We would like to invite everyone to join us in this important webinar on Diabetes, entitled “Precision Medicine in Malaysia: Ready for Prime Time” on 23rd of September 2020, 4-6 pm (Malaysian time). This is in conjunction with the official launch of our UK-Malaysia Joint Partnership for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) grant, a collaborative effort between the UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI) and the University of Dundee by Professor Dato’ Ir. Dr. Abdul Wahab bin Mohammad, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Innovation UKM.

The Precision medicine for diabetic Individuals: a joint Malaysia UK Effort (PRIME) project is led by Prof.  Dr Chim C Lang from the University of Dundee and Prof Datuk Dr A Rahman A Jamal from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia is also our key partner to provide detailed clinical data of these diabetic patients. This PRIME project aims to establish partnerships amongst physician-scientists, genetic epidemiologists, big data analysts, machine learning scientists, and policymakers to cohesively deliver multi-level strategies to augment precision medicine for diabetic patients in Malaysia, by establishing the PRIME cohort (5000 participants). In this PRIME project, the Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) will be performed for all participants, with the addition of the retina images scanning (a subset of 500 participants). The combinatorial analysis using genomics, clinical data, and retina images will be performed to stratify diabetic patients for future risk prediction and therapeutic responses.

In this webinar, our experts will highlight the current status and issues surrounding diabetes in Malaysia, as well as the key research projects on diabetes.

Several topics for discussion in this webinar include:

1)   Epidemic of Type II Diabetes Mellitus in Malaysia (Ass. Prof. Dr Norlaila Mustafa)

2)   Cardiovascular Disease Burden in Malaysia. An insight From the National CVD Registry (Datuk Dr Aizai Azan Abdul Rahim)

3)   Precision Medicine for Malaysia: Is Precision Medicine our future (Prof. Datuk Dr A Rahman A Jamal)

4)   Diabetes: How genomics will drive precision medicine for diabetes (Prof. Dr Colin Palmer)

5)   Analysis of retinal scan images using the VAMPIRE program (Prof. Dr Emanuele Truco)

6)   Exploring the link between retinal changes and the risk for cardiovascular diseases (Dr Alexander Doney)

7)   The PRIME study: A strategic collaboration between UK and Malaysia (Prof. Dr Chim C Lang)