Dr Megat HBA Hamid is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya. He is an immunobiologist with over nine years of experience in immune-biology, receptor-ligand signalling and spatial tissue immunology. His past work focuses on investigating the intrinsic signalling modulating immune resposnes of cytotoxic T and antibody-producing B cells. In UM, his work focuses on expanding beyond intrinsic T and B cell mechanisms, by exploring the cross-talks between immune, stromal and structural cells in the development and regulation of barrier tissue immunity, as well as during spatial and temporal progression of a disease (with a particular focus on lung injury, lung cancer and lung infections). He leverages cutting-edge technologies- including spatial proteo-transcriptomics, organoid modelling and co-culture functional assays to study cellular heterogeneity, disease-immune dynamics and therapeutic targets. He did his DPhil in Medical Sciences at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford following completion of his undergraduate Bachelor of Biotechnology at the Australian National University. He later held postdoctoral appointments at Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford (2020-2025), where he led and co-authored multiple high-impact studies, including in Nature Immunology, Cancer Immunology Research, Frontiers of Immunology and Thorax. His research has received international recognition through invited talks, travel awards and poster prize at leading conferences including Keystone Symposium and International Congress of Immunology. He also has experience working in industry, as an intern at the University-Industry Partnership Department, Bioeconomy Corporation, Malaysia in 2015. He has served as a reviewer for journals (Communications Biology and Immunotherapy Advances) and for international grant bodies such as the Dutch Research Council. In 2023, he was awarded the University of Oxford's Award for Excellence- recognising his passion and motivation on immunological research.

Dr. Md Jasim Uddin obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Greenwich, UK. Dr. Uddin has more than 12 years of experience in the areas of Pharmaceutics, Drug Delivery and Formulation Science. His research is mainly focused on the development of transdermal microneedle arrays (using 3D printing or moulding) for the transdermal delivery of active substances (e.g., small molecules or macromolecules). Due to his industrial experiences as a Formulation Scientist, at the Department of Drug Product Design, and the Worldwide Research & Development Unit at Pfizer UK, he also has a strong background in formulation, material sciences and characterization. He has established a strong collaborative network with colleagues in several UK-based academic institutions such as the Queen’s University of Belfast, and the Universities of Kent, Strathclyde and Greenwich. Furthermore, Dr. Uddin has received significant recognition through several poster and presentation awards (e.g., CRS Annual Meeting, PharmSci) over the last few years. As a part of his management & leadership experiences, he has contributed to the organization of several international conferences. He won the Young research scholar award (2022) from the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), UNESCO, the Young Promising Researcher Award (2020) in the ICIBLS, Inventor I & Young Inventor Award (2020) in PHARM-IIDEx, Malaysia etc. He is a scientific advisor of the Drug Delivery & Therapeutics (An non-profit organization to promote science for research, innovation & technology transfer) and has actively played his role in the Special Issue, Recent Advances in Vaccine Delivery 2022, Pharmaceutics, MDPI (Guest Editor), Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, Taylor & Francis Group, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, Springer Nature Publishers etc.

