PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS

Associate Professor Dr Bakiah Shaharuddin

Dr. Bakiah Shaharuddin obtained her Medical Degree(M.D.) in 1995 from Universiti Sains Malaysia and completed her specialist degree Masters in Medicine (Ophthalmology) in 2003. She continued working as an eye specialist at the Ministry of Health hospitals; Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II, Kota Bharu and Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Trengganu, until she joined USM in 2004. She then worked at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia and School of Medical Sciences as an eye specialist and medical lecturer; which involved academic activities, eye clinic services, surgery and clinical research. She moved to Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, USM Kepala Batas in 2008 and joined the Regenerative Medicine research cluster. She has a wide research interests in Public Health Ophthalmology, Cornea stem cells and Regenerative Medicine. Her transition into corneal limbal stem cell biology and its applications in ocular surface regeneration has brought her involvement with other researchers at Tissue Engineering Centre, UKM, the International Centre for Life, Newcastle Upon-Tyne, UK and Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan. She recently completed her PhD in corneal limbal stem cells under the supervision of Dr Annette Meeson at the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, UK. Her PhD work was on characterization of limbal stem cells and cellular model for limbal epithelial cells, limbal side population cells and limbal mesenchymal stem cells. A combined interest in research and clinical experience has been proven to be very significant for clinical applications especially in the treatment of corneal blindness. Dr Bakiah also has a keen interest in mentoring new clinicians and post-graduate research students and so far graduated 10 Masters in Medicine (Ophthalmology) students (6 as main supervisor and 4 as co-supervisor). She is currently the consultant ophthalmologist and a research scientist at the Advanced Medical and Dental Institute, USM Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang.