The membership of the Asia-Pacific Pathogen Genomics Network will comprises of:

• Expert public health and genomics-enabled laboratories across the Asia-Pacific that will support capacity building and training for equitable access to the technology across the region.

• Public health laboratories across the Asia-Pacific that are interested in access to or implementation of genomic sequencing.

• Other experts/advisors as required.

Professor Benjamin Howden, Director Of Microbiological Diagnostic Unit (MDU) Public Health Laboratory

Professor Benjamin Howden is Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory and the Centre for Pathogen Genomics, University of Melbourne, at the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Australia. Professor Howden is an established leader in public health research, regional training and pathogen genomics, and pioneered state-wide and national coordination and implementation of microbial genomics into clinical and public health practice. He is currently the Chair of Australia’s national Public Health Laboratory Network and Co-Chair of Communicable Diseases Genomics Network (Australia and New Zealand).

Dr Raymond Lin, Director, National Public Health Laboratory, NCID

Dr Raymond Lin studied medicine at the National University of Singapore, and specialised in medical microbiology, obtaining the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 1994. He spent a year at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he obtained an MSc with Distinction in 1991.

Dr Lin started as a medical microbiologist at the Singapore General Hospital, then moved to KK Women's and Children's Hospital and later to the National University Hospital,  where he still heads the microbiology laboratory.  He started the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) under the Ministry of Health in 2007, and this laboratory supports surveillance and outbreak investigation of communicable diseases in the country. The scope of the NPHL covers bacteria (e.g. salmonellae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, antimicrobial resistance), viruses (e.g. enterovirus, influenza viruses, HIV, influenza, SARS-CoV-2), parasites (e.g. malaria) and biothreat agents.

Dr Sarah Jefferies

Dr Sarah Jefferies is a Public Health Physician in the Intelligence Group at ESR, specialising in national communicable disease surveillance and outbreak response. She has been providing public health medicine expertise during the COVID-19 response including on national surveillance planning, risk assessment, epidemiological analyses and intelligence to inform decision making at national and local levels. Sarah is a clinical and research doctor originating from Scotland - a Fellow of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine, Master of Public Health and has a Doctor of Medicine degree on influenza research following the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic. 

Professor Deborah Williamson, Director of VIDRL, Professor of Public Health Microbiology

Professor Deborah Williamson is a Clinical Microbiologist and Director of the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL). She is also a Professor of Public Health Microbiology and Laboratory Head in the Department of Infectious Diseases. Deborah is a clinician-scientist involved in the delivery of specialist public health laboratory services, and in the diagnosis and surveillance of communicable diseases. Her laboratory focuses on the translation of diagnostic technologies, including genomics, to infectious diseases.

Professor Torstan Seemann, Lead Bioinformatician

Associate Professor Torsten Seemann is a world-leading bioinformatician specialising in applied microbial genomics. He is lead bioinformatician at Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at the Doherty Institute and Co-Founder and Lead of AusTrakka, Australia's endorsed national pathogen genomics surveillance platform. His expertise includes management of hardware and software analysis infrastructure required to modernise public health microbiology services by replacing traditional assays with high resolution whole genome sequencing, and building a national data sharing network to facilitate pathogen and antimicrobial resistance surveillance that links with similar international networks. He is a member of the Communicable Diseases Genomics Network (Australia and New Zealand).

Dr Joep de Ligt, Lead - Bioinformatics & Genomics at Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd (ESR)

Dr Ligt is an experienced researcher working on OMICs data using computational methods. Previously, he coordinated a large-scale compute cluster on the Utrecht Life-Science campus as well as the Bioinformatics Expertise Core within the Center for Molecular medicine (University Medical Center Utrecht). He cares for reproducible science and actively implement and support open data, open source and open access to achieve this. During his PhD Dr Ligt investigated the role of novel (de novo) mutations and their role in human developmental disease. As a postdoc he has researched the implications and mechanisms of drug response and resistance in cancer using genomics data.

Dr Cui Lin, Senior Principle Scientific Officer of National Public Health Laboratory in Ministry of Health, Singapore.

Ms Chantel Lin, Program Manager

Chantel Lin is the Program Manager for Antimicrobial Resistance and Genomics at the Doherty Institute. She is responsible for the management of programs focussed on antimicrobial resistance, microbial genomics and public health, including translational research projects, national and regional capacity building and training programs, coordination of collaborative partnerships and public health networks, and contribution to the Institute’s strategic initiatives across her work areas. Chantel holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Melbourne, her interests include translational research and training programs to understand and combat antimicrobial resistance, and the translation of microbial genomics into public health and clinical microbiology.

Ms Tuyet Hoang, Portfolio Manager for Pathogen Genomics

Tuyet Hoang is Portfolio Manager for Pathogen Genomics at the University of Melbourne. She is responsible for the coordination and management of state, national and international genomics translational research and implementation public health pathogen genomics programs. Her focus is on strategic planning, business development, data governance, relationship building, implementation of genomics into public health systems, and supporting capacity building and training activities. Her portfolio includes, AusTrakka, Australian Pathogen Genomics (AusPathoGen) Program, and pathogen genomics endeavours in the Asia-Pacific region.