Siok Yee Chan

Biography

Associate Professor Dr Chan Siok Yee is a fully registered pharmacist and a member of academic staff and program chair of discipline pharmaceutical technology in the School of Pharmaceutical Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia. she is a highly popular and well-regarded group member as her social skills and ability to work effectively with others are exceptional. After her PhD she joined as visiting researcher in School of Pharmacy, University College London when I was offered the position of Director of School of Pharmacy, UCL. At UCL, Siok Yee was working in electrospinning of pharmaceutical excipients and picked up new skills in nanofabrication.

Her research journey from PhD to her current position has involved her combining fundamental principles of physical chemistry, polymer science and nanotechnology with the design and development of drug delivery systems in order to better utilise medicines and to ensure that they are released from the dosage form at the appropriate rate and at the appropriate site in the body.  For example, she has applied principles of solid state chemistry and characterisation for developing stabilised pharmaceutical formulations for poorly water soluble drugs using solid dispersion strategies which involve the molecular dispersion of drugs in water-miscible polymeric matrices such that the (thermodynamically favoured) coalescence of the molecules back into the crystalline state does not occur over the lifetime of the product, an issue that is a major challenge to the pharmaceutical industry at present.

She uses the fundamental principles and apply them to problems that are pertinent and current within the patient community in Malaysia and the region, hence she is trying to solve real time problems using her knowledge of the science underpinning the proposed dosage forms that will be appropriate for the given patient group.   This has led to the award of an international grant by Global Research Challenge Fund, involving a project at look into a low-cost product development that tackle malnutrition among the children in the indigenous community of Malaysia using local resources; this project was made possible by the basic knowledge she obtained on the basic principles of resource development and manufacture, initially applied to complex pharmaceutical dosage forms but also applicable in a more general sense to other resources such as nutrients. Complexity in application of the fundamental knowledge translated into industrial and community impact has facilitate in the establishment of her own research group known as “Thought Formulation Lab”.

Associate Professor Chan Siok Yee showed qualities of a mature, meticulous, dedicated, systematic, resourceful and a persevering academic. On top of that, Siok Yee has a great leadership quality which could be seen from her affiliation to several societies such as Global Young Academy, Editor in Chief for Malaysian Journal of Pharmacy, Science Leadership Working group in the Young Scientist Network, member of the Malaysian Pharmacy Society, and serves as the Vice President for Malaysia Society of Pharmaceutical Technology. Her impressive academic record coupled with her commitment and passion in carrying out good research reflect her true scholarship.

Awards