APPSPGHAN 2022

YVONNE LIM AI LIAN

Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya

Malaysia

Dr. Yvonne Lim Ai Lian is a senior professor at the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya (UM), Kuala Lumpur and a council member of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM). Her research focuses on host-parasite interactions and the epidemiology and control of neglected tropical diseases primarily among the indigenous communities. Her work has been funded by various national and international grants (eg. US NIH grant). Currently, together with researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, her team is further elucidating the role of gut microbiota-helminth association with nutritional status and inflammatory responses. She has published more than 225 scientific papers, 9 book chapters and 3 books. She has supervised more than 30 postgraduate students to completion. She was a visiting researcher at the Scottish Parasite Diagnostic and Reference Laboratory (formerly SPDL), Glasgow, Scotland; a visiting fellow at the Department of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, Australia and was appointed a visiting professor at the Department of Molecular Parasitology and Tropical Diseases, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was also one of the women leader mentors in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Asia-Pacific Women in Leadership (APWiL) Mentoring Programme. She has recently completed her Fulbright Scholar Program for an attachment at the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA.

Gut worms and Gut Microbiota

Plenary Lecture (Day 2)

14 October 2022 (0835-1005) @ Sipadan Hall 1

Gut worms especially the soil-transmitted helminths, namely Ascaris lumbricoides (roundworm), Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) and hookworm infections thrive in poor and disadvantaged communities in the tropics. They produce a wide range of symptoms including diarrhoea, abdominal pain, general malaise, whilst some cause blood loss. In severe cases, these infections can cause gut obstruction, rectal prolapse and severe anaemia. Chronic worm infections are common in children resulting in poor nutritional status, physical and cognitive development. Although these infections are responsible for significant morbidities, some studies have also shown that gut worms may promote beneficial effect to host, by modulating and supressing excessive inflammatory responses. The ability of worms to attenuate the severity of diseases could be related to its immunoregulatory effect which allow their longterm survival within the host. Besides these gut worms, a large number of commensal bacteria, collectively known as gut microbiota also resides in the gut. The prolonged cohabitation of gut worms and gut microbiota enables these organisms to influence each other, leaving significant effect on the host. This presentation will highlight the increasing interest in understanding the effect of gut worms on human health through the modulation of gut microbiota.

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