Associate Professor Dr Yuwana Podin Associate Professor, Principal Investigator
Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Bio

Dr Yuwana Podin is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, with extensive experience in laboratory and field-based infectious disease research since 1999. She holds a Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology. Her research focuses on disease surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, and therapeutic discovery, mainly around the bacterial disease, melioidosis. Dr Podin has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization during two major public health emergencies: the post-tsunami response in Aceh, Indonesia, and the A(H1N1) influenza pandemic at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She was also instrumental in establishing a COVID-19 diagnostic testing laboratory at the Hospital Pusat Jantung Sarawak. Certified in Biorisk Management by recognized accreditation bodies, Dr Podin has been actively engaged in national and international biosafety and biosecurity advocacy since 2015. She serves as a national technical committee member for the Biological Weapons Convention implementation framework and has been a member of the Malaysian Genetic Modification Advisory Committee since 2024. Beyond her scientific contributions, Dr Podin is actively involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy, holding various leadership and advisory roles at both local and national levels.