhoeal pathogens, as well as the long-term persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the face of nutritional immunity. This multifaceted evidence suggests metabolic flexibility is a trait of the many rather than few. These findings in turn have broad implications for understanding global biodiversity, biogeochemical cycling, and infectious disease.
Ms. Vanitha Palaeya (QIAGEN)
“The future is digital: SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based epidemiology and environmental DNA monitoring using digital PCR”
Digital PCR is the 3rd generation of PCR technology that is based on the partitioning of sample (nucleic acid molecules) into thousands of discrete subunits for absolute measurement without the need for standards. By partitioning samples, digital PCR not only provides greater tolerance to PCR inhibitors but also enables robust detection down to a single target molecule. With unprecedented sensitivity, accuracy and precision in nucleic acid quantification, dPCR has enabled the advancement of new applications in scientific research. Some of the latest applications that can benefit from this is are the wastewater based monitoring of SARS CoV 2 virus and environmental DNA monitoring of invasive species. Wastewater-based epidemiology is a game-changing technology for predicting and tracking local outbreaks of COVID-19. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in wastewater or natural sewage is an extremely powerful and effective surveillance tool that can give us a clear indication on the extend of spread in a community and aid in early COVID-19 detection to prevent larger outbreaks. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis on the other hand, allows us to monitor and conserve the biodiversity of an ecosystem.
APRIL 2021
Assc. Prof. Dr. Nurulfiza Mat Isa (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
” The application of CRISPR/Cas9 system in the generation of live attenuated vaccines”
Nurulfiza Mat Isa is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). She started her career in UPM as a tutor in 2007. She obtained her first degree in Biotechnology (2004) and PhD in Molecular Biology (2008) from UPM with fully supported by the National Science Fellowship (NSF) from the Ministry of Science, Technology and lnnovation (MOSTI), Malaysia. In 2011, she was appointed as an Honorary Member of the Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour Department, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom and worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in ageing bioinformatics research. Dr. Nurulfiza Mat Isa was also appointed as Head of Laboratory at Laboratory of Vaccine and Biomolecules, Institute of Bioscience, UPM from 2018 until present. Her research focus is on chicken vaccine technology advancement includes bioinformatics of pathogen genomes, profiling of host-pathogen interactions, CRISPR genome engineering, and Nano biotechnology delivery systems. She helped develop a few bioinformatics tools; bacterial CRISPR guide RNA design for bacteria genome editing and Putra Bioinformatics portal for genome assembly and gene annotation. Her research interest also extents to antibiotics resistance mechanism and the discovery of new antibacterial technologies against poultry ‘superbugs’. She has published more than 40 journal articles, won national and international award, filed 3 patent and 2 copyright. . She attended more than 40 conferences, seminar and workshop, leading number of research projects, served as a consultant and trainer to different agencies. She leads 12 research projects and also being a co-investigator in research grants that worth over RM3 million.
Prof. Dr. Ho Ting Seng (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Unleashing the power of Nature in soil microorganisms for clean and safe food production”
FEBRUARY 2021
Prof. Dr. Rajesh Sani (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology)
“Microbial Technologies in Sustainable Development of Energy, Environment, Agriculture, and Health”
Dr. Sani is a Professor in the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Applied Biological Sciences at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, South Dakota, USA. His research expertise includes Biocatalysis, Rules of Life in Biofilms, Extremophilic Bioprocessing, Biomaterials, Gas to Liquid Fuels, Genome Editing of Extremophiles and Space Biology. Over the past 14 years, he has been the PI or co-PI on over $44.45 million in funded research. He has one patent, seven invention disclosures, and published over 99 peer-reviewed articles in high impact factor journals and have contributed to over 24 book chapters. In addition, he has edited eight books and one Proceedings for Springer International Publishing AG, Wiley, and ACS publications. Dr Sani has been leading a research consortium funded by the NSF with the aid of 84 scientists and engineers. The focus of the consortium on “Methane regulation in deep and extreme environments”.
