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PETALING JAYA: Malaysian researcher Dr. Moi Meng Leng (photo) has become the first foreign researcher to receive an award from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) for her contributions to regional control of infectious diseases.
Dr. Moi, who currently works with the Nagasaki University Institute of Tropical Medicine, received the award from the Japanese Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo on Thursday (December 24).
The award was for his contribution to the development of an antibody test to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of vaccines related to mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and dengue.
This is expected to contribute to the future development of dengue vaccines in Malaysia.
The event is led by Ambassador Oka Hiroshi and the President of the Japan Malaysia Graduate Association Gary Tang, and the President of the Japan Malaysia Graduate Association Gary Tang hosted an online press conference to honor the achievement of Dr. Moi.
“Dr. Moi has contributed to the regional control of infectious diseases by determining the epidemic dynamics of Zika fever, dengue, and mosquito-borne diseases in Southeast Asia through genetic phylogenetic analysis and the development of countermeasures,” said the Japanese embassy.
Dr. Moi said that this was an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Malaysia and Japan.
“This is also in the hope that we can bring the development of Japan to Malaysia, particularly with problems affecting infectious diseases such as dengue, Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases.
“We have developed a new antibody test that is useful for the development of a vaccine against dengue and also other vaccines against flaviviruses such as Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses,” he said.
Dr Moi said that the antibody test has been brought to Vietnam and she is also in collaboration with the University Hospital Kebangsaan Malaysia for dengue research.
“We hope to bring the advancement of technology between Japan and other parts of Southeast Asia for the development of better therapies and vaccines,” he said.
“The antibody test we developed is to test whether the vaccine is safe and effective.
“With that, we hope to test more vaccines and, if they are safe and effective, we hope to take them to the countries that need them,” he added.
He acknowledged that there were complications in a dengue vaccine it was proposed to introduce in Malaysia, but added that the antibody test it developed would prevent such cases.
“Before introducing the vaccine to everyone, you have to test whether it is safe or not and whether it will cause serious disease once it is applied,” he said, however, noting that he does not foresee that the dengue vaccine will be introduced in no time. soon.
Dr. Moi said she hoped that the technology used to develop Covid-19 vaccines could also be used to develop dengue and Zika vaccines.
“The antibody test that we developed can also be applied for the study of coronavirus,” he added, predicting that the results of Phase one and two of Japan’s Covid-19 vaccine can be seen in late 2021.
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