Department of Pathology

The Department of Pathology of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, was established in 1964 with undergraduate teaching commencing in May 1965. The first batch of medical students comprised only 63 candidates and they were taught by a pioneering band of 3 Pathology academic staff. The first Head of Department (please refer to Table 1) was Professor Dr Alan BP Ng, while the first Visiting Professor was Professor Dr Walter A Wasdahl from the University of North Dakota, and the first External Examiner was Professor Dr George L Montgomery from the University of Edinburgh.

Table 1: List of the Heads of Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, UM

Heads of Department of Pathology:		Period of Headship
	Professor Dr Alan Ng Beh Puan	1964-1967
	Professor Dr Lau Kam Seng	1967-1978
	Professor Dr Kesavan Prathap	1978-1983
	Professor Dr S Sivanesan	1983-1984
	Professor Dr Looi Lai Meng	01.04.1984-31.07.1999
	Professor Dr Pathmanathan Rajadurai
	Professor Dr Looi Lai Meng
	Professor Dr Menaka Nagaratnam	01.08.1999-31.10.2000
	Professor Dr Peh Suat Cheng	01.11.2000-15.03.2004
	Professor Dr Wong Kum Thong	16.03.2004-31.05.2006
	Professor Dr Cheah Phaik Leng	01.06.2006
	Associate Prof Dr Teoh Kean Hooi
	Associate Prof Dr Man Kein Seong @ Mun Kein Seong

By 1968, all University Hospital services under the disciplines of Anatomical Pathology, Forensic Pathology, Chemical Pathology, Haematology and Transfusion Medicine were well established. Later, the Electron Microscopy Unit was added in 1969.

The two-year Master of Pathology course was started in 1973, with the 2 candidates. As postgraduate teaching and training continued into the 1980s, international links with the Royal Colleges of Pathologists of the United Kingdom and Australasia were formed. Subsequently, Master of Pathology candidates from University of Malaya were exempted from the Primary MRCPath Examinations and the Department of Pathology was recognized as an official training centre for the College Examinations. The Final MRCPath Examinations were first held in the Department of Pathology in 1981, and this practice has continued since.

In 1987, the two-year Master of Pathology course was reviewed and converted into a four-year programme. Then in 1995, the Pathology Conjoint Board was establish with representatives from University of Malaya, National University of Malaysia, Science University of Malaysia, Health Ministry of Malaysia and Academiy of Medicine of Malaysia, and a joint examination and curriculum system was established.

Many distinguished academicians from all over the world have contributed to the growth of the department – generously sharing their expertise and experience (please refer to Table 2).

