Cheah Hong Leong joined Monash University Malaysia as a Research Fellow (Genomics) in January 2023. He has almost ten years of experience in the fields of microbiology, molecular biology and bioinformatics, as well as seven years of experience as a translator for research writings. Besides, he has a short history working as a quality control microbiologist in the pharmaceutical industry. After graduating from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman with a bachelor’s degree in 2011, he continued his postgraduate studies in molecular biology and bacteriology at Universiti Sains Malaysia, and earned a master’s degree in 2014 and a PhD degree in 2022. His doctoral research primarily focused on establishing the transcription start site landscape and small RNA profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis via RNA-seq analysis. On top of that, he also conducted a similar study on Leptospira biflexa as a side project. In short, his studies have revealed the complexities of regulatory networks and sRNAome that contribute to the survival of these bacteria in hostile environments.

Research Interests (Past):

• Antimicrobial and antifungal drugs screening
• Designing molecular diagnostics kits for the detection of bacterial pathogens
• Establishing transcriptomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Research Interests (Present and prospective):

• Conservation genomics of endemic species in Malaysia, e.g., sea cucumbers
• Gut microbiota of sea cucumbers and their ecological roles