The main focus of   Mohammad Rais’s research are in the areas of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Natural Products and Drug Discovery. He has published several articles in international peer-reviewed journals and at the same time highlighted the pharmacological actions of  several local medicinal plants  including daun ketum (Mitragyna speciosa), cekur (Kaempferia galanga) and kacip Fatimah (Labisia Pumila).  These studies have been made possible by a series of R & D grants which he  successfully obtained under the Malaysian Development Plans and High Impact Research Grants (UM). To promote a more systematic and collaborative research in natural products in University of Malaya, Rais  helped established the Centre for Natural Products Research and Drug Discovery (CENAR) in 2003.  He has also a keen interest in basic science research, particularly in the area of Vascular Pharmacology.  His current research include investigating the role of novel angiotensin peptides, nitrates and nitrites, flavonoids and several phytochemicals in the improvement of endothelial dysfunctions in hypertension and diabetes.     Selected Publications   Autophagy through stress-activated signals: a cellular self-defence mechanism against MBIC in human breast cancer cell-lines. Mohadeseh Hasanpourghadi, Nazia Abdul Majid, Mohd Rais Mustafa. Biochemical Pharmacology. doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2018.03.030 (ISI-Indexed) Choy KW, Lau YS, Murugan D, Mustafa MR (2017) Chronic treatment with paeonol improves endothelial function in mice through inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum stress- mediated oxidative stress. PLoS ONE 12(5): e0178365. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0178365 (ISI-Indexed) Ling WC, Liu J, Lau CW, Murugan DD, Mustafa MR, Huang Y. (2017).Treatment with salvianolic acid B restores endothelial function in angiotensin II-induced hypertensive mice. Biochem Pharmacol. 2017 Jul 15;136:76-85. Wei Chih Ling, Mohd Rais Mustafa, Paul M Vanhoutte, Dharmani Devi Murugan. (2017). Chronic administration of sodium nitrite prevents hypertension and protects arterial endothelial function by reducing oxidative stress in angiotensin II-infused mice. Vascul Pharmacol. 2017 May 26. pii: S1537-1891(16)30268-3 Choy KW, Mustafa MR, Lau YS, Liu J, Murugan D, Lau CW, Wang L, Zhao L, Huang Y. 2016.Paeonol protects against endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced endothelial dysfunction via AMPK/PPARδ signaling pathway. Biochem Pharmacol. 2016 Sep 15;116:51-62.      

Rosila Bee Mohd Hussain is currently an Associate Prof. at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She completed her PhD from The University of Western Australia. Her areas of research interest include social inequality, identity, youth, cross-cultural study and contemporary social issues (social capital, disability studies, gender and social threats). Her expert opinions on various sociological issues has often been shared on various media platforms like newspapers, talk shows and and radio interviews in Malaysia.  She has also completed and secured internal and external grants in the past years in relation to youth, social inequality and identity issues. Among others are UMRG (UM), FRGS (Malaysia), Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies and Japan Society for the Promotion Science (JSPS) as Research Collaborator. She has also published more than 50 journal articles, book chapters and proceedings from her research to share.  Her current research work centers on social threats, lifestyle and risk society.

Dr. Sameer has a PhD in Social Networking and is presently working as Associate Professor at Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya. He has over two decades of work experience in the industry and academia and also holds a PMP® (Project Management Professional) certification from PMI, USA. At Asia-Europe Institute (AEI) Dr. Sameer has taught courses at the Masters level on Information Technology K-Economy, Social and economic dimensions of Digital Economy, History of Southeast Asia and Research Methods . He has been the Program Co-ordinator for International Masters in Information Management (2014 - 2016) and is currently the Programme Co-ordinator for International Masters in ASEAN Studies program (2016 -). He is the founding Managing Editor of AEI Insights (an official AEI peer reviewed journal) since 2014. During 2015 he was the visiting scientist at Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany.   His current research and teaching interests are in the field of Social Networks, Data Analytics, Educational Technologies, Social informatics, Digital economy in Asia-Europe, and History of Southeast Asia. Dr. Sameer has successfully completed grant-based research projects (High Impact Research and UM Frontier Science Research) as Principal Investigator and a bilateral interational project (ETH- Switzerland funded). He has organised international workshops and events and has chaired panels in international foras. He is the life member of Computer Society of India and member of several national and international research centers and associations. He has several papers published in ISI-Web of Science indexed journals (publishers include Springer, Emerald, Wiley, McMillan Palgrave, Elsevier and others). He has regularly reviewed for top ISI journals including JMIR, PlosOne, JASIST, Scienometrics, and several others and supervises candidates at both Masters and PhD levels.