THREE women in Sunway University tell the stories of their postgraduate and postdoctoral journey in renowned institutions that led them to teach, research, and inspire young people. The Petri Dish spoke to these women in STEM; Associate Professor Dr Jactty Chew, Associate Professor Dr Felicia Chung, and Associate Professor Dr Kavita Reginald.
They shared what inspired them to pursue STEM and their aspirations to create positive disruptive changes.
One common thing among these women is that all of them received their bachelor’s degrees in Malaysia before finding their way to international institutions. Jactty and Felicia both are Monash University Malaysia alumni, whereas Kavita’s alma mater was Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Today, all three women have vast international research experience under their belts and are instilling global research culture and work environment at Sunway University.
“I was not sure of my field of work or specialisation till my honours year,” recalls Felicia sharing the common dilemma of many students in biosciences. I even thought I was a failed scientist when my final year project on plant biotechnology ended with odd results and my plants dying,” says this scientist who went on to do her postdoctoral studies at a World Health Organisation agency.
Her experience was similar to Jactty who is the Associate Dean (Education) for the School of Medicine and Life Sciences whose initial career aspiration was to be a pharmacist. Her interest in microbiology only surfaced in her third year. “I wasn’t doing well in microbiology till my final year,” says the scientist who now works on multidrug-resistant bacteria. Her current research focuses on the development of new antibacterial agents, of both natural and synthetic origins, that are able to inhibit the growth of clinically crucial human pathogens, especially those that are antibiotic-resistant.
Most students share similar predicaments in their early years in STEM and these women say there is always a way to get an accolade in STEM. Kavita is a fine example. She applied for an internship at the National University of Singapore during her bachelor’s degree at UPM and that led to her pursuing her graduate studies in Singapore, a country known for its highly acclaimed research in biosciences. During her PhD research, Kavita made several important scientific discoveries such as finding and characterising a novel allergen and identifying specific protein segments (epitopes) of the dust mite allergen that reacts with the human immune system causing allergies.
Jactty went on to do her PhD at the University of Adelaide on oral microbiology at its dental school, where she researched periodontal bacteria resisting harsh conditions and biofilm formation by oral bacteria. “The environment in Australia is different. People were friendlier and more helpful which made learning more conducive,” says the Associate Dean who tries to recreate a similar environment for her students at Sunway University.
“I am naturally a quiet person but living away from home changed that a little, as I was forced to make new friends,” says Jactty.
She then went on to become an assistant lecturer at the same university where she found her calling for teaching. Jactty joined Sunway University in 2012. She currently works on compounds with antibacterial activity to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria.
Felicia’s path to her postgraduate study was a stroke of serendipity. She was asked by her friend to accompany her to meet a potential Honours project supervisor. The meeting ended up with her signing up to do her Honours year research with him as the supervisor. One thing led to another, and she pursued her PhD under the same professor in the field of cancer research. She is now a cancer researcher who studies the genetic and epigenetics marks that arise during cancer formation. Her interests lie in breast and urothelial cancers.
Strong-willed and passionate to be a researcher
Kavita narrates a story of how her strong will and passion to become a researcher had led her to prominent scientists opening unexpected doors for her. Once she went to the USA to present her paper during the tail end of her Ph.D. Knowing she needs to explore new ventures, she was actively searching for jobs and postdoctoral positions, introducing herself and her work to senior researchers. On the flight back home, she noticed her co-passenger next to her reading a research paper. “You can’t be reading that paper if you are not a scientist, and I braved myself to catch up on a conversation. I introduced myself and my intention to do a postdoc. We had quite a good exchange and he passed me his name card,” recalls Kavita.
She wrote to him a few months later and to her surprise, the scientist invited her to his laboratory in Japan for an interview. She flew and secured a placement to conduct cancer research. However, that was not where she went.
Kavita, being a go-getter, was also seeking other opportunities. She was constantly looking for postdoctoral opportunities at an Austrian institute, where there was a leading laboratory in allergy and immunology research. For months, there were no job postings on the laboratory website. With nothing to lose, she wrote to the professor and expressed her eagerness to work in his laboratory. Little did she expect him to reply within three days. The next thing she knew she was flying to Vienna sponsored by the professor, and she was offered a postdoc fellowship where she spent almost four years. Kavita also has working experience in France where she spent three years on her second postdoc researching how proteins in specialised immune cells (T-cell), communicate with each other during the immune response.
Like Kavita and Jactty, Felicia is not short of international experience. Right after her PhD at Monash University, she applied to do her postdoctoral training at International Medical University. She was soon made a faculty member and was teaching postgraduate students while doing work on cancer drug discovery, cell signaling, and mRNA splicing. It was in 2017 when Felicia’s attention turned to gene editing and genomics, as these were soon becoming the mainstays of biomedical research. She did not want to miss the boat.
“I applied for my postdoc at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organisation in Lyon, France. I wasn’t confident but to my surprise my application was successful,” says the scientist who enjoyed her stay in France.
Her research on cancer epigenomics, which is the study of how chemical alterations to the DNA influence gene regulation, has resulted in the identification of epigenomic predictors for breast cancer risk, and the development of molecular tools for epigenomic editing.
“People know how to enjoy both work and personal lives in France and are so genuine and sincere when it comes to their work, says Felicia who emphasises the need to invest in long-term research. She further says, “The scientists I worked with were driven by their passion for discovery. They all shared the same overarching mission- to make new strides in cancer research that makes an impact not only in the developed countries but also in low and middle-income countries.”
In 2020, Felicia decided that the time to move back to Malaysia for good was near. While she loved her work at IARC, she was starting to feel the pull of home as she watched family members brave the pandemic and health issues from afar. As her supervisor at the IARC put it: sometimes in life you just need to put it all on a balance and pick one of two diverging paths. Her pets’ vet put it a little more succinctly and in a true French style, “Cest la vie”, he said. “That is life.”
All three women are eager to inspire their students to develop impactful careers. They believe the student-lecturer barrier should be broken for better intellectual discourses. Felicia wants to see more quality papers published where quality is valued in addition to quantity.
“Collaboration is inevitable while we find our footing and set our sight on long-term goals,” says Jactty.
Kavita who has started her own laboratory on allergy research says there is a need to localise research. “In my field, allergies are mainly studied among the Western cohort. We know genomics plays a role and there are differences among different ethnic groups. We need to do more research within the population so that we can develop better diagnostic tools and eventually therapeutics.”
Her work at Sunway University spans three main research areas which are the characterisation of important environmental allergens, the identification of genetic risk factors associated with allergies and the characterisation and development of novel immunotherapy vaccines against allergies.
Most recently, Kavita received an FRGS grant to develop an allergy vaccine against seafood allergies.
“A lot of places offer a very good research environment. Our students need to explore instead of giving up after sending in a few applications,” says Kavita based on her own experience.
On women empowerment, there was consensus that Sunway University is a great place where there are equal opportunities for women, recognition, and flexibility for working mothers. Felicia says: “We need to take up the space, instead of being invisible or feeling inferior. I too have some degree of imposter syndrome lurking within me and I always need to remind myself to recognise it and, in many situations, silence it.
The UN Women Leadership Award bagged by Professor Dr Elizabeth Lee, CEO of Sunway Education Group, is a testament to Sunway University’s gender equality. These women are sure to follow the path set by their mentors.
