Dr Polly Yap

AMR IMPACT THEME

• AMR Evolution and Protective Microbiomes

EXPERTISE

• Microbiology
• Bacterial genomics
• Human microbiome
• Agnostic sequencing for pathogens and AMR genes detection

Dr Polly is an early-career researcher and Research Fellow at the Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Monash Malaysia. After completing her PhD at the University of Malaya, she joined Monash on a postdoctoral fellowship to investigate the One Health genomic transmission dynamics of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Her research spans clinical, environmental (water and soil), and samples, including those from healthy Malaysians and the indigenous (Orang Asli) population. This has enabled her to adopt a multidisciplinary approach, integrating microbiology, microbial genomics, microbiomes, health, and dietary data to explore complex interactions between environmental and human health factors, particularly how diet and exposure to different ecosystems influence bacterial transmission and antimicrobial resistance patterns.

Since 2022, she has served as the point of contact and principal investigator for an international partnership aimed at enhancing capacity building to strengthen emerging pathogens surveillance in developing countries through portable, probe-based sequencing technologies. Beyond research, Dr Polly is passionate about capacity building and training. She served as a trainer for the Wellcome Connecting Science (WCS) Global Training in Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacterial Pathogens – Asia in 2025.

AMR FOCUS

• AMR genes and genomic surveillance in human microbiome and other One Health-related environments
• Understanding how AMR spreads among the Gram-negative bacteria in a local context via plasmids
• Hybrid capture approaches for detecting pathogens and AMR genes

IMPACT

• Genomic surveillance to inform evidence-based policy.
• Culture-independent approach for rapid diagnosis through agnostic metagenomic sequencing