Part of the Cervical Cancer Elimination project - Supporting Ministries of Health, local, regional, and global partners achieve the key target of 70% of women being screened for HPV infection with a high-performance test by 35 and 45 years of age as part of the WHO’s Global Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer as a Public Health Problem 90-70-90 targets for 2030. - Filling evidence gaps at country, regional and global level to support policy and programmatic introduction and scale up of HPV testing as the primary mode of screening in LMICs.My portfolio includes:• Leading the evidence generation, synthesis and dissemination components• Providing scientific support to clinical performance evaluation trials and operational implementation research studies

Since joining FIND in 2018, I've worked with various teams within the Malaysian Ministry of Health - Medical Division (Gastroenterology), Disease Control Division (HIV/STI/Hepatitis C Sector), Family Health Development Division (Primary Care and Family Medicine), Institute for Medical Research, Clinical Research Center, Clinical Research Malaysia, State and District Health Departments; and with in-country partners like Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) and Third World Network (TWN) on hepatitis C public health programmes and research studies:Assessing the implementation of decentralized HCV testing at Primary Health Care Facilities in Malaysia (The HEAD-Start Project, NMRR-18-2282-43132, study duration Dec 2018 - Dec 2019)A pilot study of the usability and acceptability of HCV self-testing among the general population and men who have sex with men in Malaysia (NMRR-20-1794-56098, study duration Dec 2020 - Feb 2021)Randomized controlled trial of home-based hepatitis C self-testing for key populations in Malaysia (NMRR-21-1156-59621, study duration Sep 2021 - July 2022)In the year of 2022 going forward, I am working on both the hepatitis C portfolio as well as extending FIND's COVID-19 work to Malaysia. We are working with the Ministry of Health Malaysia/Kedah State Health Department/Kuala Muda and Kulim District Health Offices/Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Kedah/Perlis Branch and the Monash University Malaysia/Health Equity Initiatives/UNHCR Malaysia/Third World Network on the following two projects respectively:Implementation pilot on a COVID-19 self-testing model for employees of manufacturing industries and their household members in Kedah, Malaysia (NMRR ID-22-02021-UCR, study duration Oct 2022 - Jun 2023)Feasibility of Covid-19 Self-Testing In Refugee Learning Centres In Malaysia (FOSTER study, study duration Oct 2022 - Jun 2023)

Since joining FIND in 2018, I've worked with various teams within the Malaysian Ministry of Health - Medical Division (Gastroenterology), Disease Control Division (HIV/STI/Hepatitis C Sector), Family Health Development Division (Primary Care and Family Medicine), Institute for Medical Research, Clinical Research Center, Clinical Research Malaysia, State and District Health Departments; and with in-country partners like Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC) and Third World Network (TWN) on hepatitis C public health programmes and research studies:Assessing the implementation of decentralized HCV testing at Primary Health Care Facilities in Malaysia (The HEAD-Start Project, NMRR-18-2282-43132, study duration Dec 2018 - Dec 2019)A pilot study of the usability and acceptability of HCV self-testing among the general population and men who have sex with men in Malaysia (NMRR-20-1794-56098, study duration Dec 2020 - Feb 2021)Randomized controlled trial of home-based hepatitis C self-testing for key populations in Malaysia (NMRR-21-1156-59621, study duration Sep 2021 - Jul 2022)

- Main lead researcher on two large-scale projects working alongside other postdoctoral fellows, research assistants and bioinformaticians: (1) Studying the impact of host innate immunity on the evolution and adaptation of Candida albicans and understanding how strategies for evasion of the aforementioned immunity fuel rapid evolution in Candida albicans; (2) Studying how the fungal cell wall play an important role in determining the competitive fitness of Candida species in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract (Sem et al., 2016). - Involved in patent application: Pavelka N, Tso HW, and Sem X. 2017. A method to reduce the pathogenicity and/or increase the competitive fitness and/or confer probiotic properties to a fungal organism. Singapore patent application 10201702472T, filed 27 March 2017. Patent pending. - Involved heavily in application and renewal of ethical rights permits for using laboratory animals and genetically-modified organisms in research group projects, communication with organization personnel and external authorities on paperwork requirements and daily work issues- Involved in organizational risk assessments in particular those for microorganisms requiring biosafety level 2 standards in Singapore and Sweden - Involved, to a great extent, in issues related to scientific equipment within the group: personally attending to technical problems, ensuring user needs and requests were conveyed and handled appropriately by the vendor- Supervised internship students on short-term projects

Thesis: Caenorhabditis elegans as a model to elucidate host-pathogen interactions for human bacterial pathogens. Thesis completed at two labs: 1) Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.Main Supervisor: Mikael Rhen.2) Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore. Co-supervisor: Patrick Tan. I used the nematode C. elegans as a model system to dissect host-pathogen interactions, particularly for bacterial pathogens responsible for human infections. Even though C. elegans possesses only innate immunity and lacks the adaptive immune arm of vertebrates, the model remains attractive as it is believed that the central concept of innate immunity is present throughout the animal kingdom, and that most importantly, successful strategies against pathogens have been conserved throughout evolution. My projects utilized forward and reverse genetics to identify host factors which modulate the infection outcomes and a wide repertoire of bacterial mutants to identify specific virulence factors involved in pathogenicity. Interestingly, the findings from these studies highlighted a common theme whereby bacterial pathogens, having already evolved in their hosts over time, exhibit the ability to achieve and maintain success by hijacking and benefiting from innate immune strategies. In one case, Burkholderia spp. evoked the initiation of host defence signalling cascades but prevented the host from executing a subsequent surveillance over these pathways. As a result, the excessive activity of these signalling cascades proved to be detrimental to the host (Sem et al., 2012). In another, Salmonella spp. induced the overwhelming production of host reactive oxygen species which were thought to be protective but essentially mediated the infection pathogenesis (Sem and Rhen, 2012). In addition, the use of pathogens in such host models also revealed a immune role for host genes previously not known to be involved in pathogen defence.

SIgN Macrophage ProgramPI: Professor Philippe KourilskySupervisor: Dr Wong Siew ChengMy project used functional genomics to study the heterogeneity and functional plasticity of human blood monocytes and macrophages and the characteristics of those subsets involved in cancer. In this project, I utilized the following techniques: isolation and purification of cells from donor blood, primary and mammalian cell cultures, flow cytometry, quantitative RT-PCR, Illumina bead chip array, Luminex multiplex protein analyser, 3D tumor cell culture.