Prof Dr Shireene Ratna Vethakkan

Professor Shireene Ratna Vethakkan obtained her MBBS from the University of Malaya and a Masters of Internal Medicine from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She trained in endocrinology at the University of Malaya Medical Centre and completed a fellowship at St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, followed by an MD from the University of Melbourne focusing on type 1 diabetes post-islet-transplantation. Her expertise includes human islet-transplantation, lipotoxicity, and beta-cell function, with skills in evaluating beta-cell function and insulin sensitivity.

Appointed Head of the Division of Endocrinology & Diabetes in 2012, she holds multiple research grants. Her research spans maternal BMI and pregnancy outcomes, ethnicity's impact on Vitamin D therapy in Malaysia, pituitary dysfunction in cancer survivors, and pharmacogenomics in obesity and diabetes. Recent collaborations include studying dietary fat's effect on pancreatic beta cells and cardiovascular risk. She leads a cohort study on maternal metabolic dysfunction's impact on offspring health.

Dr. Vethakkan has published extensively and supervised many postgraduate students. She plans to enhance diabetes services at UMMC, organize educational seminars, and develop an online diabetes management algorithm. Long-term, she aims to research epigenetics and beta-cell function and expand insulin pump services at UMMC.