PROF. DR. LIM KHENG SEANG

Professor Dr. Lim Kheng Seang, a University of Malaya (Malaysia) graduate in 1999 with MRCP (UK), is a Professor of Neurology in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, the Head of Neurology Unit, PPUM, and a Consultant Neurologist specializing in epilepsy at the University of Malaya Medical Centre and University Malaya Specialist Centre, Malaysia. He has been trained at the University of Malaya for his neurology subspecialty training (2008), followed by fellowship training in Melbourne (2011) and Cleveland (2017) for epilepsy.  He is the President of the ASEAN Neurological Association (ASNA, 2023-2027), the Chair-elect (2025-2029) and General Secretary (2021-2025) of the Asian and Oceanian Commission, International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE-AO), the chair of the Research Task Force in the commission, the past President of the Malaysian Society of Neurosciences (MSN) and Malaysian Epilepsy Society (PEM), an active member of the Malaysian Epilepsy Council and internationally and ex-chair of the Research Commission in the International Bureau of Epilepsy. He has been involved in many trials of newer treatments (e.g., newer drugs and transcranial magnetic stimulation) in epilepsy. He also specialises in non-invasive and invasive epilepsy surgery assessment, including long-term video-EEG monitoring, intracranial monitoring with stereo-EEG, subdural and depth electrodes, electrocardiography, and cortical stimulation. Other areas of expertise included vagal nerve stimulation, deep brain stimulation, transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcutaneous direct current stimulation, corpus callosotomy and radiofrequency ablation.  He is currently the Associate Editor for Neurology Asia, a reviewer for a few academic journals, and an organising committee member of multiple national and international conferences. He has published ≥ 150 original papers with an H-index of 24, in journals including Neurology (IF:8.055), Epilepsia (IF:5.562), Neuron (14.403), and JAMA Neurology (IF:29.91). His research work focuses on the psychosocial aspects of epilepsy, clinical studies, especially epilepsy surgery and seizures in brain tumours, genetics in focal and familial epilepsies, pharmacogenomics and pharmacokinetics of antiepileptic drugs, quantitative EEG and quantitative MRI research, and artificial intelligence. He is active in research, being the principal investigator and co-investigator in many local and international research projects, and has a strong collaboration with Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. He was awarded multiple university and national research grants of more than RM1.5 million, and he has supervised 20 postgraduate students and 30 international neurology fellows. 

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PROF. DR. THONG MEOW KEONG

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 received the Minister of Education of Malaysia Award for Curriculum Design and Innovation as well as University of Malaya's Excellence Award for 'Distinguished Research in Science'. He was also the recipient for the prestigious American Society of Human Genetics Advocacy Award 2022 and the Star Golden Hearts Award in 2024 in recognition of efforts in developing genetic and genomic healthcare for all. Professor Thong has published over 120 peer-reviewed publications on research work done on genetic disorders that hitherto have not been well documented in the various Asian subpopulations. He co-authored 8 books, including Handbook of Hospital Paediatrics (2nd edition), Problem-based Learning in Medical Sciences and Rare Journeys of Love and 15 book chapters, including a chapter in the prestigious Oxford monograph Genomics and Health in the Developing World and presented in many national and international conferences, including 200 proceedings and 10 keynote / plenary lectures. His h-index for Web Of Science / Scopus / Google Scholar was 26 / 29 / 36, respectively with over 2600 citations (Scopus). He worked closely with the Ministry of Health Malaysia in developing the counselling module for thalassaemia and other clinical practice guidelines. He collaborated with the World Health Organization and March of Dimes in preparing a document on management of birth defects and haemoglobinopathies as well as rare diseases. He was the lead author for two policy papers, including a White Paper on 'Rare Diseases in Malaysia' written in conjunction with the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) and helped developed the National Policy on Rare Diseaes in Malaysia in 2025 He was the past President of the Asia-Pacific Society of Human Genetics, founding Vice President of the Medical Genetics Society of Malaysia, Chairman of the Clinical Genetics sub-speciality committee of the National Specialist Register Malaysia, appointed member of the Education committee member in Paediatrics by the Malaysian Medical Council and President of the College of Paediatrics, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia. He was the Head, Department of Paediatrics, University of Malaya from 2009 – 2011 with the notable achievement of overseeing the successful transition of the Department of Paediatrics to the new Women’s and Children’s Health Complex of UMMC. He was also appointed as the founding Head, Genetic Medicine unit of the University Malaya Medial Centre. He was elected as a Fellow of Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, Academy of Medicine Singapore, Academy of Sciences Malaysia and ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology. He was elected a steering committee member of the Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative (G2MC) in 2022. Professor Thong is also a reviewer for international journal manuscripts, research grant applications as well as an examiner for national and international medical examinations in Sydney, Melbourne, Dhaka and Hong Kong. He co-authored the new Malaysian Paediatrics postgraduate curriculum in conjunction with the National Postgradaute Medical Curriculum Writing project. He organized the 10th Asia-Pacific Conference on Human Genetics and is the founding National Advisor to the Malaysian Rare Disorders Society in 2004. He helped established the Genetic Counselling Society of Malaysia. He organised the first UM-Chinese University of Hong Kong Certificate Course in Clinical Genetics and Genomics at the University of Malaya. His current interests include delineation of rare disorders, preventive and curative strategies for genetic disorders, genetic counselling, inborn errors of metabolism. medical education and access to genetics and genomics services in developing countries. He was the first to start expanded newborn screening program in a public hospital in Malaysia and initiated enzyme replacement therapy before 2000 and gene therapy for patients with spinal muscular atrophy in 2020. He undertook the first clinical trials for gene therapy and won awards for  being the top research reruiter in Malaysia. He has obtained over 20 research grants worth over RM8 million and has international collaborations with renowned centres in Australia, Saudi Arabia, USA, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. He started the first clinical genetics and genomic education programs for medical students followed by specialist trainees in Malaysia as well as trained the first genetic counsellors

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DR. NITHIAH A/P THANGIAH

Dr Nithiah Thangiah has been working in the research field for the past 12 years. She has been involved in many projects on population health at the Centre for Population Health (CePH), Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya. Her research interest includes survey design, data management and data analysis. She is comfortable in using SPSS, Stata and JASP for data analysis. She has gained a Masters in Applied Statistics and PhD in Public Health (Adolescent Health). Her PhD in cluster analysis has enhanced her statistical skills while exploring adolescent health and CVD risk factors in Malaysia. She has published and co-authored several papers during her career as a researcher.

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