NOVEMBER 2020
Dr. Boo Sook Yee (QIAGEN)
“QIAseq technologies for metagenomics and microbiome NGS library prep”
Sook Yee is the Genomics Application Specialist in Qiagen and her role is to provide technical advices and support on Qiagen UNGS products for APEC region. Sook Yee has received her PhD in Immunology from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Her phD project is focus on the transcriptome study on chicken natural killer cells infected by very virulent Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV). She has 7 years of commercial experiences to work as field support on Illumina Array and NGS platforms. Besides, she has been involved in some proof of principle projects with government and private laboratories. Sook Yee has 7 publications in international peer reviewed journals such as Scientific Reports and Polar Biology.
Associate Professor Dr. Adeline Ting Su Yien (Monash University Malaysia)
“Microbes from the environment, for the environment”
Adeline holds a PhD in Plant Pathology from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her PhD research was on endophytes as biocontrol agents to suppress Fusarium wilt development in banana plants. She is passionate in researching microbes, particularly lesser-known groups such as endophytes and endolichenic fungi. In recent years, she has diversified into expounding potential of microbes for metabolite production, biofungicide application, bioremediation treatment, and for biosynthesis of metal-nanoparticles. She leads her Applied Microbiology Research Group (the ATSY group) and they integrate the omics technologies and instrumentation techniques into their research. Adeline is currently with the School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, and is the Head of Discipline (Biological Science). She has been awarded numerous external grants and publishes vigorously. Adeline is also the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the National Outstanding Researcher Award (Biological Science) (2018), the Gold Medal for the International Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) (2018), the ProVice Chancellor Award (Research Excellence) for Postgraduate Research Supervision (2019), and the ProVice Chancellor Award (Research Excellence) for Early Career Researcher (2013). Adeline enjoys working with students, and is a firm believer that inspiration works both ways!
OCTOBER 2020
Dr. Khayriyyah Mohd Hanafiah (Universiti Sains Malaysia)
“On learning how to do science and how to talk about it“
A senior lecturer at USM’s School of Biological Sciences since 2015, Dr. Khayriyyah Mohd Hanafiah conducts research in infectious disease. Her work spans discovery of diagnostic biomarkers and antimicrobials for pathogens such as M.tuberculosis, and epidemiological modeling of global viral hepatitis prevalence and recently, trends of Covid-19 in Malaysia. She was awarded the prestigious Australian Endeavour Research Fellowship in 2017, became the first female Asian Champion of “FameLab International”, the world’s biggest and longest running science communication competition in 2018, and received the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia “Youth Award” in 2019. She is a Young Scientist Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM) Affiliate, co-founder of Malaysian Science Communication Network (MSCN) and Sustainable Palm Oil Movement (SPOM), and she heads the committee for development of the training-of-trainers Malaysian Science Communication Module for increasing capacity in science communication. She regularly writes for The Star, in her column “Science, She Wrote”.
SEPTEMBER 2020
Dr. Peer Mohamed (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“Biohydrogen from biomass: A Malaysian perspective”
Dr. Peer Mohamed is a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, where he has been since 2016. He received a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) (Biochemical) from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in 2010, and his Ph.D in Chemical and Process Engineering from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 2016. His major research interest span both biomass refinery and bioenergy from palm oil biomass. Much of his work has been on improvement of both dark and photo biohydrogen using various technological and engineering principles. He has been also actively working on pretreatment and saccharification technologies for various solid lignocellulosic materials for various biochemical building blocks using fermentation technology. Currently he has begun to research on utilisation of advanced molecular tools for strains improvement for the enhancement of fermentation yields for biochemical and biofuels.
