KOH Chong-Lek
PhD (University of London), DIC (Imperial College), FASc, FMSA

Genetics, molecular biology

Email: clkoh@nie.edu.sg
          dnaanduuu@yahoo.com

Present position:   Head, DNA Centre @ NIE
                               Associate Professor
 

Other positions held:

1. Fellow (FASc) of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia
   

2. Fellow (FMSA) of the Malaysian Scientific Association
   

3. Founder Member of the Asia-Pacific International Molecular Biology Network (A-IMBN) and member of the founding Governing Council for A-IMBN.
   

4. Executive Secretary of the UNESCO Regional Network for Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology in Southeast Asia, 1995-2001
   

5. The Representative of the National Point of Contact (Malaysia) of the UNESCO Regional Network for Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology in Southeast Asia
   

6. Member of the National Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee, Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, Malaysia, since 1995.
   

7. Member of the Drafting Team that drafted the 'Gene Technology and Biosafety' Act and the 'Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing' Act, Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, Malaysia.
   

8. Member of the Technical Committee on the Importation of Microorganisms and Organic Fertilizers, Ministry of Agriculture, Malaysia.
   

9. Council Member of the Malaysian Scientific Association, 1998-1999.
   

10. Past President of the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, 1993-1997.
    

11. Chairman of the University and College Students’ Loan Fund Subcommittee, Persatuan Alumni Chung Ling Malaysia, 1998-2000.
    

12. The Malaysian Government Representative to the "UNESCO Committee of Governmental Experts for the Finalization of a Declaration on Human Genome", 1997.
    

13. Co-Editor (1993-1998) and Member, Editorial Board (1998-now) of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.
    

14. Member (1997-2001), Editorial Board of the Journal of Natural Rubber Research, Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia.
    

15. Chairman of the Dr. Ranjit Bhagwan Singh Memorial Lecture Organising Committee (Academy of Sciences Malaysia), 1999-2000.
    

16. Member of the Organising Committee of The Tan Sri Dr. Augustine Ong Fellowship Trust: The Prof. Dr. James D. Watson Lectures, 1996.
    

17. Member of the Prof. Dr. David Baltimore Public Lecture Organising Committee (Academy of Sciences Malaysia & UKM), 1997.
    

18. Member of the Prof. Emeritus Sir Gustav Nossal Public Lecture Organising Committee (Academy of Sciences Malaysia & UM), 1998.
    

19. Member of the Prof. Emeritus Sir Gustav Nossal Public Lecture Organising Committee (Academy of Sciences Malaysia & UM), 1998.
    

20. Chairman of the International Organizing Committee of the 7th Asian Conference on Transcription (ACT-VII), 23–27.7.2002, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    

Awards and Fellowships received:

1. The inaugural MSMBB-Applied Biosystems Award (2001) by the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

2. The 1996 Science & Technology Award by the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation.
   

3. The 2000 MACEE Fulbright Malaysian Scholar Program Award by the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange.
   

4. The Royal Society Award (1993) by the Royal Society, London..
   

5. One of the two inaugural recipients of the Royal Society Malaysian Fellowship in 1987/88.
   

6. GBF award (1988) by Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung mbH (GBF).
   

7. World Health Organisation (WHO) Research Training Grant (1987) by the World Health Organisation.
   

8. Wellcome Research Fellowship (1985) by the Wellcome Trust, England.
   

9. Unesco Grant for Graduate Studies in Science and Technology for the ASEAN Countries (1984) by UNESCO.
   

Research outside Malaysia:

1. Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Peter M. Bennett, Department of Microbiology, University of Bristol, Bristol, England (under the Wellcome Research Fellowship, 1985).
   

2. Adjunct Associate Professor in the laboratories of Professors Maurille J. Fournier and Thomas L. Mason, Department of Biochemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (under the WHO Research Training Grant, 1987).
   

3. Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor David H.L. Bishop, NERC Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology, Oxford, England (under the Royal Society Malaysian Fellowship, 1989).
   

4. Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Sir Alec J. Jeffreys, FRS, Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester, England (under a research award from the Royal Society, London, England, 1993).
   

5. Visiting Professor at the International Center for Biotechnology (with Professor Toshiomi Yoshida and Professor Tatsuji Seki), Osaka University, Osaka, Japan (November, 1995 – April, 1996).
   

6. Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the laboratory of Assistant Professor Kalai Mathee, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA (August, 2000 – July, 2001).
   

Consultancy service provided:

1. Provide human individual identification service (e.g., rape and paternity cases) based on DNA typing of both chromosomal and mitochondrial genes to the general public in Malaysia.
   

2. Had identified victims in two major disasters (the Highland Tower condominium collapse in 1993 and the Tawau plane crash in 1995) in Malaysia.
   

3. Provide DNA typing service for disease detection [e.g., molecular diagnosis of specific spino-cerebellar ataxia (SCA) subtypes] in patients or for detection of predisposition genes in relatives of patients.
   

Research:

1. Isolation and characterisation of antibiotic resistance plasmids and transposons and integrons in antibiotic resistant bacteria from different sources in Malaysia, especially multiple antibiotic resistance transposons and integrons from Salmonella typhi.
   

2. Molecular biology of thermophilic bacteria: cloning and characterisation of promoters and structural genes from Thermus species.
   

3. Determination of mitochondrial DNA types and the genotype and allele frequencies at a number of polymorphic loci in the Malaysian population: DNA databases of Chinese, Indians, Malays, and other indigenous groups from Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian population.
   

4. Determination of the nucleotide sequences of Nipah viruses from humans and bats and production of recombinant Nipah virus proteins in heterologous systems for diagnostic purpose (A joint project with Professor Dr. S.K. Lam and Associate Professor Dr. K.B. Chua, U.M.): identified the natural animal reservoir of Nipah virus (June 2000).
   

Selected publications:

1. Phipps M., Pang T., Koh C.L., and Puthucheary S.D., "Plasmid incidence rate and conjugative chloramphenicol and tetracycline resistance plasmids in Malaysian isolates of Salmonella typhi," Microbiology and Immunology, Vol. 35, No. 2, February 1991, p. 157-161.
   

2. Chin I.Y.M., Koh C.L., and Bosco J.J., "ras gene mutations in Malaysian leukemia patients," Acta Haematologica, Vol. 87, No. 1-2, April 1992, p. 107-108.
   

3. Chin Y.M., Bosco, J.J., and Koh C.L., "Analysis of ras gene mutations in acute myeloid leukemia by the polymerase chain reaction and oligonucleotide probes," Singapore Medical Journal, Vol. 33, No. 1, February 1992, p. 48-50.
   

4. Pang T., Altwegg M., Martinetti G., Koh C.L., and Puthucheary S.D., "Genetic variation among Malaysian isolates of Salmonella typhi as detected by ribosomal RNA gene restriction patterns," Microbiology and Immunology, Vol. 36, No. 5, May 1992, p. 539-544.

5. Chin Y.M., Koh C.L., and Bosco, J.J., "Breakpoint cluster region (bcr) gene rearrangement studies in chronic myeloid and acute lymphoblastic leukemias," Medical Journal of Malaysia, Vol. 47, No. 2, June 1992, p. 110-113.
   

6. Sutthi K., Kautner I.M., Koh C.L., and Lam S.K., "Genetic variation among Japanese encephalitis viruses isolated in Thailand," Arthropod-Borne Virus Information Exchange, June 1992, p. 20-22.
   

7. Koh C.L., "The impact of molecular biology on biotechnology. Part 1. Introduction to the basic concepts of recombinant DNA technology," Malaysian Oil Science and Technology, Vol. 1, No. 2, July 1992, p. 45-51.
   

8. Kaladevi R. and Koh C.L., "Pengklonan serpihan DNA yang berfungsi sebagai promoter transkripsi daripada plasmid Thermus ruber di dalam Escherichia coli (Cloning of DNA fragment from Thermus ruber plasmid functioning as transcriptional promoter in Escherichia coli )," Jurnal Sains Malaysiana (Sains Hayat), Vol. 21 No. 3, September 1992, p. 33-39.
   