Dr. Lai received his Ph.D. from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Technische Universität Ilmenau under the DAAD Ph.D. Sandwich Programme, and was conferred the prestigious Chancellor Award by the Queen of Johor. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering as well as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of BioSight Sdn Bhd, a spin-off company of Universiti Malaya. Dr. Lai has been instrumental in fostering industry-academic collaborations, leading multiple industrial consultation projects. His contributions to science and technology, particularly in medical engineering, have been significant. His research focuses on the development of innovative biomedical devices, including a portable, non-invasive scoliosis detection system and a point-of-care device for knee osteoarthritis diagnosis using vibroarthrography (VAG). More recently, he has pioneered novel machine learning approaches for automated cartilage pattern recognition in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), reducing the need for extensive human intervention. His work has gained substantial interest from both local and international industries. Recognized for his excellence in research and education, Dr. Lai has received more than 30 prestigious international and national awards. These include multiple Special Awards and Gold Medals, as well as Best of the Best Awards from ITEX, MTE, i-ENVEX, AiNEX, PECIPTA, and BioMalaysia Expo, among others. He has also represented Universiti Malaya in global competitions such as iCREATe in Singapore, Thailand, and Japan. Additionally, he has been honored with accolades such as the Best Presentation Award from Fukuoka University (Japan), the Best Sustainable Prototype Award at Digital Wonderland Singapore Expo 2019, an Honorable Mention Award at NSIEC 2020 (Taiwan), and the First Runner-Up Award at the Brunei Crown Prince CIPTA 2021 competition. In recognition of his achievements, he was elected as a Member of the Young Scientists Network - Academy of Sciences Malaysia (YSN-ASM) in 2021 and as a board member of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Young Affiliates Network (TYAN). Dr. Lai has authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications indexed in ISI/Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, with an h-index of 22. His work has led to the granting of 17 patents and intellectual property rights. As principal investigator or co-researcher, he has successfully completed 22 funded projects and is currently leading 13 ongoing research initiatives supported by government agencies, industry partners, and international collaborators. As a credentialed engineer, Dr. Lai is a registered Professional Engineer with a Practicing Certificate (PEPC) at the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and holds several esteemed engineering titles, including Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust), APEC Engineer (IntPE Australia), Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng, NER Australia), Fellow and Council Member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), Senior Member of IEEE (USA), Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), Chartered Engineer (CEng, UK), and Professional Technologist at the Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT). Dr. Lai is actively involved in academic and professional service, serving as a Technical Programme Committee (TPC) member and reviewer for over 50 international conferences, workshops, and journals. He has delivered more than 20 keynote and invited talks at international conferences. Additionally, he serves on the editorial boards of several indexed journals, including as Associate Editor of IEEE Access and IET Image Processing, and as Lead Guest Editor for journals such as Multimedia Tools and Applications and Current Medical Imaging. Beyond his academic and research endeavors, Dr. Lai plays a pivotal role in engineering education. He is the key resource person for curriculum development and accreditation reviews (EAC/MQA/QMEC) in his department and serves as an Accreditation Panel member under the Board of Engineers Malaysia. In 2018, he was appointed as a Fellow under the Ministry of Education Malaysia’s CEO@Faculty Programme, working with C-suite executives at PLUS Malaysia Berhad on digital innovation strategies for IR4.0 transformation. He played a key role in developing commercial strategies for the PLUS Video Analytics (VA) Infrastructure, a project with an investment exceeding RM20 million. Dr. Lai’s research excellence has been recognized with numerous awards, including the ACU Fellowship by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (UK) in 2021 for his research on hospital readmission risks among recovered COVID-19 patients. He was also honored with the IEM Young Engineer Award 2021, the IEEE-EMBS Early Career Achievement Award 2021, and the BEM Malaysia Most Prominent Young Engineering Leader Award (Tokoh Muda) 2022, presented by the Prime Minister of Malaysia. In 2024, he received the Anugerah Penyelidik Muda Cemerlang (Bidang Sains) from Universiti Malaya. As the head of the Advanced Analytics Research Group at the Medical Imaging Laboratory, Dr. Lai has supervised 75 postgraduate students (19 PhD, 9 MSc, and 19 MEng completed; 21 PhD and 7 MSc ongoing). His research team has secured over RM5 million in funding for healthcare technology, medical imaging, and bioinstrumentation projects. His innovations have led to the development of clinically impactful diagnostic prototypes, including OsteoKneeKit™ and Scoltech™, both of which are currently undergoing commercialization. The Scoltech™ project has been approved under the UM Deep Tech Accelerator Programme with RM50,000 in seed funding, with Dr. Lai serving as CTO. Additionally, Dr. Lai contributes as an external examiner for PhD and MSc dissertations, both locally and internationally, and serves as a professional mentor for IEM (Malaysia) and Engineers Australia. He is also an external assessor for higher learning accreditation frameworks, an advisor for industry-academic liaison units, and a board member for Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s (USIM) new technologist programme. Furthermore, he serves on the Disciplinary Committee Panel of the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board (ASDB) under the Bar Council Malaysia.