Li Chuin CHONG

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Apr 2022 - Present

Hannover Biomedical Research School, Hannover Medical School, DE

Dissertation: Increasing pandemic preparedness by computational high-throughput virus discovery: Identification of RNA viruses and host reservoirs with high spillover risk
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Chris Lauber

Master of Science (M.Sc.) Bioinformatics [by Research]

Sep 2018 - Sep 2020

School of Data Sciences, Perdana University, MY

Dissertation: Mapping the minimal set of the viral peptidome
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Asif Khan

Project Overview: This project is aimed to elucidate the important insights of viral diversity from the minimal set of viral protein sequences by developing a more vigorous algorithm that would be scalable to the massive dataset of all reported viruses in nature (~4.9M sequences as of Nov 2018).

Optimised and automated an alignment-independent (aka -free) algorithm to generate a minimal set of sequences from a given dataset.

Implemented the algorithm as a tool, UNIQmin.

Mapped the minimal set across all major viral taxonomic lineages, such as species, genus and family.

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Biomedical Sciences

Sep 2014 - Aug 2018

Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, MY

Honours Dissertation: Expression, purification and characterisation of the protuding domain of Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNV) capsid protein
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Kok Lian

Project Overview:
This project, involving molecular and structural virology, is focused on producing and characterising the P-domain of MrNV in order to provide further undertsanding of virus-host interactions and the viral pathogenicity.

Expressed the P-domain of MrNV-CP using an E.coli expression system.

Purified the expressed peotein using IMAC and SEC.

Characterised the purified protein using CD and DLS.

Performed ab initio secondary structure prediction of the P-domain of MrNV-CP.

Doctoral Researcher

Apr 2022 - Present

TWINCORE Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research GmbH, DE
under the COVIPA consortium

Visiting Trainee

Oct - Nov 2023

Division of Virus Associated Carcinogenesis (F170), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), DE
under the Helmholtz Visiting Researcher Grant from Helmholtz Information & Data Science Academy (HIDA) Trainee Network

Worked on a large-scale viral diversity project, involving multiple viruses (e.g. LASV, CHIKV, ZIKV, IAV H7N9, DENV etc).

Worked on an immunoinformatics project on SARS-CoV-2.

Mentored interns, graduate students and research volunteers.

International Visiting Researcher

Mar - Sep 2021

Beykoz Institute of Life Sciences and Biotechnology (BILSAB), Bezmialem Vakif University, TR
under the 2232 International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers Program of TÜBİTAK (Project No: 118C314)

Worked on a large-scale viral diversity project, involving multiple viruses (e.g. LASV, CHIKV, ZIKV, IAV H7N9, DENV etc).

Worked on an immunoinformatics project on SARS-CoV-2.

Mentored interns, graduate students and research volunteers.

Research Assistant

Aug - Dec 2020

Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, MY
under Tabung Kursi Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali

Positioned as collaborating researcher under Translational Cancer Biology Research Group, Cancer Research Malaysia (CRMY).

Explored and analysed several drug-related databases, specifically focus on PRISM screen data.

Identified drug repositioning candidates for Head and Neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Dec 2019 - May 2020

School of Data Sciences, Perdana University, MY
under Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Research Grant

Fine-tuned the alignment-independent algorithm for deployment as a tool.

Investigated the factor affecting the minimal set of sequences.

Sep 2018 - Mar 2019

School of Data Sciences, Perdana University, MY
under Adnuri SMA Research Grant

Assisted a Ph.D. candidate on a project entitled investigation of gut microbiome changes in neurodegenerative diseases using spinal muscular atrophy as a study model.

Collected fecal and saliva samples from SMA type 1 patients and controls.

Performed DNA extraction from fecal and saliva samples, PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis for molecular detection.