Prof. Dr. Chan Kok Gan is a distinguished microbiologist and interdisciplinary scholar whose work bridges molecular biology, genomics, microbial communication, and biosafety law. He is currently a Professor at University of Malaya, where he leads research in microbial genomics, quorum sensing, quorum quenching, genome biology, next-generation sequencing, biosafety laws and intellectual property law in biotechnology. His contributions span genomics, microbial communication, and conceptual innovation rather than single isolated discoveries.  Prof. Chan holds double Bachelor and Master degrees in Microbiology and laws, and PhD in Molecular Microbiology, with a rare combination of science and law. Prof. Chan is prolific researcher,  with >485 WoS WoS publications in high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Communications. His work has garnered tens of thousands of citations (e.g., his Google Scholar profile shows >27,200 citations, h index 83). He received fundings gloablly, eg. Malaysia Toray Science Foundation research grant, >15 French Fellowships, Hubert Curien Partnership-Hibiscus, SEAOHUN Award, UK Prime Minister’s Initiative II grant, 3 China Governments grants, JSPS Award and many Malaysia fundings.  Prof. Chan has received numerous research awards and recognitions, including a consistent ranking in Research.com’s listings of Top Microbiologist and and Leader in Biology/biochemistry in Malaysia; Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) Science and Technology Award, JSPS Award. He was listed as the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University/Scopus in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 in both categories of “Current Year” and “Career”. He is even listed as World’s Top 0.1% Scientist by ScholarGPS.com, and ranked First in the categories of “quorum quenching”, “genomes” , “multidrug resistant pathogens” by Google Scholar. Prof. Chan made several first discoveries in Malaysia and globally, including (i) introducing the concept of, and coining, bacterial “signalling confusion”; (ii) coexistence of quorum sensing and quorum quenching in some bacteria, and (iii) quorum quenching molecules from Malay, Chinese and Indian medicinal herbs and secured several patents,  (iv) characterising novel quorum sensing and quenching genes, (v) novel bacterial genus and species, (vi) he published Malaysia’s first complete bacterial genome 13 years ago when next-generation sequencing was still globally scarce. Prof. Chan is elected Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (FASc) in 2017, and fellowships in other international learned academies. A novel bacterial species of a novel genus was named in honoured of Prof Chan’s contribution in microbiology:  Chania multitudinisentens gen. nov., sp. nov. Prof. Chan is world’s leading expert in bacterial quorum sensing, quorum quenching, genome biology, biosafety laws and whole genome sequencing. After publishing the first bacterial complete genome in 2013, Prof Chan then pioneered into multi-OMICs technology, providing a new dimension of research in microbiology and genome biology. To date, Prof. Chan is the leading expert in NGS, multi-OMICs (genome, plasmidome, resistome, virome, oncogenome, transcriptome, methylome, microbiome, metagenome, lipidome, metabolome).

Tharani Loganathan is a Public Health Medical Specialist with a specialization in Health Economics, and a Medical Lecturer at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya. She is the course coordinator for the Global Health, Global Health Leadership and Law and Health modules in the Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme. She has 17 years of working experience with the Ministry of Health, Malaysia in diverse areas, notably in Primary Health Care. Dr Tharani has a medical degree from Universiti Sains Malaysia, and an MPH and DrPH from University Malaya. For her doctoral degree, Tharani conducted a comprehensive economic evaluation of rotavirus vaccines beyond cost-effectiveness, to include benefits of vaccination in improving equity and financial risk protection to inform its inclusion into the national immunization program Malaysia. She is particularly interested in health systems and policy research towards advancing health system goals of achieving Universal Health Coverage. Dr Tharani has written and spoken extensively on migrant access to healthcare, including the healthcare financing and social protection policies for migrant workers in Malaysia. Currently, Dr Tharani is investigating the provisions for educational access for non-citizen children in Malaysia. Tharani Loganathan is an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in South East Asia.  

Dr. Nurshafarina serves as a senior lecturer in the Department of Building Surveying at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Housing, Building, and Planning (Building Surveying), a Master’s in Building Technology, and a PhD in Construction Materials and Technology, all conferred by Universiti Sains Malaysia. Before joining Universiti Malaya, Dr. Nurshafarina amassed considerable industry experience with a leading construction chemicals firm, where she specialized in designing sustainable concrete solutions and developing advanced chemical admixtures for both ready-mix and pre-cast concrete applications. Her research portfolio encompasses a breadth of cutting-edge construction technologies, with particular focus on sustainable cementitious materials, concrete admixtures and durability enhancement.