Dr Kasthuri bai started her career as Medical Scientist at hospital in Haematology and Blood transfusion sections. Then, she decided to continue her post-graduate studies in Medical and Health Sciences. She joined International Medical University (IMU) and completed her MSc (2014) and PhD (2020). Upon completing her doctoral studies, she joined Monash University Malaysia as a post-doctoral scientist in 2021 and promoted to a lecturer in 2023. Her academic qualification and training are in molecular neuroscience, gene expression, proteomics and epigenetics. She has published research articles in internationally renowned journals such as Nutrients, Nutrition Research, Aging Research Reviews, Journal of Molecular Neuroscience and Food Chemistry.

Kasthuri is a researcher in the field of neuroscience, particularly understanding the Parkinson's disease mechanism and identification of natural bioactive compounds that delay the neurodegenerative process. She has reported that natural palm phytonutrients, such as vitamin E  isoforms and palm mixed carotenes, exhibited significant neuroprotective effects on human dopaminergic-like neurons in in vitro experiments. Moreover, numerous fascinating molecular changes have been discovered following exposure of neurons to tocotrienols compounds, including biochemical, protein expression, gene expression and DNA methylation. She has employed bioinformatic tool such R bioconductor and databases (KEGG, STRING, METASCAPE, PANTHER) to analyse genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and proteomics data. These findings have been successfully published in high impact Q1 journals. Furthermore, she is also involved in a proof of concept randomised controlled trial on dry skin patients in collaboration with PPUKM and pharmaceutical company. 

Areas of Interests:

• Neurodegeneration
• Oxidative stress
• Molecular biology and Disease Mechanism
• Neuroimmunology
• Neuroprotection pathways

Internal Research Grant

JCSMHS Seed Grants 2023 - Neuroprotective effects of Beta-carotene on 6-OHDA-induced toxicity in differentiated SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells: A comparison study between natural and synthetic beta-carotenes/ RM30,000 (Principal Investigator). Status: Ongoing

MED 1100/1200 - PBL Year 1 MBBS

NUT 1022 - Fundamentals in Biomedical Sciences

NUT 1023 - Nutritional Biochemistry and Nutrigenomics

MED 5101 - Applied Studies in Medical Research and Professional Practice/ Scholarly Intensive Placement

Currently, Dr Kasthuri is co-supervising two cancer research PhD scholars, offering her expertise in cancer cell culture and bioinformatic data analysis. She supervises PhD students in skin study. She is an active neuroscientist who engages in regular meetings, scientific discussion and technical advise with her students.