He also has been managing and overseeing day to day operation in an integrated Zero Waste Technology pilot plant for palm oil mill wastewater and biomass since 2016. This pilot scale research project strives to provide a zero discharge solution for palm oil mill’s solid, liquid and gaseous discharges while simultaneously producing renewable energy and reusing water. This integrated pilot project is jointly developed by Sime Darby Plantation Research Sdn. Bhd. and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia – Yayasan Sime Darby Chair for Sustainable Development: Zero Waste Technology, and currently the integrated pilot plant is fully operational at Sime Darby’s palm oil mill.
He has been actively participated in various local and international professional bodies and organisations striving for professional development and improvement. Additionally, since 2018 he has been serving as deputy chair for Malaysia Chapter of APEC Research Centre for Advance Biohydrogen Technology (APEC-ACABT).
Dr. Sharifah Farhana Syed-Abdul-Rahman (University of Queensland)
“Beneficial plant-microbe interactions for sustainable agriculture”
Dr Sharifah Farhana is a postdoctoral researcher at School of Agriculture and Food Science, the University of Queensland (UQ). She has recently completed her PhD (February 2020) in Plant Pathology at UQ. This was enabled by a highly competitive UQ Research Training Program Scholarship and UQ Centennial (awarded to international students with outstanding qualifications). She is currently a visiting scholar at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her research interest includes the study of biocontrol agents such as developing bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides through the utilization of beneficial microbes and determining the mechanisms involved during plant-microbe and plant defence interactions. She is also interested in early identification and accurate diagnosis of plant diseases through computer vision technology and the utilization of the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Monitoring of health, prediction, and detection of diseases in plants at the early stage is necessary for subsequent application of control measures.
AUGUST 2020
Professor Hesham Ali El Enshasy (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia)
“Mushroom platform technology: From farm to pharma”
Prof. Hesham Ali El Enshasy is the current Director of Institute of Bioproduct Development (IBD), and professor in bioprocess engineering, school of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Chair for Food Division 15A (2016-2017) AIChE, and the current co-Chair for Food, Pharmaceutical& Bio-Engineering Division, Division 15A (Food), American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE). Before joining UTM, he was the assistant director of City for Scientific Research for Research Institutes Affairs (Alexandria, Egypt). Prof. El Enshasy received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Microbiology (Ain Shams University, Egypt), Dr. rer. Nat. in Industrial Biotechnology (TU Braunschweig, Germany 1998), M.Sc. Technology Management (UTM, Malaysia). He is also visiting guest professor and honor guest professor to many world class universities in USA, Germany, China, Sweden, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and Algeria. He established many research and industrial platforms for the industrial production of different bioactive metabolites using microbial, mammalian and plant cells in many universities, research institutes and companies. Prof. El Enshasy is active as editorial board member in many scientific journal and he is currently the Editor-in-Chief for Bioscience Biotechnology Research Asia (BBRA). He is also the current editor of book series Industrial Biotechnology (CRC Press, USA). Prof. El Enshasy has more than 200 publications in peer reviewed international journals, book Chapters, and books. He was also invited as keynote, plenary, and guest speaker in more than 70 international conferences in field of industrial biotechnology and BioEconomy.
Dr. Vanitha Mariappan (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“Melidioisis in Malaysia: Past, present, & future”
JULY 2020
Associate Professor Dr. Kesaven Bhubalan (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu)
“Exploiting marine bacteria for the production of value-added biomaterials from renewable resources: An effort towards embracing a circular economy”
Dr. Kesaven Bhubalan is an Associate Professor and the Head of Subject Area in Marine Science at the Faculty of Science and Marine Environment with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). Before joining UMT in 2010, he worked briefly as a Research Officer at Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals (IPharm). He is now a Research Fellow with IPharm. Dr. Kesaven obtained his B.Sc. in Marine Biology from Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia in 2005 and Ph.D. in Microbial Biotechnology from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2010. His field of expertise includes bacteria-derived biomaterials, bioprocess, biodegradation and gene expression. Dr. Kesaven and his research team have designed and performed experiments on microbial-derived polyhydroxyalkanoate (bioplastic) and rhamnolipid as well as palm oil degradation in marine environment. Dr. Kesaven is also a member of the research committee for Biodegradability and Toxicity of Palm Oil in Seawater and the Economic Impact Assessment.
