Dr. Lee-Ling Lim is Professor of Medicine, UM and Head of the Diabetes Care Unit, Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. As a clinician-scientist, her major areas of interest include cardiometabolic medicine and intergenerational diabetes with translational and implementation science components.  Dr. Lim sits on the Working Groups of The Lancet Commission on Diabetes and the American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Study of Diabetes (ADA/EASD) Precision Medicine in Diabetes Initiative, who provide authoritative resources in tackling the global diabetes epidemic. She recognizes that every person with diabetes and non-communicable disease (NCD) is unique and warrants personalized care. To revolutionize health care, Dr. Lim aims to advance the implementation of Precision Medicine in Diabetes and NCD, taking into account differences in clinical presentation, genes, and lifestyles in Malaysian populations. These have led to several collaborations with the USA, UK, and other Asian countries. She has published in numerous high-impact journals including The Lancet, Nature, Diabetes Care, and Science Bulletin.  Dr. Lim has received several awards including the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University for 3 consecutive years (2022-2024), the EFSD Albert Renold Fellowship, the USA Endocrine Society Outstanding Abstract Award, and a scholarship funded by the USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences for training in statistical genetics at the University of Washington, USA. She is an Editorial Board Member of several Tier 1 Web of Science-indexed journals (BMC Medicine, Diabetes/Metabolism Research & Reviews, and Diabetes & Metabolism). Dr. Lim is an article reviewer for 29 leading academic journals including the European Heart Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Diabetes Care, PLoS Medicine, and European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

In 2012, Shafina completed her Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Following this, she embarked on a dedicated service as a dental officer at the Ministry of Health Malaysia until 2015. Later, she joined the Universiti Malaya, where she garnered a scholarship by the Ministry of Education Malaysia for her specialty training. Shafina pursued a Master of Science in Clinical Dentistry at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, a milestone she attained in 2018. During the same year, she was awarded the Membership in Periodontics examination by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Upon her return from the United Kingdom, Shafina assumed the role of a clinical lecturer at the Universiti Malaya until September 2022. Throughout her tenure, she dedicated herself to both undergraduate and postgraduate education, encompassing academic and clinical aspects. Her impact extended to guiding master's students in navigating project management and thesis composition. Shafina has secured multiple research grants that facilitated the exploration of her diverse interests in fields such as Periodontology, Artificial Intelligence, and the response to COVID-19. She has contributed to scholarly discourse through the authorship of book chapters and publications featured in high-impact journals, as well as through her engagement with mass media. Her remarkable achievements have been recognised with several awards. Particularly noteworthy is her receipt of the prestigious Dental Education and Clinical Experience Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2022. Presently, Shafina is pursuing her doctorate at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute. Her research focus is centered around leveraging artificial intelligence to predict the prognosis of treatment outcomes for gingival recession around teeth.

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 and Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Universiti Malaya, 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 62 postgraduate students (18 PhD, 8 MSc, and 19 MEng completed; 15 PhD and 2 MSc ongoing). His research team has secured over RM4 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.