Dr Tan Boon Chin is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture (CEBAR) at the University of Malaya (UM). He obtained his BSc in Biotechnology from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and his PhD in Plant Biotechnology from the University of Nottingham. He joined UM as a postdoctoral research fellow before progressing to the position of Senior Lecturer. Dr Tan's interests span plant molecular biology and biochemistry. His current research aims to combine omics and molecular approaches to understand the regulatory mechanisms of transcription factors in environmentally stressed crops, to identify ways to improve crop tolerance for near-future climates. These include (1) developing a product in the form of biostimulants to mitigate climate stress for these crops, (2) developing appropriate educational programmes for farmers to promote sustainable agriculture, and (3) making recommendations to policymakers. Dr Tan's research interests also encompass genetically manipulating biosynthetic pathways in plants to produce beneficial bioactive compounds. Additionally, he explores the potential of using plants as an alternative platform for producing high-value recombinant pharmaceutical proteins. Dr Tan served as the Lead Consultant for the National Biosafety Policy and Action Plan project. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Plant Growth Regulation (JPGR) and Annals of Botany (AoB), and serves on the Editorial Boards of BMC Plant Biology, Heliyon, Molecular Biotechnology (MOBI), Asia Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (APJMBB), Discover Food, Discover Plants, and the Journal of Agribusiness Marketing (JAMA). Dr Tan is also the President of the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (MSMBB), an Honorary Secretary General of the Asia Oceania Agricultural Proteomics Organization (AOAPO), a council member of the Malaysian Proteomics Society (MAPS), Malaysian Society of Plant Physiology (MSPP), and Malaysian Society of Systems and Synthetic Biology (MyBioSS), and an eLife Community Ambassador.  He received several awards, including the Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship (2017), the Travel Award for the Asia Pacific Biosafety Association Conference from the United States Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program (2017), and the Alltech Young Scientist Award 2012/13. His research group is committed to applying their expertise and ideas to catalyse efforts to achieve the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2). See the interview: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/the-source/blog/blogposts-communicating-research/enhan...

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. 

Dr Nik Soffiya is an early career researcher at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya. Her scholarly interests are often situated at the intersection of language and social (in)justice. She is an emerging expert in Critical Discourse Studies with a strong inclination towards interdisciplinary research. Her current projects primarily revolve around discourses related to (violence against) women and children, including topics such as female genital cutting and online misogyny within the Malaysian context. She is also a co-founder of the Alliance of Linguists for Palestine (ALPS) research working group, driving linguistics-based research on the Palestinian resistance and liberation. Beyond her academic endeavours, Dr Nik Soffiya is actively involved in training doctoral candidates for Three Minute Thesis competition. She welcomes supervision request from students who are interested in exploring discourses of social issues through a critical discursive lens.