Dr Hon Wei Min

Email: [email protected]

Professor Dr Hon Wei Min is the Deputy Vice Chancellor – Academic for UOW Malaysia, a position she has held since April of 2013.

As the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr Hon is responsible for overseeing the strategic development and enhancement of the UOW Malaysia’ schools, academic programs and syllabuses.

She led the development of various initiatives aimed at improving and enhancing academic delivery processes and she was also responsible for the development and improvement of academic programs including designing and reviewing academic courses.

Before joining the education industry, Dr Hon served as the Vice President for a fast-growing regional bio-technology company in Singapore where she spearheaded the Life Science business.

Dr Hon began her career as a research scientist at a young age immediately after obtaining her PhD and has accumulated many years of research experience. She had also published many peered reviewed journals on the topics of biotechnology and molecular biology.

To this day, Dr Hon continues to pursue her interest here and is still actively involved in various research projects. Her passion in this field is demonstrated through her continued nurturing of students’ research interest and assisting the many undergraduate and post graduate students to attain excellent academic credentials.

Dr Hon graduated with a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the National University of Singapore. She earned her doctorate (PhD) from the same university in 1997. She was a council member of the Singapore Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SSBMB) and member of the Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (MSBMB).

PhD National University of Singapore, 1993-1997
Research Title: Effect of adenosine on nitric oxide synthase expression during endotoxemia.

Bachelor of Science (Honours in Biochemistry, Second Class, Upper Division) National University of Singapore, 1992-1993
Research Title: Effect of Stonustoxin on platelet aggregatio.

Bachelor of Science National University of Singapore, 1989-1992

Year Title
2017 CS Soo, WS Yap, WM Hon, N Ramli, MS Umi Kalsom, LY Phang. Improvement of hydrogen yield of ethanol-producing Escherichia coli recombinants in acidic conditions. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology 26: 27–32 (2017). Impact factor: 1.527

CS Soo, WS Yap, WM Hon, N Ramli, MS Umi Kalsom, LY Phang. Co-production of Hydrogen and Ethanol of Escherichia coli SS1 Isolate. Chiang Mai J. Sci. 44(3) : 768-773 (2017). Impact factor: 0.409

CS Soo, WS Yap, WM Hon, N Ramli, MS Umi Kalsom, LY Phang. Co-production of hydrogen and ethanol by Escherichia coli SS1 and its recombinant Electronic Journal of Biotechnology 30: 64-70 (2017). Impact factor: 1.527

Journal Publications (Indexed Journal)

PCL Koh, Z Rahman, WM Hon, SB Baboo. Design for Visibility and Wellness: Looking into Design Elements on Nutritional Labels. The International Journal of Visual Design. 11(4) 2017. Indexed in Scorpus, SJR 2017 0.11

2015 – 2016 CS Soo, WS Yap, WM Hon, LY Phang. Mini review: hydrogen and ethanol co-production from waste materials via microbial fermentation.  World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 31(10): 1475-1488 (2015) Impact factor: 2.100

Journal Publications (Indexed Journal)

L Tawei, ZY Ng, MK Veerapen, RWK Yap, WM Hon, RLH Lim. Association of FTO 17817449 variant with obesity and the energy intake and physical activity parameters in Malaysian adolescents. Malaysian Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 1:16-23 (2016). Indexed in Scorpus, SJR 2017 0.10

2014 ZY Ng, MK Veerapen, WM Hon, RLH Lim. Association of leptin/receptor and TNF-α gene variants with adolescent obesity in Malaysia. Pediatrics International 56(5): 689–697 (2014) Impact factor: 0.731

Journal Publications (Indexed Journal)

Yap RWK, Masaki M, Shidoji Y and Hon WM. Association and interaction effect between VEGFR2 gene polymorphisms and dietary pattern on blood lipids in Malaysian adults. J Nutritional Therapeutics 3:160-167 (2014) Indexed in EBSCO

2012 RWK Yap, Y Shidoji, WM Hon, M Masaki. Interaction between VEGF Receptor-2 Gene Polymorphisms and Dietary Patterns on Blood Glucose and Lipid Levels in Chinese Malaysian Adults. J Nutrigenet Nutrigenomics 2011(4):309-321. (2012) Impact factor: 2.027

RWK Yap, Y Shidoji, WM Hon, M Masaki. Association and interaction between dietary pattern and VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR2) gene polymorphisms on blood lipids in Chinese Malaysian and Japanese adults. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 21 (2):302-311. (2012) Impact factor: 1.335

