About
Summary
Highly experienced in the cell and molecular biology of infectious diseases, particularly on the endocytic pathways utilise by pathogens for invading mammalian cells. Extensive knowledge and practical experience in cell culture, genetic manipulation of Streptococcus pneumoniae, molecular gene cloning, and confocal microscopy.
Positions
Postdoc Jun 2012 -
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Project title: Dissecting bacterial peptidoglycan-teichoic acid complex entry and signalling in eukaryotic cells
• The project involved investigating endocytosis pathways that are involved in the internalization of purified pneumococcal peptidoglycan-teichoic acid complex (CW) in epithelial and endothelial cells, as well as the role of these pathways in CW-induced inflammatory responses. This required a wide range of techniques from primary lung endothelial cells isolation, siRNA knockdown, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, image analysis, and ELISA.
• I also optimized a protocol for purifying neural progenitor cells from mouse embryo, which enabled members of the laboratory to perform in vitro experiments, and resulted in a paper published in Cell Host and Microbe.
• Presented posters at two scientific meetings.
• Supervised one summer student and one technician.
Research assistant Dec 2006 - May 2008
Project title: Development of Nipah virus (NiV) vaccine
• This project involved cloning and expressing NiV fusion (F), attachment (G) glycoproteins, and matrix (M) proteins in both mammalian and bacterial expression systems.
• Laboratory management (including placing orders, liaising with vendors), and set up a tissue culture laboratory.
• Supervised two students.
Education
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2008 - 2012
Field of study: Microbiology
Degree: PhD
Thesis title - Escherichia coli K1 interactions with human brain microvascular endothelial cells, a primary step in the development of neonatal meningitis
• The project involved investigating the cellular pathway utilized by neonatal meningitis-causing Escherichia coli (E. coli) K1 for invading brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC), and for intracellular survival. In this study, a fluorescent protein-expressing E. coli K1 that retain virulence was constructed, and fluorescent protein-tagged chimeric mutant constructs were applied to dissect the molecular pathways involved in the bacterial invasion.
• Presented orally in The Bloomsbury Colleges consortium’s research symposiums and departmental seminars, and presented posters at three scientific meetings.
• Supervised one MSc student.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2005 - 2006
Field of study: Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases
Degree: MSc
Universiti Putra Malaysia 2001 - 2004
Field of study: Biomedical Sciences
Degree: BSc
Project title: The effect of neem (Azadirachta indica) extract and dietary selenium on distribution of selenium in hepatocarcinogenesis induced rat
• This project involved analysing selenium in liver tissues of hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats after feeding with neem (Azadirachta indica) aqueous extract and dietary selenium by using energy filtering transmission electron microscope (EFTEM).
Skills
Confocal microscopy, Structural illuminated microscopy (SIM), Live-cell imaging, Immunolabeling for electron microscopy, Correlative light and electron microscopy, Flow Cytometry, Western blotting, ELISA, Electrophoresis, Sucrose density gradient fractionation, Cloning, PCR, DNA and RNA extraction, in vitro transcription and translation, Mammalian cell transfection (biochemical methods and electroporation), Generation of bacteria mutants (Streptococcus pneumoniae), Site-directed mutagenesis, Cell culture, Isolation of primary mouse lung endothelial cells and neuronal progenitor cells from mouse embryo, Cytotoxicity assay, Isolation of nuclei from mouse liver, Bacterial adhesion and invasion assays, Culture of Acanthamoeba castellanii, Purification of the pneumococcal peptidoglycan-teichoic acid complexes, Bioinformatics, Image analysis with SlideBook, ImageJ, Imaris, and CellProfiler
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