JUNE 2020
Associate Professor Dr. Neoh Hui-min (UMBI, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“Staying ahead of the #AMR curve: current options and future strategies”
Hui-min graduated from Juntendo University, Tokyo in 2007 with a PhD in Medical Sciences (Bacteriology), and is currently a senior research fellow with UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), UKM. Her research interests are on MRSA, AMR, genomics surveillance and infection control, gut microbiome and sepsis. She also loves detective fiction, cat videos and a hot cup of tea.
Dr. Nazlina Haiza Mohd Yasin (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“Microalgae perspectives in zero waste technology for integrated wastewater treatment and CO2 sequestration”
Dr. Mohd Yasin is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She earned her PhD in Environmental Biotechnology in 2015 from Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan. Before joining as a senior lecturer, she did her post-doctoral research in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. During her post-doctoral research, she did the site project under UKM-YSD Chair for Sustainable Development – Zero Waste Technology. Her research interest is in the area of applied phycology, environmental biotechnology and bioenergy. Her current research focuses on the utilization of local microalgae as phycoremediation agent, development of microalgae-based zooplankton for shrimp hatchery and photosynthetic microbial fuel cell for bioelectricity production. She is a member of Academic Research on Palm Oil Mill Sustainability (ARPOS) Network. With her passion for both teaching and research, she has successfully developed the “Fun with Microbes@UKM” STEM teaching module with UKM team to enhance school students interest and understanding of Microbiology.
MAY 2020
Associate Professor Dr. Natrah Ikhsan (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Quorum Sensing: Eavesdropping Bacterial Communication in the Aquatic Environments”
Dr. Ikhsan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia (UPM). She is also an Associate Researcher in the Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Bioscience, UPM. Currently, she is the Vice President of the Malaysian Fisheries Society 2016/2018 and Treasurer of World Aquaculture Society- Asia Pacific Chapter. Dr. Ikhsan specializes in the field of Aquatic Microbial Ecology particularly in the development of innovative and sustainable microbial management strategies through understanding of the host-microbe interaction for enhanced microbial stability. Among her current research focus is on quorum sensing sociomicrobiology – its pathogenic and probiotic role particularly in bacteria, algae & other hosts in aquaculture ecosystem.
Dr. Sivachandran Parimannan (AIMST University)
“Application of Bacteriophages against Soft-Rot causing Macergens”
Dr. Sivachandran completed his PhD in Biotechnology at AIMST University, Malaysia towards the end of 2014 and has been a lecturer at AIMST since mid-2015. He has been a visiting academic at Deakin University, Australia since August 2019 where he carries out joint research activities with Deakin Genomics Research and Discovery Facility as well as teaching. At AIMST, he is part of the Centre of Excellence for Omics-Driven Computational Biodiscovery (COMBio), which is a joint centre of excellence with University of Copenhagen, Denmark. The focus of the centre’s research is on DNA/RNA sequencing and Computational Biodiscovery where they exclusively use bioinformatics and machine learning approaches in studying environmental ecology, rainforest diversity (both the macro and micro populations), precision agriculture and phage biology. His work focuses more on phage and microbial genomics. Since joining AIMST, he has secured two international grants from UK in collaboration with Prof. Martha Clokie from the University of Leicester as lead co-applicant from Malaysia, two FRGS as well as one industry grant as principal investigator and project manager respectively. He has active international collaborations with several universities abroad like University of Copenhagen, Denmark, University of Leicester, UK, Technical University of Denmark, Deakin University, Australia, scientists from the Harvard Medical School, US. He has published high impact publications in ISI indexed Q1 and Q2 journals from his various collaborative projects. He is also part of the Global Sewage Surveillance Project Consortium which is funded and supported by Novo Nordisk, Denmark and the World Health Organization (WHO).
