Chit Laa Poh
Distinguished Professor
Sunway University
Malaysia
Biography
Chit Laa Poh completed her PhD Monash University(Australia) in 1980 and conducted short periods of postdoctoral training at the Pasteur Institute, Cambridge University and the University College London (UCL). She is a Distinguished Professor in the Vice Chancellor’s Office(VCO), Sunway University and has been appointed as the Head of the new Research Centre for Biomedical Sciences. She has previously worked in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine , National University of Singapore (NUS) for 25 years. She has a H-index of 33 She has published more than 85 papers in reputable journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Biosceince and Bioengineering (Japan), Austin Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygeine (USA), Journal of Virology and Emerging Diseases (USA). She has successfully supervised and graduated PhD and MSc students from NUS, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Malaya and Sunway University.
Research Interest
Her research interests are focused on the development of antiviral agents and novel vaccines against Enterovirus 71(EV-A71) which causes hand, foot and mouth disease(HFMD). Currently, there are no FDA approved antivirals or vaccines that can be applied or treat EV-A71 infections. She is interested in gaining an understanding of the molecular determinants of neurovirulence which may explain the differences between virulent and non-virulent EV-A71. Her group is committed to develop effective antiviral agents such as antiviral peptides and morpholino oligomers as anti-sense agents, live-attenuated vaccine strains carrying multiple site specific mutations and viral strains bearing specific microRNAs as novel vaccines.