Journal Publications (Indexed Journal)

RWK Yap, Y Shidoji, WM Hon, M Masaki. Association and Interaction Effect between VEGF Receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) Gene Polymorphisms and Dietary Pattern on Blood Uric Acid in Malays and Indians. Mal J Nutr 18(3): 307-317. (2012) Indexed in Scorpus, SJR 2017 0.14

JH Foong, WM Hon, CW Ho. Bioactive compounds determination in fermented liquid dragon fruit (Hylocereus Polyrhizus). Borneo Sci 31: 31-48 (2012) Indexed in MyCite

2000 – 2006 WM Hon, S Moochhalla and HE Khoo.  Adenosine and its receptor agonists regulate nitric oxide production in Raw 264.7 macrophages via both receptor binding and its downstream metabolites – inosine. Life Sci. 66(19): 1781-1793. (2000) Impact factor: 2.702

WM Hon, EJC Lee and KH Lee.  Effect of haemodialysis on plasma nitric oxide levels. Artificial Organs. 24 (5): 387-90. (2000) Impact factor: 2.111

WM Hon, KH Lee and HE Khoo.  Nitric oxide in liver diseases – friends, foe or just passerby.  Annals of New York Academy of Science. 962: 275-295. (2002) Impact factor: 4.039

CL Wei, WM Hon, KH Lee, M Mori, T Gotoh and HE Khoo.  Induction of Arginase II in Livers of Bile Duct-ligated Rats.  Biochemical Pharmacology. 63: 1043-1050. (2002) Impact factor: 5.009

CL Wei, WM Hon, KH Lee, WM Hon. Differential expression and regulation of nitric oxide synthases in cirrhotic livers of bile duct-ligated rats.  Nitric Oxide. 7(2):91-102. (2002) Impact factor: 3.548

CL Wei, KH Lee, Khoo HE, WM Hon.  Expression of heme oxygenase in cirrhotic rat liver.  J Pathology. 199: 324-334. (2003) Impact factor: 7.429

CL Wei, WM Hon, KH Lee, Khoo HE. Temporal Expression of Hepatic Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase in Liver Cirrhosis. World Journal of Gastroenterology. 11(3): 362-367. (2005) Impact factor: 3.365

CL Wei, WM Hon, KH Lee, Khoo HE. Chronic administration of aminoguanidine reduces vascular nitric oxide production and attenuates live damage in bile duct-ligated rats. Liver International. 25: 647-656. (2005) Impact factor: 4.500

BJ Goh, BT Tan, WM Hon, KH Lee, Khoo HE. Nitric oxide synthase and heme oxygenase expression in human cirrhosis. World Journal of Gastroenterology. World Journal of  Gastroenterology.  28: 12(4):588-94. (2006) Impact factor: 3.365

1995 – 1998 HE Khoo, WM Hon, SH Lee and R Yuen. Effects of stonustoxin (lethal factor from Synanceja Horrida venom) on platelet aggregation. Toxicon. 33: 1033-1041 (1995). Impact factor: 2.492

WM Hon, HE Khoo, SS Ngoi and SM Moochhala. Effects of adenosine receptor agonists on nitric oxide release in mouse during endotoxaemia. Biochem. Pharmacol. 50: 45-47. (1995). Impact factor: 5.009

TC Lim, SM Moochhala, TL Tan Walter, VJS Chhatwal, S Suhumaran, WM Hon and HE Khoo.  Down regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in keloids.  Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 98: 911-912. (1996) Impact factor: 2.993

SM Moochhala, WM Hon, VSJ Chhatwal and HE Khoo. Lipopolysaccharide-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in mice: Pharmacological evaluation of adenosine agonists. Eur. J. Pharmacol. 316: 287-296. (1996) Impact factor: 2.896

WM Hon, VSJ Chhatwal, HE Khoo and SM Moochhala. Histochemical method for detection of nitric oxide synthase activity in cell cultures. Biotechnic & Histochemistry. 72: 29-32. (1997) Impact factor: 1.444

WM Hon, SM Moochhala and HE Khoo. Adenosine and its receptor agonists potentiate nitric oxide synthase expression induced by lipopolysaccharide in RAW 264.7 murine macrophages. Life Sci.  60: 1327-1335. (1997) Impact factor: 2.702

Journal Publications (Indexed Journal)