9. Koh C.L., "The impact of molecular biology on biotechnology. Part 2. Applications," Malaysian Oil Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1993, p. 50-53.
   

10. Cheong K.F. and Koh C.L., "Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the large subunit D-ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase gene, rbcL, of Hevea brasiliensis," Journal of Natural Rubber Research, Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1993, p. 146-153.
    

11. Yang P.Y., Kautner I.M., Koh C.L., and Lam S.K., "Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of genes encoding the structural and nonstructural NS1 proteins of a dengue-2 virus isolated in China," Virus Genes, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1994, p. 71-74.
    

12. Thong K.L., Cheong Y.M., Puthucheary S.D., Koh C.L., and Pang T., "Epidemiologic analysis of sporadic and outbreak Salmonella typhi strains by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis," Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Vol. 32, No. 5, May 1994, p. 1135-1141.
    

13. Koh C.L. and Benjamin D.G., "HLA-DQa genotype and allele frequencies in Malays, Chinese, and Indians in the Malaysian population," Human Heredity, Vol. 44, No. 3, MayÐJune 1994, p. 150-155.
    

14. Cao H.H., Mukherjee T.K., and Koh C.L., "A study of restriction fragment length polymorphisms on some sheep breeds," Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica, Vol. 25, No. 5, 1994, p. 406-411.
    

15. Fong M.Y., Koh C.L., Samuel S., Pang T., and Lam S.K., "Nucleotide and encoded amino acid sequences of the nonstructural protein NS1 genes of three Malaysian dengue 2 viruses," Asia-Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1994, p. 361-367.
    

16. Cheong K.F., Koh C.L., and Chew N.P., "Isolation and restriction analysis of chloroplast DNA from Hevea," Journal of Natural Rubber Research, Vol. 9, No. 4, December 1994, p. 278-288.
    

17. Koh C.L., "Prospects of genetics and biotechnology in Malaysia," Proceedings of the First National Congress on Genetics, Genetics Society of Malaysia (Ed. Koh C.L.) (ISBN 983-9152-05-X), The Genetics Society of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 1994, p. 7-20.
    

18. Koh C.L., "DNA fingerprinting, profiling and typing," Isu-isu Semasa Sains dan Teknologi 1996, Malaysian Scientific Association, Petaling Jaya, 1996, p. 1-22.
    

19. Koh C.L., Lim M.E., Ng H.S., and Sam C.K., "D1S80 (pMCT118) allele frequencies in a Malay population sample from Malaysia," International Journal of Legal Medicine, Vol. 110, No. 1, 1997, p. 39-40.
    

20. Fong M.Y., Koh C.L., and Lam S.K., "Molecular epidemiology of Malaysian dengue 2 viruses isolated over twenty-five years (1968-1993)," Research in Virology, Vol. 149, 1998, p. 457-464.
    

21. Koh C.L., Lim M.E., and Sam C.K., "ABO genotype and allele frequencies in Malays from Malaysia," Biotechnology Towards the Next Millenium (10th National Biotechnology Seminar, 27 & 28 October, 1998; Selangor), SIRIM Berhad and the Ministry of Science, Technology & the Environment, Malaysia, 1998, p. 178-181.
    

22. Lian L.H., Lim M.E., and Koh C.L., "Asian specific 9-bp deletion frequencies in Malays, Chinese, Indians, and indigenous Sarawakians from Malaysia," Proceedings of the Third National Congress on Genetics: Genetics Towards Better Quality in Life, (Ed. Mohamad O. et al.) (ISBN 983-99037-2-1), Genetics Society of Malaysia, Bangi, 1998, p. 242-244.
    

23. Yong S., Yusuf R., Koh C.L., Cheah S.C., and Ooi L.C.L., "Partial nucleotide sequence of an oleosin cDNA from Elaeis guineensis Jacq.," Journal of Oil Palm Research (in press).
    