APRIL 2020
Dr. Tee Kok Keng (University of Malaya)
“Evolution and Transmission Dynamics of the Common Cold Coronaviruses: Potential Lessons for SARS-CoV-2 Mitigation?”
Dr. Tee is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and the head of the Pathogen Genetics & Evolution Laboratory in University of Malaya (UM). He is an adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Healthcare and Medical Sciences, Sunway University. His research interest focuses on the genetic and evolutionary characterisation of blood-borne and respiratory viruses, including human coronaviruses. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 22) and he is currently the Editor for various international journals including Frontiers in Microbiology, PLoS One, and Virology Journal. He is the recipient of the 2017 UM Outstanding Young Researcher.
FEBRUARY 2020
Dr. Chong Chun Wie (Monash University Malaysia)
“Ecology of Antarctic Soil Microbial Community and Its’ Relevance to the Interpretation of the Pattern from Human Gut Microbiome”
Dr Chong Chun Wie obtained his B.Sc (HONS) Biochemistry, and PhD (Molecular Microbiology) from University of Malaya. After his PhD, he worked briefly at National Antarctic Research Centre, University of Malaya briefly as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. He joined School of Pharmacy, IMU in 2012. During his tenure, he was appointed as the Programme Director of MSc Molecular Medicine and Head, Centre of Translational Research. After 7 years with IMU, Dr Chong joined School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia in July 2019. His main research focus is on the microbial ecology of soil and gastrointestinal systems. He is experienced in processing large 16S dataset and conducting multivariate data analyses including hypothesis testing, ordinations and modelling. To date, he has published >30 research papers and has been named as investigators in various competitive research grants, including Toray Science Fund, FRGS, LRGS, YPASM Research Grant and Newton Ungku Omar fund. He was also part of the team that won the inaugural Malaysian Research University Network-Young Researchers Grant Scheme.
Dr. Noor Baity Saidi (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
” Exploring the role of mating type gene in the banana pathogen, Foc TR4 “
Dr Baity is a senior lecturer in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She earned her Ph.D. degree in molecular plant science in 2011 from School of Biological Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UK. Since then, she has been actively involved in research and teaching. Dr Baity’s research interest are mainly in the area of plant molecular pathology and host-pathogen interaction, especially banana and the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense.
Ms. Michelle Ng (QIAGEN)
“ Challenges on sample isolation “
Ms. Michelle Ng currently manages the strategic activities for the life science foundation portfolio for QIAGEN in the APEC region, focusing on engaging different stakeholders and expanding the fundamental business of QIAGEN to emerging markets. Graduated from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with a Bachelor of Science, she continues to be passionate about science, and supporting researchers make an impact on humankind. Before joining QIAGEN Singapore, Michelle spent four years with Veredus Laboratories in the Biotechnology industry working on reaching and growing the Bio-surveillance, Food Safety, and Infectious Disease market. She is currently pursuing her Master in Business Administration with Nanyang Technological University.
DECEMBER 2019
Dr. Lim Yin Sze (The University of Nottingham, Malaysia)
“Combination Strategy of Using Bacteriocin and Antibiotics to Inhibit Multi-Drug Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa”
Dr. Lim graduated from Universiti Putra Malaysia with PhD in Microbial Biotechnology. Her scientific passion is always related to lactic acid bacteria and the metabolites produced. Currently her team is focusing on two research goals: (i) to develop new strategy to reverse antibiotic resistance of multi-drug resistance pathogens using bacteriocin; (ii) to improve the nutrient quality and utilization of alternative crops via lactic acid fermentation technology.
