Professor Dr THONG Meow Keong studied medicine and trained in Paediatrics at the University of Malaya. He received genetics training in Singapore and was a Fellow in Clinical Genetics at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide and as a Senior Fellow at the renowned Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. He was recognized as the first board-certified clinical geneticist in Malaysia and helped established Clinical Genetics as a subspecialty in the National Specialist Register Malaysia. He established the first Genetics clinic with genetic counselling service at the University Hospital Kuala Lumpur in 1995 and headed the Genetics & Metabolism Unit at the Department of Paediatrics. He received a Doctorate in Medicine from University of Malaya in 2004, for research on the molecular genetics of beta thalassaemia and discovering the molecular basis of beta thalassaemia in the Kadazandusuns in Sabah.   Professor Thong was a Fulbright scholar at the Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, USA and a past recipient of the 8th Royal College of Physicians of London and Academy of Medicine of Malaysia Annual Research Award, Australia-Malaysia Fellowship in Research Excellence, the Travel Award by the Asian Society for Pediatric Research Japan, University of Malaya Distinguished Service awards. He also won three gold medals in ITEX and Biotechnology Asia invention and innovation competitions. In 2019, he