WM Hon, HE Khoo and SM Moochhalla.  Nitric oxide in Septic Shock: Directions for Future Therapy? Ann Acad Med Singapore. 27: 414-421. (1998) Indexed in Scorpus, SJR 2017 0.25

 

Special Article

WM Hon. From Doing Science to Servicing Science. Science Magazine. Apr 25, 2003

Research Grant

Title: Development of Design Guide for Malaysia Nutrition Label of Pre-Packaged Food Products Sold in Retailed Outlets
Duration: 2015-2018
Sponsor/Grant: FRGS grant scheme of Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (RM100,000)

Title: Investigation of the specific binding of pore-forming toxin to human cell membrane
Duration: 2013-2017
Sponsor/Grant: FRGS grant scheme of Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (RM100,000)

Title: Enhanced Biohydrogen by Genetic Modification
Duration: 2012-2015
Sponsor/Grant: FRGS grant scheme of Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (RM212,500)

Title: Hydrogen Production by Recombinant Ethanol-Producing Bacteria
Duration: 2012-2014
Sponsor/Grant: Malaysia Toray Science Foundation(RM25,000)

Title: Investigation and Optimization of the Nutrient Flux in Seawater Closed-recirculating Integrated System for the Culture of Fish and Seaweed
Duration: 2010-2014
Sponsor/Grant: UCSI University Research Grant Scheme (RM350,000)

Title: Lipid, cholesterol and triacylglycerol lowering ability of an agribiotechnology health based product
Duration: 2011-2015
Sponsor/Grant: FRGS grant scheme of Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (RM65,000)

Title: Screening and functional analysis of cosmeceutical peptides from palm kernel cake extracts
Duration: 2010-2014
Sponsor/Grant: UCSI University Research Grant Scheme (RM150,000)

Title: Genotyping of candidate genes related to myopia and obesity in a cohort of secondary school students (Top up)
Duration: 2010-2012
Sponsor/Grant: UCSI University Research Grant Scheme (RM55,000)

Title: Genotyping of candidate genes related to myopia and obesity in a cohort of secondary school students
Duration: 2010-2014
Sponsor/Grant: FRGS grant scheme of Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (RM38,640)

Title: Development of Diagnostic Kits for Pathogens, Diagnostic Chip for Liver Disease, Bio-informatics data sets for mouse for liver disease, Micro PCR Field Application, Real-time PCR machine for fieldPrototype DNA synthesiser
Duration: 2002-2005
Sponsor/Grant: Research Incentive scheme for companies (RISC) by Economic Development Board, Singapore (Awarded S$1.3 million)

Title: Expression of Gastrin-releasing peptide receptor in lung cancer
Duration: 2000-2003
Sponsor/Grant: Singapore Cancer Society (S$21,500)

Title: The role of vitamin E coated membranes in haemodialysis induced inflammatory changes and oxidative stresses (NMRC/0291/1998)
Duration: 1998-2001
Sponsor/Grant: National Medical Research Council, Singapore (S$156,500)

Title: The role of nitric oxide in liver disease (NMRC/0254/1997)
Duration: 1997-2001
Sponsor/Grant: National Medical Research Council, Singapore (S$164,000)

 

Consultancy Work

2018 – 2020
Vice-Chair of the Curriculum Committee of United Chinese School Committee’s Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM) oversea the Overall Curriculum of Chinese Independent School

Council member of the Working Committee of United Chinese School Committee’s Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM) oversea the strategic direction of Chinese Independent School in Malaysia

2008 – Present
Subject advisor for Biology in the Curriculum Department for United Chinese School Committee’s Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM)

2016 – 2018
Council member of the Curriculum Committee of United Chinese School Committee’s Association of Malaysia (UCSCAM) oversea the Overall Curriculum of Chinese Independent School

2016 – 2017
Working members for the Science Outlook 2017 – Converging towards progressive Malaysia by Academic of Science Malaysia

2011
Auditor for MyQuest, Ministry of Higher Education

2010
Internal Judge for the UCSIU Bizplan Competition, Malaysia

2009 – 2010
External inspector of Diploma in Education for New Era College

2007 – 2009
Panelist for LAN Biotechnology standard and criteria committee

PhD Thesis: The Role of NO in Liver Cirrhosis (1998-2002)
Dr Wei Changli (co-supervised with A/Prof Khoo HE, Biochemistry and A/Prof Lee KH, Medicine, NUS)