Table 2: Distinguished academicians who have visited the Department of Pathology

Visitor:		Institution:
	Professor Emeritus Walter A Wasdahl: 1965	University of North Dakota, USA
	Professor George Lightbody Montgomery: 1971-1972	University of Edinburgh, UK
	Professor Janice Rosemary Anderson: 12 Jan 1988	Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK
	Professor John S Wellington: 14 – 25 Mar 1988	University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
	Professor Colin C Bird: 05 – 12 Apr 1988, Mar 1992	University of Edinburgh, UK
	Professor Harold Fox: 09 – 20 Aug 1988	University of Manchester, UK
	Professor F E Preston: 15 – 20 Aug 1988	Royal Hallamshire Hospital, UK
	Professor Vincent Marks: 15 – 22 Aug 1988	University of Surrey, UK
	Professor Akira Kawaoi: 22 Aug 1988	Yamanashi Medical College, Japan
	Dr W B Essex: 29 Sep – 03 Oct 1988	Alfred Hospital, Australia
	Dr Roger A B Drury: 12 Oct 1988	Plymouth General Hospital, UK
	Professor Robert H Riddell: 01 Dec 1988, 23-29 Jun 1990	Mc Master University Medical Centre, Canada
	Professor Alan K Foulis: 05 Dec 1988	Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, UK
	Professor Shigeo Mori: 11 Jan 1989	University of Tokyo, Japan
	Associate Professor Debra Laskin: 25 Jan 1989	Rutgers University, USA
	Professor Taketoshi Sugiyama: 18 Feb 1989	Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan
	Professor Masami Muramatsu: 06 Mar 1989	University of Tokyo, Japan
	Professor Fernando Juan Paradinas: 29 Jan-13 Mar 1989	Charing Cross Hospital, UK
	Professor Sir Roderick N M Mac Sween (14 Mar 1989)	Western Infirmary, Glasgow, UK
	Professor Ogawa Yasuhiro	Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan
	Dr M Deguchi: 15 Mar 1989	Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan
	Professor Sir Nicholas Wright	Hammersmith Hospital, UK
	Dr J F Kent Mancer	National University of Malaysia (UKM)
	Professor Hans Konrad Muller (18 Jun- 1 Jul 1989, 1991)	University of Tasmania, Australia
	Professor Dr Mary K MacDonald: 05-08 Jul 1989	University of Edinburgh, UK
	Professor Reiji Hori: 18 Jul 1989	Japan
	Dr Yap Peng Lee: 26 Jul 1989	Blood Transfusion Service, Edinburgh, UK
	Professor Terry & Pauline Baker: 04 Aug 1989, 18 Jul 1990	University of Bradford, UK
	Prof Cheong Soon Keng: 09 Aug 1989	Faculty of Medicine, UKM
	Professor Emeritus Dr Edward P C Tock: 11 Aug 1989	National University of Singapore
	Professor Roger Graham Dale: 17 Aug 1989	Charing Cross Hospital, UK
	Professor Stephen Cordner	Victoria Inst of Forensic Pathology, Australia
	Associate Professor Dr Mohd Abdel Moghni Gabr: 1989	Assiut University, Egypt
	Dr Hosny Shaaban Ahmed El-Gendawy: 23 Oct 1989	Assiut University, Egypt
	Professor Dr Chan Li Chong: 1989, 18 Jul 1990	University of Hong Kong
	Dr Isamu Sugawara: 14 – 23 Jan 1990	University of Tokyo, Japan
	Professor Dr James Chang: 22 Jan – 15 Feb 1990	Christie Hospital Manchester, UK
	Dr Mapphy Duncan: 05 Feb – 17 Mar 1990	Central Medical Laboratory, Sarawak
	Dr M Renate Dische: 23 Mar 1990	Mt Sinai School of Medicine, USA
	Dr Raymond Ng Tin Chi	Australia
	Professor Ted Gordon-Smith	St George’s Hospital Medical School, UK
	Professor Dr Aw Tar-Choon	National University of Singapore
	Dr Kazunari Yamaguchi: 04 Jun 1990	Kunamoto University, Japan
	Associate Professor Rachana Santiyanont: 04 Jun 1990	Chulalongkorn University Rama IV Rd, Thailand
	Professor Daniel H Connor: 19 Jun 1990	Georgetown University School of Medicine, USA
	Associate Professor Cedric Carter	University of British Columbia, Canada
	Professor Daniel Catovsky: 16 Jul 1990	Royal Marsden Hospital, UK
	Professor Dame Julia Polak	Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK
	Dr George B M Lindop: 28 Jun – 28 Aug 1990	Western Infirmary, University of Glasgow, UK
	Professor Dr Vicharn Panich: 02 Aug 1990	Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
	Dr Stephen G Bown: 25 Aug 1990	The Rayne Institute, UK
	Professor M Parvathi	BMS College for Women, Bangalore
	Dr Stephen Moss	School of Biological Sciences, UK
	Professor Y Shimosato: 19 Dec 1990	National Cancer Center Hospital, Japan
	Major General Iftikhar Ahmad Malik: 26 Feb 1991	Army Medical College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
	Professor Thomas T Downie: 27 Feb 1991	Western Infirmary, UK
	Professor Dennis Wright: 27 Mar 1991	Southampton General Hospital, UK
	Professor Sarah Kuruvilla	Tamarai, India
	Professor Gerald Slavin: Mar 1991, Jun 1994	St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Medical Centre, UK
	Dr Brenda Slavin: Mar 1991, Jun 1994	St Thomas ‘s Hospital,UK
	Dr N G P Slater: Mar 1991, 05 May 1992	St Thomas ‘s Hospital, UK
	Professor T H Pennington: Mar 1991	University of Aberdeen, UK
	Professor Lee Yoke Sun: 19 Nov 1991, Aug 1992	National University of Singapore (NUS)
	Professor A Fleck	Westminster Medical School, UK
	Dr Jean W Keeling: 19 – 20 May 1992, 04 – 17 Jun 1994	Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, UK
	Professor F E Preston: 18 – 22 May 1992	University of Sheffield, UK
	Dr Frank Boulton: Aug 1992	Southampton, UK
	Professor Jean Shafer: 25 Sep 1992	New York, USA
	Dr Peter Bradley: 26 Sep 1992	Australia
	Professor Sir Bernard Knight: 16 Oct 1992, Feb 1995	Wales Institute of Forensic Medicine, UK
	Dr Nandrani S De Zoysa	General Hospital Colombo, Sri Lanka
	Professor Peter Anthony: May 1993	Exeter, UK
	Professor Faith Ho SC: 02 Jul 1993	University of Hong Kong
	Dr R Murugasu	John Hunter Hospital, Australia
	Professor Eric Sumithran: 23 Sep 1993	Monash Medical Centre, Australia
	Professor Hyeon Joo Jeong: 08 Dec 1993	Yongdong Severance Hospital, Korea
	Professor Peter J Scheuer: 28 Jan 1994	University of London, UK
	Professor Dame Ingrid Allen: 1994	Medical School, Queen’s University, Belfast
	Professor P G M’Kenna: 14 Jul 1994	University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland
	Professor Anthony Rhodes: 1994, 23 Sep 2010	UCL Medical School, UK
	Dr Chris Elston: Oct 1994	City Hospital, Nottingham, UK
	Professor Sir James Underwood	University of Sheffiled, UK
	Professor Anthony SY Leung: 20 Dec 1994	Australia
	Dr Prema Iyer: Jan 1995	Australia
	Professor F WalkerZ: 04 – 17 Jun 1994	University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
	Professor Keith Shilkin: 04 – 17 Jun 1994	Perth, Australia
	Dr Brian Colvin: 04 – 17 Jun 1994	London Hospital, UK
	Dr Mathilde E Boon: Jul 1995	Netherlands
	Dr Lambrecht P Kok: Jul 1995	Netherlands
	Professor Raja Sinniah: 03 Aug 1995	NUS, Singapore
	Dr Robin Cooke: 26 Nov 1997	Royal Brisbane Hospital, Australia
	Professor Cyril Fisher: May 2002	Royal Marsden Hospital, UK
	Professor Arthur H Cohen: 2005	University of California, USA
	Professor Dr Ng Ho Keung: 13 Apr 2005	Chinese University of Hong Kong
	Associate Professor Tan Puay Hoon: 26 Sep 2006	SGH, Singapore
	Professor Aileen Wee: 03 May 2007, 02 May 2008	NUS, Singapore
	Dr R Anil Prasad: 09 Jul 2007	VA Health Care System, Tucson, USA
	Dr Juanita Bezuindenhout: 22 May 2008	Stellenbosch University, South Africa
	Dr Raymond Lin	NUS, Singapore
	Dr Samuel Vasikaran: 23 May 2008	Royal Perth Hospital, Australia
	Professor Dr Sibrand Poppema: 25 Jun 2008	University of Groningen, Netherlands
	Associate Professor The Ming: 12 Nov 2008	Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS
	Professor Kikkeri Naresh: 26 Nov 2008	Imperial College, London, UK
	Dr Kasinathan Nadesan: 06 – 08 Jan 2009	Department of Forensic Medicine, Australia
	Dr Dinesh Fernando: 05 Feb 2009	University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
	Professor Alastair D Burt: 07 May 2009	Newcastle University, UK
	Professor Tan Soo Yong: 2009, 2010, 2011	Department of Pathology, SGH, Singapore
	Professor Kim Solez: 05 Apr 2010	University of Alberta Hospitals, Canada
	Professor Jeong-Wook Seo: 13 May 2010	Seoul National University, Korea
	Professor Michael Dunnill	John Radcliffe Hospital, UK
	Professor Keith Kerr	Aberdeen University, UK
	Professor John Wing Chung Chan	University of Nebraska, UK
	Professor Derek George Douglas Wight	Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK

The academic staff also excelled in research, contributing much to the fields of renal diseases, amyloidosis, human papilloma virus infection and cervical cancers, breast cancers, lymphomas, liver diseases, intestinal cancers, tropical pathologies, nutritional anaemias, applications of fine needle aspiration cytology, etc. In addition, the department enjoys wide local and international partnerships in their research activities (please refer to Table 3).

Table 3: Institutions in partnership with the Department of Pathology

	Institution
	Institute for Medical Research, Malaysia
	Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF), Malaysia
	Huntington Medical Research Institutes, USA
	Norris Cancer Centre, USA
	University of Edinburgh Medical School, UK
	Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), USA
	INSERM (Health & Medical Research), France
	National University of Singapore, Singapore
	Beijing University, China
	2nd Military Hospital of Shanghai, China
	University of Kuwait, Kuwait
	Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, USA
	University of Gronigen, Netherlands
	Kurume University, Japan

To date the department has trained 106 Pathologists, published over 700 scientific papers, as well as produced numerous MD and PhD thesis.

The many accomplishments and firsts achieved by department, as well as many national and international awards, include (please refer to Table 4):

Table 4: Accomplishments and awards

	Accomplishment / Award	Accomplished by / Awarded to
	First to set up Postgraduate Pathology Training: Master of Pathology programme, 1873	Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
	First Malaysian Centre for MRCPath and FRCPA training and examination	Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
	First to set up computerised Laboratory Information System in the Central Diagnostic Laboratory of University Malaya Medical Centre	Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
	Introduction of immunohistochemistry and microwave-stimulated antigen retrieval techniques into Malaysian histopathology laboratories	Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
	Pioneered specialized diagnostic services in renal histopathology, cardiac transplant pathology and immunoelectron microscopy	Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
	Pioneering work in tropical diseases	Professor K Prathap
	Pioneering work in hepatocellular carcinoma	Associate Professor E Sumithran
	Pioneering work in nasopharyngeal carcinoma	Professor Pathmanathan Rajadurai
	Pioneering work in molecular genetics of hepatitis	Professor Yap Sook Fan
	Pioneering work in breast carcinoma, renal pathology, amyloidosis, tumour pathology	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	Pioneering work in lymphoma	Professor Peh Suat Cheng
	Pioneering work in cervical carcinoma and HPV, renal pathology, liver pathology	Professor Cheah Phaik Leng
	Pioneering work in neuromuscular diseases, emerging viral diseases	Professor Wong Kum Thong
	Inaugural Dr Ranjeet Bhagwan Singh Fellowship	Professor Cheah Phaik Leng
	National Science Award 1999, Malaysia	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	ASEAN Outstanding Scientist and Technologist Award 2001	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	Hall of Fame, Women in Science Malaysia, National Science Centre (2002)	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	Nikkei Asia Prize for Technological Innovation 2002	Professor Wong Kum Thong & Team
	Rotary Research Foundation Gold Medal 2002	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	James H Nakano Citation Award 2003, CDC, USA	Professor Wong Kum Thong & Team
	Tun Abdul Razak Research Award 2004, Malaysia	Professor Cheah Phaik Leng
	Inaugural UM Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research 2007	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	Mahathir Science Award 2006	Professor Wong Kum Thong & Team
	Inaugural Merdeka Award 2008	Professor Wong Kum Thong & Team
	RCPA Distinguished Fellow Award 2010	Professor Looi Lai Meng
	Inaugural National Distinguished Professor (Sciences) 2010	Professor Looi Lai Meng

Mun Kein Seong

January 2011

A Brief History