24. Koh C.L., Lim M.E., Ng H.S., and Sam C.K., "D1S80 (pMCT118) genotype and allele frequencies in a Chinese population sample from Malaysia," Proceedings of the 11th National Biotechnology Seminar: Biotechnology in Enhancing Productivity and Sustainability Beyond 2000 (ISBN 967-936-358-9), MARDI and National Biotechnology Directorate, Ministry of Science, Technology & the Environment, Malaysia, 1999, p. 249-251.
    

25. Ng K.K.S., Lee S.L., Saw L.G., and Koh C.L., "Comparison of microsatellite data generated by using high-resolution agarose gel and denaturing polyacrylamide gel," Proceedings of the Fourth National Congress on Genetics, (Eds. M. S. Saad et al.), Genetics Society of Malaysia, Bangi, 2000, p. 271-279.
    

26. Koh C.L., "Genetic engineering and biotechnology" (in Mandarin). Nanyang Siang Pau, Saturday, January 1, 2000.
    

27. Koh C.L., "Biotechnology is the future wave: A discipline with huge potential" New Sunday Times, Sunday, January 23, 2000, p. 28.
    

28. Koh C.L., "Implications of the ‘book of life’ project: Measures needed to prevent exploitation and abuse" New Sunday Times, Sunday, July 2, 2000, p. 33.
    

29. Koh C.L., "‘Talking’ and ‘hearing’ bacteria: The basis for discovering and developing novel magic bullets to combat bacteria" New Sunday Times, Sunday, October 22, 2000, p. 30.

30. Koh C.L., Wong H.L., Lim M.E., and Sam C.K., “Antibiotic resistance transposons from Salmonella typhi,” Abstracts ASM 101^st General Meeting, American Society for Microbiology, 20-24 May, 2001, Orlando, Florida, USA, p. 415.

31. Chew N.K., Goh K.J., Tan C.T., Ng W.K., Lim M.E. and Koh C.L., “Spinocerebellar ataxia, a clinical and genetic study in Malaysia,” Neurological Journal of Southeast Asia, Vol. 6, June 2001, p. 60-61.

32. Chan Y.P., Chua K.B., Koh C.L., Lim M.E., and Lam S.K., “Complete nucleotide sequences of Nipah virus isolates from Malaysia,” Journal of General Virology, Vol. 82, 2001, p. 2151-2155.

33. Ng K.K.S., Lee S.L., and Koh C.L. (2004) Spatial structure and genetic diversity of two tropical tree species with contrasting breeding systems and different ploidy levels. Molecular Ecology 13: 657 - 669.

34. Chan Y.P., Koh C.L., Lam S.K., and Wang L.F. (2004) Mapping of domains responsible for nucleocapsid protein-phosphoprotein interaction of henipaviruses. Journal of General Virology 85: 1675-1684.

35. Cha P.C., Yamada R., Sekine A., Nakamura Y., and Koh C.L. (2004) Inference from the relationships between linkage disequilibrium and allele frequency distributions of 240 candidate SNPs in 109 drug-related genes in four Asian populations. Journal of Human Genetics 49: 558-572.

36. Chua K.B., Koh C.L., Hooi P.S., Wee K.F., Khong J.H., Chua B.H., Chan Y.P., Lim M.E., and Lam S.K. (2002) Isolation of Nipah virus from Malaysian Island flying-foxes,” Microbes and Infection 4, 145-151.
    

Molecular biology training courses conducted or taught by Professor Koh:
Professor Koh had conducted or taught in a number of training courses, since 1985:

1. Training Course in Recombinant DNA Techniques, thrice (in 1985, 1989, and 1990);
   

2. AMBO International Training Course on Gene Cloning and DNA Sequencing (1988);
   

3. Molecular Biology Module in the IBRO-UNESCO Fourth Intensive Workshop on Basic Neuroscience (1991);
   

4. Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis Workshop (1994);
   

5. PCR Workshop, thrice (1991, 1994, and 1996).