Zetty Norhana Balia Yusof

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Biography

Dr. Zetty Norhana is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She started her position as a senior lecturer in 2012 after completing her PhD in Plant Sciences at University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Her PhD thesis is entitled ‘Regulation of thiamine (vitamin B1) biosynthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In Cambridge, she matriculated at Magdalene College. In 2007, Dr. Zetty pursued her Master of Science in Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. She was the recipient of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB)-University Graduate Research Collaboration Fund and her thesis was entitled ‘Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in Oil Palms (Elaeis guineensis) Related to Infections by Ganoderma boninense’. Prior to that, she gained her Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Microbiology also at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. Her current research interests are thiamine (vitamin B1) biosynthesis pathway in plants, specifically in oil palm (Elaies guineensis) and macro- and microalgae, the effect of thiamine towards the immune system of plants, the potential of seaweeds, cyanobacteria and microalgae as a source of bioactive compounds, and also the hunt for riboswitches in plants. She is currently leading 3 projects from 3 major Malaysian research grants worth RM437,000.00 and supervising 3 Master of Science students. Apart from that, she was also the recipient of the 2015 Australia-APEC Women in Research Fellowship where she carried out a short research attachment at South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), Australia working on a project entitled ‘The potentials of selected marine seaweeds collected from the South Australian coastline as a source of useful bioactive compounds’.