Dr. Fairolniza Mohd Shariff (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Analysis of Anti-Fungal Activity by Defensin EGDFs from Elaeis guineensis (Oil Palm) Using Molecular Docking and Dynamics”
Dr. Mohd Shariff completed her BSc in Microbiology, Master in Biotechnology and Ph.D. in Structural Biology at Universiti Putra Malaysia. From 2014-2015, she did her post-doctoral research at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), Melbourne under the supervision of Professor Raymond Norton. In his lab, she had the chance to be involved in two of his projects related to structural biology of infectious diseases and synthesis and structural elucidation of a neuropeptide. Her research interest include enzymes and microbial technology focusing on industrial enzymes of microbes, structure-based drug discovery and understanding the mechanisms of protein function at structural level via integrated structural biology using X-ray crystallography.
Dr. Shairah Abdul Razak (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
“Microbial Metagenomics: Perspective from Community Ecology”
Dr. Abdul Razak began her faculty position in Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia after completed her PhD from Michigan State University in 2017. She received a dual major in Fisheries & Wildlife and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Behavior program. Her research involves characterization of factors associated with dynamics in fish gut microbiomes through early developmental stages based on 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing. Her current interest resolves around the theme of ecological impacts of community and population diversity. Her on-going research aims to characterize community diversity in the gut of an economically important local fish in Malaysia, ‘Kelah’, to understand the link between prey community and fish feeding ecology. She’s eager to start any future collaboration with local experts in metagenome studies, with a particular interest in agriculture and human.
OCTOBER 2019
Professor Datin Paduka Dr. Khatijah Yusoff (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
“Potential in Newcastle Diseases Virus in Cancer Therapy: Hype or Hope?”
Dr. Khatijah graduated with a First Class Honours in Microbiology and DSc (honoris causa) from La Trobe University, Melbourne. She is an academician and a virologist. Her research on the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), a poultry virus has gained acknowledgement locally and globally. She was accorded UNESCO’s Carlos Finlay Prize for Microbiology in 2005 and was identified as one of the top 20 most influential women in science in the Islamic World for 2014 by www.muslim-science.com. She won the prestigious Merdeka Award for 2015. She is Fellow and Council member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, and Vice President of the World Academy of Sciences for East Asia and the Pacific region and the Islamic World Academy of Sciences. As an exponent of Science, her 5 year stint as the Deputy Secretary General of MOSTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia) gave an opportunity to promote science through policies and development of a strong framework in managing Science in the country. She believes strongly on the need for translating science into tangible benefits to people around the world and sat on the Board of Trustees of the international Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), SEAMEO-BIOTROP Governing Board and the Advisory Board for La Trobe Asia. She currently sits on board for the VentureTech Pte. Ltd. and Steinbeis Foundation Malaysia.
Dr. Febri Doni (Universiti Malaya)
“Trichoderma in Sustainable Rice Production: Mechanism and Beneficial Impact to the Performance of Rice”
Dr. Doni is a research fellow at the Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya. He obtained his PhD in Microbiology from The National University of Malaysia (UKM). His research interest includes plant-microbe interactions, agroecology, and plant pathology. He published dozens of paper focusing on microbe-rice plant interactions, Trichoderma, System of Rice Intensification (SRI), organic agriculture and agroecology. He won three prestigious travel scholarship from the United Nation, New Phytologist Trust and International Symbiosis Society. He is the executive secretary of the Malaysian Agroecology Society and he involves in various social activities in South East Asia in promoting agroecology and the importance of soil microbes that are central in the enhanced growth of rice plants.
Dr. Mohd Shafiq Aazmi (Universiti Teknologi Mara)
“Modulation of Gut Microbiome by Probiotics in Obesity and Related Metabolic Abnormalities”
Dr. Aazmi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, UiTM Shah Alam. He received a PhD in metagenomics and metabolomics from Faculty of Pharmacy UiTM in 2017. He was previously working as a Head of Public Relations and Marketing at KPJ Lablink Medical Laboratory and also Medical Lab Technologist at BP Healthcare Group before joining UiTM in 2019. His research interest are in the area of functional food and the application of metagenomics and metabolomics in clinical health and industry.