PhD Thesis: The Role of NO in Liver Cancer (2002-2010)
Dr Goh Beatrice (co-supervised with A/Prof Khoo HE, Biochemistry, NUS)

Masters Dissertation: Screening for compounds with cosmeutical properties from agricultural waste extracts (2010-2012)
Ms Rachael Choi Wai Chuen

Masters Dissertation: Sequence analysis of cDNA coding for papain and bromelain and the marketability of the recombinant papain and bromelain (2010-2012
Ms Hishmath Ibrahim

Masters Dissertation: Isolation, cloning and expression of recombinant papain (2011-2013)
Ms Nur Wahida Hamdan

Masters Dissertation: Association Study of LAMA1 and Pax6 gene polymorphisms with Myopia in Malaysian Adolescents (2011-2013)
Ms Lana Zuhair

PhD Thesis: Regulation of Hydrogen and Ethanol Production by Genetic Modification and Biological Fermentation (2013-2017)
Dr Soo Chiu Shyan (co-supervised with A/Prof Phang LY, UPM)

Masters Dissertation: Nutrition Tracking Mobile Application: An Analysis of User Experience Among Malaysian Young Adults (2017-Ongoing)
Mr Kwang Yong Tik (co-supervised with Dr Pouline Koh, UOW Malaysia KDU)

Awards and Esteem

  1. Invited Speaker for the topic ‘PCR-based Molecular Diagnosis of Pathogen’ at the 9th Asean Conference in Medical Laboratory Technology, Nov 2002 Singapore
  2. Invited as Reviewer for articles submitted to International peer-reviewed journal – Nitric Oxide (2003)
  3. Invited to conduct a workshop on ‘PCR and Real time PCR’ at Institute for Medical Research, Malaysia (25 & 26 Oct 2004)
  4. Invited Member of the Research Committee, UCSI Centre for Research Excellence (2006-2007)
  5. Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Advancement of Science and Arts (JASA) (2007-2009)
  6. Panel of Jury for the 20th Intervarsity Biochemistry Seminar, March 2009 at UPM, Malaysia
  7. Invited Presenter for a seminar on the topic ‘Molecular Biology in prevention of Chronic Disease’, 2010, University of Nagasaki, Japan
  8. Invited Speaker for ‘Powering the nation: Is Green the Way Forward’ at the Green Business Forum. 22 Jun 2011, Kuala Lumpur
  9. Invited speaker to speak on ‘Genetic studies of multi-factorial diseases among Malaysian’ at 37th Annual Conference of the MSBMB. 18-19 July 2012, Kuala Lumpur
  10. UCSI UNIVERSITY HIGH IMPACT RESEARCH AWARD 2013 in the Research Grant Award Category for netting an external research grant worth RM65,000
  11. UCSI UNIVERSITY HIGH IMPACT RESEARCH AWARD 2013 in the Research Grant Award Category for netting an external research grant worth RM212,500

 

Involvement in Professional Societies and Committees​

  • Asst Hon Secretary of Singapore Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SSBMB), 1996
  • Hon Secretary of SSBMB, 1997-1999
  • Hon Treasurer of SSBMB, 2000-2002
  • Hon Secretary of SSBMB, 2002-2004
  • Council Member of SSBMB, 2004-2006
  • Member of SSBMB, 2007-present
  • Council member of Singapore National Academic of Science (SNAS), 1997-1999
  • Hon Treasurer of SNAS, 2000-2002
  • Advisor for Student Association for School of Applied Sciences (SASAS), UCSI University, 2006 – 2010
  • Member of Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2012-present
  • Vice-Chair of Senate Teaching and Learning Committee, UCSI University, 2007-2013
  • Senate members, UCSI University, 2009-2013
  • Members of University Exam Board, UCSI University, 2009-2013
  • Members of Senate Research and Scholarly activities committee, UCSI University, 2009-2013
  • Members of Senate Quality assurance and Enhancement committee, UCSI University, 2009-2013
  • Chair of Exam Board, UOW Malaysia KDU University College and College, 2013-present
  • Chair of Senate Learning and Teaching Committee, UOW Malaysia KDU University College and College, 2013-present
  • Chair of Senate Research and Scholarly research committee, UOW Malaysia KDU University College, 2013-present
  • Chair of Scholarship and Award Committee, UOW Malaysia KDU University College and College, 2013-2015
  • Members of Scholarship and Award Committee, UOW Malaysia KDU University College and College, 2015-present
  • Senate and Management Board members, UOW Malaysia KDU University College and College, 2013-present