Eugene Ong

I am a lecturer at the Institute for Research in Molecular Medicine (INFORMM). I hail from the sunny isle of Penang and first obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) in Resource Biotechnology from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in 2000. I continued my postgraduate studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia and obtained a M.Sc. in Biotechnology focusing on microbial genetics in 2005. Then through the USM-RIKEN collaboration program, I was appointed as an Asia Program Associate at RIKEN, Japan where I received training at the Antibiotics Laboratory headed by Professor Hiroyuki Osada and obtained a PhD in 2011. I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in INFORMM’s Enteric Diseases Research Cluster prior to my appointment as a lecturer in 2014.

My approach to science is a fundamental one as I aim to uncover molecular mechanisms of cellular processes. Currently, my research focus seeks

(i) to understand the roles of virulence factors of microbial pathogens using yeast as a model system, and

(ii) to develop tools and methods to aid research.

Research in both areas fuses

• molecular biology
• microbial genetic engineering
• bioinformatics
• recombinant protein expression and purification
• high-throughput platforms
• protein-protein interaction studies

amongst others.

You can reach me at eugene@usm.my.

The Internet has revolutionized teaching by flattening the previous vertical structure of which the teacher is at the top and the student(s) is at the bottom. Historically, due to communication and geophysical barriers, the transfer of information and knowledge was limited to one-to-one and more recently since the industrial revolution, from one-to-many. However, current day telecommunication advancements allow this information transfer to be carried out in a many-to-many mode, and more importantly independent of human, time and space constraints. Prerecorded video lessons from 'ABC' for toddlers to advanced level mathematics for adults can be watched on the many online multimedia platforms. As such, the role of the teacher in disseminating facts or information, that can be obtained from sites such as 'Wikipedia', is no longer required. What is required, however, is a new role where teachers facilitate and engage students to learn to uncover their true potential.

I recently listened to a talk by Dr. Jean-Luc Doumont entitled 'Teaching is not Learning: Going beyond the traditional Lecture', which I highly recommend to all teachers and learners.

Click to watch his excellent lecture.