DR. MOHD ISKANDAR JEFREE BIN JOHARI

Dr. Jefree Johari received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2007. He then joined Universiti Malaya and finished his Master of Medical Science in 2014. He recently completed his PhD degree in 2024, focusing on the epidemiology of viral infections under the mentorship of the prominent Professor Dr. Sazaly Abu Bakar and talented Dr. Tiong Vunjia. The findings from his PhD work have been published in reputable, top-5% ISI journals, boasting a cumulative Impact Factor of 22.063 at the time of publication. He also proudly represented Malaysia as the sole invitee to attend the prestigious 15th HKU-Pasteur Virology Course during his third semester.

 

He currently serves as a Senior Research Officer (Grade Q48/Q12) at the Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), one of Malaysia’s Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE)'s Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE). In his current role, he provides strategic leadership, overseeing the overall administration and financial management of the research centre. Previously, he was responsible for the operations and maintenance of high-level biocontainment (Biosafety Level-3) research and training facilities at Universiti Malaya. At the national level, he contributed to the development of the inaugural Malaysia Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity Policy and Guidelines, published by the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia in 2015.

He has authored and co-authored more than 20 papers in international refereed journals, most of which were published in journals indexed to Clarivate Analytics ISI Web of Science. His current H-index is 14, with over 950 citations received from diverse authors and journals across the fields of microbiology and infectious diseases. He has two international patent applications filed in 2014 and was the 2015 National Innovation Award (= Anugerah Inovasi Negara) Finalist. Additionally, he has also actively contributed to the advancement of academic research by peer-reviewing numerous manuscripts for prestigious ISI journals, namely Nature's Scientific Reports, and BMC Series journals such as BMC Infectious Diseases, BMC Veterinary Research, BMC Research Notes. Recently, he was appointed to serve as an editorial board member for Bandung Medical Journal, an ISI Journal published by the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia, further solidifying his commitment to promoting excellence in the field.

 

He has strong and extensive project management skills and experience at both national and international levels. To date, he has managed the planning, execution, and performance of over 20 research and community projects worth more than RM 25 million. The most notable research projects he has overseen and shepherded include; the development of Malaysia's first prototype of mobile high-level biocontainment (Biosafety Level-3) laboratory, funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology, & Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia; and the multi-institutional collaborative project between the Universiti Malaya, Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia, Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), and U.S. Naval Medical Research Centre - Asia (U.S. NMRC-A), funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. DOD) to study the seroepidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection among Malaysian Hajj pilgrims. He was invited to share the successes of the project in a Special Panel Session at the 2019 DTRA Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. 

Dr. Jefree Johari played a pivotal role during the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing critical projects focused on evaluating the long-term immune response to SARS-CoV-2, as well as monitoring and characterizing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of public health significance, with an emphasis on diverse target populations, such as those residing in forest fringe areas and strategic locations like the Malaysian-Thai border. These efforts were supported by international funders such as The Henry M. Jackson Foundation's Austere Environments Consortium for Enhanced Sepsis Outcomes (ACESO) and the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance (GEIS). He has also been involved in the development of novel diagnostic technologies, including initiatives supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aimed at enhancing early detection and intervention capabilities for infectious threats.

 

Dr Jefree Johari was named the sole recipient of the prestigious 2019 Universiti Malaya Excellence Awards for the Best Management & Professional Staff (Non-Academic) in recognition of his outstanding service performance and leadership throughout the year. He was also the proud recipient of the Best Presentation Award for his confident, inspiring, and engaging oral presentation during the 2019 International Conference of UM Academia - Community Engagement. More recently, in 2023, he won the Service Excellence Award (= Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang), an award given annually as recognition to the excellent services provided by UM staff within their departments.