speakers

Prof. Dr. Chan is a Commonwealth Scholar, with a very rare combination of expertise in law and science. He has been elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. As of 2022, his H-index is 60; with the publication of >400 SCI papers (mostly Q1) with a total citation of >13600 based on Google Scholar. He publishes regularly in premier journals, including Nature, Nature Communications, eLife, Biotechnology Advances, mBio, Journal of Bacteriology, Environmental Microbiology, Frontiers in Microbiology, just to make a few.

He is the only Malaysian to serve as Ad Hoc Technical Expert Committee on biosafety law in CBD, UNEP for consecutive 3 terms. In 2017, Dr. Chan has been invited as one of the expert advisors to the Joint Research Centre (European Commission) to provide technical advice on the use of NGS to study antimicrobial resistance. His interest and expertise include Biosafety law on GMO, bacterial quorum sensing and quorum quenching, OMICs, metagenomics studies, and anti-quorum sensing.

Sivakumar Thurairajasingam currently holds the position of Head of School, Clinical School Johor Bahru, Monash University Malaysia. Qualified as a psychiatrist, Sivakumar is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry at Monash University Malaysia and a visiting Consultant Psychiatrist to Columbia Asia Hospital Nusajaya Johor.

Sivakumar has been practicing in the field of Clinical Psychiatry for more than 20 years. He teaches, trains, and talks on various topics pertaining to Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine. He is trained and specializes in the use of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in the clinical field. He has a special interest in the treatment and research into Mood Disorders. Sivakumar has been working in the field of Addiction Medicine for more than 19 years. He has vast experience of managing agonist treatment clinics, as a national trainer for the National Drug Substitution Therapy (NDST) Program, and running workshops on Addiction Counselling and Treatment. He is also the current President of Intan Life Zone, an NGO working in the field of HIV and Harm Reduction servicing the ‘most at risk population’, comprising of Intravenous Drug Users, Commercial Sex Workers, the Transgender and the Homosexual population.

Associate Professor Dr. Lee Learn-Han is a molecular microbiologist and the Leader of the Microbiome and Bioresource Research Strength, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Monash University Malaysia. He is recognized as the best Medical Science researcher in Malaysia, as Malaysia’s Research Star Award (MRSA) Winner 2018. Also, He received the prestigious award of Professional Registers as Chartered Biologist (CBiol) from the Royal Society of Biology, UK, in 2017. To date, Dr. Lee has registered 2 patents, published 7 academic books, 16 book chapters, and published >220 articles with cumulative citations of >7980, H-index of 47and i10-index of 136. In addition, he served as PI and co-PI for 24 grants totaling ~RM3.83 million. Also, he has supervised 11 Ph.D. students to completion and currently supervising 7 Ph.D. students.

Dr. Eliana Mariño, is the Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Immunology and Diabetes Laboratory at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University. Her lab has cutting-edge approaches- sophisticated omics, and novel nutritional technology to define functional signatures for disease states. Her work combines exceptional knowledge in functional links between immunology, metabolism, intestinal biology and microbiome, bioinformatics, and clinical expertise. As of 2022, her cumulative citations of >3500, H-index of 21 and i10-index of 22 based on Google Scholar.

Her work's seminal findings have significantly contributed to the field of microbiome, medicine, and autoimmunity by tracing the role of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Dr. Mariño has also led a clinical study and demonstrated that a dietary pre-postbiotic significantly rehabilitates the 'diabetogenic' microbiome and improves glycaemic control in patients with T1D. Dr. Mariño's research program is built on a detailed/unique understanding of host-microbiome crosstalk, and its associated inflammatory responses. Her work now is expanding to other fields such as periodontal disease, T2D, obesity, lupus, Alzheimer disease, haemophilia, traumatic brain injury, and cancer.

Dr. Khan got extensive research experience in evidence-based medicine. He is the founding editor of " Archives of Pharmacy Practice " His Prime areas of interest are systematic review, meta-analysis, and network meta-analysis. To date, he has received more than 6000 citations and over 400 scientific publications. Currently, he is the Chair of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences UVAS Lahore Pakistan.

Dr. Devi Mohan is a public health physician and currently an Associate Professor in Global Public Health at Jeffery Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. She is a geriatric neuroepidemiologist, and her research targets dementia risk reduction, identification, prevention, and care in low- and middle-income countries. She has led various community based epidemiological studies on dementia and cognitive decline in Malaysia and India. In collaboration with international partners, Dr. Devi has successfully secured research grants from international funding agencies like the National Institute of Health Research, UK; Medical Research Council UK; and Australian Research Council for her work on dementia. She has published her research in high impact public health and dementia journals, like The Lancet Global Health, Value in Health and Journal of Alzheimer's disease. She is a core member of various international research partnerships on dementia, like the NIHR Global Health Group on Dementia Prevention and Enhanced Care (DePEC) and the Global Dementia Prevention Programme (GloDePP). She mentors Ph.D. students in public health, ageing and dementia.