Dr Wan Safwani Binti Wan Kamarul Zaman is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Pharmaceutical Life Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Malaya. She received Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom in 2003. After which she returned to Malaysia to complete the pharmacy provisional training at the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) from 2004 to 2005, as per requirement of the Pharmacy Board of Malaysia. She became a registered pharmacist in August 2005. In 2006, she received her MSc in Immunopharmacology, also from the University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom. In 2008, she was awarded the National Science Fellowship (NSF) from the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysia allowing her to pursue and complete her PhD in 2012 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia). She was also awarded the Hadiah Khalid Kadir for best postgraduate student in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia during the graduation ceremony.   Dr Wan Safwani has contributed substantially in terms of publication and as a reviewer for various journals. Her research interest is in stem cells technology, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles including articles published in Scientific Reports, American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology and PLOS One. She currently has a h-index of 19 with more than 1000 citations. She also supervises postgraduate students, both PhDs and Masters working on various collaborative projects involving stem cell biology, sustainable materials for tissue engineering, non-invasive cellular monitoring system and machine learning application in stem cell research. She is a member of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) and currently serves as the President of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society of Malaysia (TESMA). Outside of research and teaching, she is the co-Founder of the Let's Go to Mummies Lab program, which aims to promote STEM education to young children as part of community outreach program.    

Professor Dr. Yvonne Lim Ai Lian is the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) at Universiti Malaya and a Senior Professor in the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine. She is also a member of the University Senate. A Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), she co-chairs the APRU Asia Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) Programme and serves on the International Advisory Committee of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities. Throughout her distinguished career, she has held several key leadership roles at both university and national levels, including Deputy Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Medicine, Director of the International Relations Office, and Associate Vice-Chancellor of Global Engagement at Universiti Malaya. She has also served as President of the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine and as a Council Member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. Her research focuses on deciphering the intricate host-parasite-environment interactions that contribute to disease in indigenous and underserved communities, aiming to develop multi-targeted solutions. Additionally, she investigates the diversity of gut and skin microbiomes across populations spanning various socioeconomic and ecological landscapes, from traditional to industrialized societies. For nearly three decades, she has dedicated her work to studying infectious diseases among the Orang Asli (indigenous) communities of Peninsular Malaysia, collaborating closely with Hospital Orang Asli Gombak. Her contributions to national policy, including the Orang Asli Development Policy (DPOA), reflect her deep commitment to community welfare. Her collaboration with New York University led to a groundbreaking discovery, published in Science (2016), revealing how low levels of helminth (worm) infections promote the growth of probiotic gut microbiota. Her gut microbiome research has since expanded to studies among HIV and cancer patients. More recently, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA, she has deepened investigations into parasitic infections, gut microbiome dynamics, and the relationship between skin infections and the skin microbiome. Her work is supported by numerous national and international grants, including the prestigious US NIH R01 grants. She was recently awarded another NIH R01 grant as the principal investigator. She has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles, contributed to nine book chapters, and authored three books. As a dedicated mentor, she has supervised more than 40 postgraduate students to completion and hosted researchers through extensive collaborations with institutions in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. She has also held visiting research and academic positions at leading institutions, including the Scottish Parasite Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory in Glasgow, Scotland; the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Melbourne, Australia; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA; and the Department of Molecular Parasitology and Tropical Diseases at Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. She has earned numerous accolades, including the MSPTM Medal (2008) for outstanding young scientists, the Universiti Malaya Excellent Lecturer Award for Science Disciplines (2015), and the Top Research Scientists of Malaysia Award (2016). In 2017, she was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. She has been consistently recognized in Stanford University's list of the top 2% of scientists globally in her field. In 2021, she was awarded the Fulbright Scholar Award (2021/2022) for a fellowship at the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at NIAID, NIH, USA. Most recently, she received the prestigious Sandosham Gold Medal Award in 2024, the highest honour from the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to parasitology and tropical medicine. Deeply passionate about her work with the Orang Asli communities, she remains committed to inspiring and empowering her colleagues and students to reach their fullest potential.  

Dr. Phang Kean Chang is a distinguished clinical scientist, academician, and bioethicist currently serving as Senior Lecturer at the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. With a multidisciplinary foundation comprising a PhD in Pathology, dual Master’s degrees in Health Research Ethics and Medical Sciences (Pathology), and a BSc in Biohealth Science, Dr. Phang has built an exceptional career at the intersection of molecular medicine, ethics, and leadership in academic research.   He heads the Medical Research Ethics Unit (MREU) at Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, where he has led transformational improvements in ethical review systems, spearheaded training programmes for researchers and reviewers, and successfully hosted the 23rd FERCAP International Conference. As Coordinator of UMHealth under the Associate Vice Chancellor's Office, Dr. Phang has also played a key role in institutional strategic health initiatives with the five key health entities in the University. His research spans molecular diagnostics, digital pathology, cancer immunotherapy, and bioethics. He is actively involved in multiple national and international research projects, including private clinical trials and the Wellcome funded Global Health Bioethics Network (GHBN), a collaboration with the University of Oxford. His scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed publications in pathology, oncology, and bioethics, and he has co-authored national and international policy papers, such as Malaysia’s Decentralised Clinical Trials (DCT) Guidance Document. Dr. Phang is a Chartered Scientist (UK Royal Society of Biology), a Senior Research Fellow with the GHBN, and an affiliate member of the Young Scientists Network-Academy of Sciences Malaysia. He has received multiple recognitions, including the Certificate of Excellent Service (UM, 2025), and fellowships from WHO, NIH (USA), and WCG IRB–New York University Langone Health. Renowned for his commitment to ethical leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration, Dr. Phang continues to influence health policy, research governance, and academic development both nationally and internationally.