Professor Dr. Maude E Phipps
Research
My research experience largely revolves around the genomics and health of Asian and global populations (with a particular focus on the peoples of South East Asia) and has led to publications in Nature, Science, AJHG, Public Health, and other leading journals. My collaborators include local and internationally-recognized scientists, anthropologists, clinicians and communities.
Asia-Pacific Population Genetics
Internationally, I am known for improving our current understanding of the genetics and origins of diverse Asia-Pacific populations. In 2005, I was co-chair of the Human Genome Organization’s Pan Asia SNP Consortium, to discover variations and create the first database of ~50,000 SNPs across 70 Asian ethnic groups. I have since worked on various high-profile projects on the population genomics and peopling of South East Asia and Oceania, collaborating with researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, UC San Francisco, Stanford University, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the National Insitute of Genetics Japan, the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics India, the Chinese Academy of Medicine, and Cinvestave Mexico among others.
McColl et al., Science (2018)
The genomics and health of indigenous Malaysian populations
Since 2003, I have engaged and worked with various Malaysian indigenous groups, collectively known as Orang Asal (Orang Asli from peninsular Malaysia and Pribumi from Borneo). Findings by my colleagues and I have delineated the genetic distinctiveness of different Orang Asal groups, addressed large gaps in global studies of human population migration and informed how their healthcare needs could be better served. Some of my recent projects in this area include characterizing Dengue virus susceptibility, oral, gut and nasal Microbiomes, host-pathogen immunogenetics and intestinal nematodes and olfactory receptor repertoires with collaborators in University Malaya (UM), University Sabah, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and others.
Immunogenetics of South East Asians
In the mid-90s, I entered the field of immunogenetics, speciallizing in autoimmunity and haematopoetic stem cell transplatation in Malaysian populations. A serendipitous moment during the presentation of previous research results and specialist training in Oxford Transplant Centre and University Western Australia led me to establish Malaysia's first HLA-typing transplantation service at the University Malaya Medical Centre, which I personally led from 1999 until 2008. I also published work on Asian pharmacogenetics in collaboration with Academia Sinica Taiwan and more recently, the National Institute of Genetics Japan.
Cancer Genetics
From 1990-1994, I pursued doctoral training in cancer genetics at Darwin College and the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, UK, supported by a full scholarship from the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. I determined the critical regions/ chromosomal locations of Von Hippel Lindau tumour suppressor genes and 3p- syndrome using flow cytometry, fluorescence in-situ hybridisation and physical mapping approaches, as the human genome had yet to be fully sequenced.
Richards et al., Journal of Medical Genetics (1993)