Infection and Immunity

Vaccine & Vaccine Safety

A prophylactic vaccine remains the most cost effective approach to decisively impact an epidemic or even eradicate a pathogen globally. Most of the tropical infectious diseases mainly affecting populations living in poverty are not yet preventable by vaccination. The understanding of pathogen biology and protective immunity against the same pathogen together with effective vaccine delivery directs successful vaccine design. 

Vaccine safety is paramount. Over the past two decades, rumours and misinformation about the safety of vaccines have resulted in many parents who refused vaccinations for their children. Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), especially negative sentiments pertaining to vaccination has implicated further increase of vaccination refusal by parents. As a result, there is a rise in the cases of preventable infectious diseases such as measles. The Malaysia Ministry of Health (MOH) has acknowledged the growing trend in refusal of vaccination decisions. The propagated increase of refusal to vaccinate poses a serious public health risk. Adverse event reports database can be obtained from various databases and this can be used to study the extend of these adverse events.

Current research focus:

• Vaccine development against Toxoplasma gondii by using Salmonella as a carrier for vaccine delivery
• We plan to use unstructured data from available health databases to perform predictive text analytics and analyse adverse event reports following administration of vaccine. We will derive insights and behavioural intent of families using a hybrid approach of inductive and deductive reasonings. The current focus are human papilomavirus (HPV) and influenza vaccines (in collaboration with Prof Khong Kok Wei, Nottingham University Business School)
• Vaccine delivery using Reovirus

Current members:

1. Dr Fang Chee Mun
2. Dr Jim Chai
3. Dr Mohammed Tahir Ansari
4. Dr Low Bee Yean
5. Dr Yap Fei Ling
6. Dr Marikannan Maharajan
7. Dr Kenny Voon Gah Leong

Antimicrobial Research

The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance are becoming a serious menace to the modern societies. Microbes continue to find ways to resist the current antibiotic arsenal developed by humans, leading to urgent calls for novel antimicrobial compounds that can prevent the spread of resistance. Besides, understanding the molecular basis of infection process will lead to discovery of new treatment, prevention approach and diagnosis method.

Current research focus:

• Identification of anti-infectives with novel modes of action that could reduce the possibility for drug resistance development, including anti-virulence, anti-biofilm and immunomodulatory agents. 
• Antimicrobial activities and the underlying inhibition mechanism(s) of in-house synthesized metal oxide nanoparticles.
• Antimicrobial activities of natural products, including herbal extracts, functional food and natural product derived drugs. 
• Identification and characterisation of antibiotic resistance bacteria in commercial poultry farms in Malaysia.

Current members:

1. Dr Pung Yuh Fen
2. Dr Ho Wan Yong
3. Dr Fang Chee Mun
4. Dr Kenny Voon Gah Leong