About Me

Dr Teo Swee Sen, graduated from Univesiti Putra Malaysia with a Bachelor of Science with Honour in Biology in 2001. Immediately after graduation, she was involved in the Project on Aquatic Resource and Environmental Studies of the Straits of Malacca at Universiti Putra Malaysia, a collaboration project with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) studying and cataloguing local mudskipper species under the supervision of Prof Dr Akito Kawamura and Prof Dr. Iwata. She then left the project to pursue her studies for a Master of Science in Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology (April 2002 – December 2004), specializing in Developing and Analysing Expressed Sequence Tags from Gracilaria changii, one of the more abundant agarophytic seaweeds found in Malaysia, for functional genomics studies. She generated a library of gene sequences of the seaweed species with studies of the species’ defence mechanism towards the impact of external environmental changes in its natural habitat. In December 2004, she was awarded the Master of Science Degree to fulfil the requirements of her studies. Dr Teo Swee Sen pursued a higher learning degree and enrolled for a Doctor of Philosophy immediately after her Master's graduation. Under the supervision of Professor Dr Ho Chai Ling from Universiti Putra Malaysia and Professor Dr Phang Siew Moi of Universiti Malaya, Dr Teo Swee Sen continue to gather more scientific data from similar red seaweed species she worked with during her previous studies. She successfully isolated differentially expressed genes from Gracilaria changii in response to salinity stress. Besides salinity stress, she also studies the impact of temperature and light intensity changes and pollutants presence towards seaweeds as secondary research. Besides that, she has managed to cultivate the seaweed species in an artificial environment, replicating the natural habitat to facilitate her primary studies. In June 2010, she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology to fulfil her research requirements. Dr Teo Swee Sen then joined UCSI University as a Lecturer (May 2008 – July 2013) in the Faculty of Applied Science, teaching mainly biotechnology subjects to the undergraduate students of the course while actively involved in seaweed research during her free time. As an Assoc Professor (Jan 2017 – Present), she is exploring the potential of several species of seaweeds in biomedical research. Among the cores of her expertise, she is interested in pursuing further research on seaweed natural habitats to facilitate the growing demands of commercial usage while retaining and preserving the natural stocks to protect the ecosystem.