About Me

I obtained my Medical Degree(M.D.) in 1995 from Universiti Sains Malaysia and completed my specialist degree Masters in Medicine (Ophthalmology) in 2003 at my alma mater. I worked at several Ministry of Health hospitals; Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu, Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan and Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Trengganu. I joined USM in 2004 as an academic at the Department of Ophthalmology under several Heads of Department, namely: Professor Abdul Mutalib Othman, Dr Elias Hussein, Associate Professor Dr Mohtar Ibrahim and Professor Wan Hazabbah Wan Hitam. My job as an eye specialist and medical lecturer involved academic activities, eye clinic services, surgery and clinical research. I moved to Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, USM Kepala Batas in 2008 and joined the Regenerative Medicine research cluster. I have a wide research interests in Public Health Ophthalmology, Cornea stem cells and Regenerative Medicine. My transition into corneal limbal stem cell biology and its applications in ocular surface regeneration has brought my involvement with other researchers at Tissue Engineering Centre, UKM, the International Centre for Life, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, UK and Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan. I completed my PhD in corneal limbal stem cells under the supervision of Dr Annette Meeson at the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, UK. My PhD work was on characterization of limbal stem cells and cellular model for limbal epithelial cells, limbal side population cells and limbal mesenchymal stem cells. A combined interest in research and clinical experience has been proven to be very significant for clinical applications especially in the treatment of corneal blindness. I also have a keen interest in mentoring new clinicians and post-graduate research students and so far graduated 10 Masters in Medicine (Ophthalmology) students (6 as main supervisor and 4 as co-supervisor). I am currently the consultant ophthalmologist and a research scientist at the Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, USM Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Cornea Stem Cells

I specialises in corneal limbal stem cells, especially in the therapies for limbal stem cell deficiency utilising contemporary tools i.e. limbal stem cell transplantation. For this, I use common methods such as cell viability assays, cellular migration by chemotaxis and scratch method, immunohistochemistry, polymerase chain reaction, flowcytometry & cell sorting,

Tissue Engineering

I have a keen interest in tissue engineering for clinical applications in the eye. The tissue materials involved are human amniotic membrane from donors, silk fibroin and polymers. The main research interests in this area are looking at cellular adhesion, cellular proliferation and toxicity assays, cellular interphase, cellular characterization (gene and protein expression) and signaling factors.