SPEAKERS

Azlina is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, with qualifications in Neuroscience (BSc, University College London), Neurogenetics (PhD, Imperial College London) and trained as a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London studying synapse formation. Her research interests are on the workings of the brain and understanding susceptibility for developing neurological diseases. Her main research projects are on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and motor neuron disease, using a range of genomics technologies. She is a member of the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Programme Family Analysis and Under-represented Working Groups. Disease, and serves on the International ALS Variant Curation Expert Panel. 

Dr. Jane Gew Lai Ti is an Associate Professor at Sunway University, holding a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Malaya. Her research focuses on green chemistry, plastic pollution, sustainability, and planetary health, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Her discovery of microplastics in edible sea salt in 2019 attracted widespread media attention. She also leads community initiatives addressing food waste and food insecurity. As Chair of the Faculty of Medical and Life Sciences Sustainability Committee and a Certified Sustainability & ESG Practitioner, she champions sustainability through education, research, community engagement, and evidence-based policy transformation.

Kwang-Hyun Cho is a Professor in the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and a director of the Laboratory for Systems Biology and Bio-inspired Engineering (http://sbie.kaist.ac.kr). He was a former Vice President of Research of KAIST. Previously, he had been a Professor of Electrical Engineering (1999-2003, University of Ulsan) and Medicine (2004-2007, Seoul National University). He has been an invited scholar of various institutions including University of Manchester, Royal Institute of Technology, Hamilton Institute, University of Glasgow, University of Oxford, University of California at Irvine, University College Dublin, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was the recipient of IEEE/IEEK Joint Award for Young IT Engineer, National Young Scientist Award and National Engineer's Award both from the President of Korea, Walton Fellow Award from Science Foundation of Ireland, and Cheney Fellow Award from University of Leeds, U.K. He started systems biology by his own idea of combining control engineering and biological experiments from 1999 and has published over 240 papers in high-profile international journals. He has been challenging to develop innovative therapeutic approaches for reverting cancer and aging on the basis of systems biology, and founded biorevert, Inc. (https://biorevert.com/) to realize these therapeutics. He is the Editor-in-Chief of IET Systems Biology (Wiley) and Encyclopedia of Systems Biology (Springer).

Dr. Masanobu Oshima is a Professor at the Cancer Research Institute, Kanazawa University. He graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Hokkaido University. His research focuses on the biological and molecular mechanisms of multistep colorectal carcinogenesis, malignant progression, and metastasis using mouse genetics and organoid-based models, with particular emphasis on tumor-host interactions. His research has expanded to include gastric, biliary tract, and pancreatic cancers, aiming to develop novel strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. He currently serves as President of the Japanese Cancer Association (2025–2026).

Varodom Charoensawan is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Mahidol University. Having earned degrees from University College London and the University of Cambridge, he leads a research group focused on the mechanisms of context-specific gene expression. His team integrates multi-omics and computational approaches to elucidate plant stress responses, environmental adaptation, and the molecular underpinnings of complex human diseases. A pioneer of single-cell genomics and spatial transcriptomics in Thailand, he co-leads the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative–funded Asian Immune Diversity Atlas (AIDA) under the Human Cell Atlas. His work applies high-resolution single-cell and spatial gene expression profiling to uncover human immune variation, infectious disease dynamics, and precision oncology.

Yoshikazu Ohya is a Specially Appointed Professor at Nagaoka University of Technology. During his graduate studies at the University of Tokyo, he worked with Yoshinori Ohsumi and Yasuhiro Anraku, and later with David Botstein at Stanford University. He was a professor at the University of Tokyo until 2025. Using budding yeast, his research has combined genetics and quantitative analysis of cell morphology to study cell wall biosynthesis. His recent work revealed a role for Pbr1 in the folding of Fks1 glucan synthase. He also studies antifungal compounds and sake yeast breeding.