Dr. Leong research focus on investigating the mechanism of action of potent compounds toward developing new anticancer and antidiabetes drugs. His research adopts an in vitro approach using cell-based and enzymatic assays to identify the various cellular pathways modulated by a potent compound. The research outcome is to understand the mechanism of action of the compound, a prerequisite requirement in developing a new drug entity. In addition, he employs metabolomics to evaluate biomarkers in explaining the treatment outcomes or disease progression. International collaboration has geared his research towards cancer stem cells and utilizing zebrafish as an animal model for cancer. It is believed that cancer stem cells is a subset of cells in tumour that drives chemoresistance and relapse in cancer patients. Therefore, strategies to develop new chemotherapy against the subset of cells is of great interest to tackle the problem.

YEO Siang Lee, PhD (Macq.) is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Languages & Linguistics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. His main research interest is interactions of individuals with communication disorders, particularly those diagnosed with autism. His current research focuses on the interactions between a small group of children with autism and their teachers in an educational setting.

Wenn-Chyau Lee received his BSc (Hons) degree in Biomedical Sciences from University of Malaya, Malaysia in year 2011, and graduated with his PhD in Medical Sciences from University of Malaya in year 2014. Subsequently, he joined Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN, A*STAR) as a research fellow in Laurent Renia’s Laboratory. He was appointed as SIgN fellow after receiving OF-YIRG grant awarded by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) of Singapore in year 2018. He joined the newly formed A*STAR ID Labs as an investigator in year 2021. Not long after that, he joined the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya as a senior lecturer. As a parasitologist, he has involved in studies encompassing a number of medically important parasites and disease vectors. His main research interest revolves around the immuno-pathobiology of malaria. He has been investigating and deciphering the roles of rosetting (a phenomenon where a red blood cell infected with malaria parasite is stably adhered to uninfected red blood cells, forming a flower-like structure called ‘rosette’) in the pathogenesis of malaria. He also involved in research projects that contributed the draft genomes of Brugia pahangi, Toxoplasma gondii, Anopheles cracens and An. maculatus. He has been working as a research fieldworker in different places including the Thai-Burmese Border, China, peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. As different laboratory settings are equipped differently, he enjoys adapting and improvising facilities available in the field sites to conduct experiments. To date, he has published (as first/ corresponding author) in a number of highly reputable journals such as Blood, eLife, EBioMedicine, Frontiers in Immunology, and Frontiers in Microbiology, and has become reviewers for journals such as Scientific Reports, Tropical Biomedicine, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Acta Tropica, Bio-protocols, Journal of Blood Medicine, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, and Frontiers in Medicine. He is also a review editor of Frontiers in Microbiology.