Peggy Woh, PhD
College of Health Sciences
Assistant Professor
Biography
Dr. Peggy Woh received her BSc (2012) and MSc (2016) in Microbiology from Universiti Malaya (UM), Malaysia, and earned her PhD in Public Health from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2020. During her doctoral training, she was a PhD Exchange Student at the University of California, Berkeley (Jan-Mar 2020). She subsequently held positions as Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2021) and Research Associate (2021-2022) at CUHK, before being appointed Research Assistant Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Aug 2022 – Apr 2025). Most recently, she was a Postdoctoral Visiting Scholar at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria under the Ernst Mach Grant – Worldwide (Apr – Sep 2025).
Her research centers on One Health antimicrobial resistance (AMR), epidemiology, microbiome, and the application of machine learning for AMR prediction. She has authored and co-authored multiple publications in international peer-reviewed journals. Among her academic achievements, she was the winner of research pitching grant of the 2023 U.S.-ASEAN Science, Technology, Innovation, and Cooperation (STIC) to support development of AI-powered AMR prediction models in Salmonella. She also serves as Principal Investigator of the DAAD Germany/RGC Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme [G-PolyU507/23], leading the BeONE project to strengthen One Health AMR collaboration between Hong Kong and Germany. In addition, she has received competitive training and travel bursaries, including from Wellcome Connecting Science (AMR in Bacterial Pathogens, Bangkok 2025; NGS Bioinformatics Asia, Kuala Lumpur 2024) and the ICTMM Asia-Pacific Developing Country Travel Grant for Young Scientists (2024).
Dr Woh’s leadership and contributions to global health have been recognized internationally. She was selected as a Malaysian female leader at the U.S.-ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy for YSEALI (2024), a Fellow for the Pandemic Prevention Leadership Initiative (PPLI) by World Conversation Society, which allow her to continue advancing international collaborations in public health research.
• One Health
• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
• Gut microbiome
• Infectious disease
• Epidemiology
• Application of machine learning
• Microbiology
• Infectious diseases
• Bacteriology
• Epidemiology
• Woh PY*!, Soengkono F, Chen Y, Azizul ZH, Mohd Zain SN, Quiroga J, Kwok KWH. (2025). Genomic insights into nontyphoidal Salmonella: prediction of antimicrobial resistance with whole genome-based machine learning. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
• Woh PY*!, Zhang X. (2025). The burden of ESKAPE pathogen-related hospital-acquired infections: clinical and financial perspective from a systematic review. Journal of Hospital Infection.
• Woh PY*!, Chen Y, Quiroga J, Kwok KWH. (2025) Bayesian phylogeographic analysis infers cross-border transmission dynamics of drug-resistant Salmonella Enteritidis. Microbiology Spectrum.
• Woh PY*!, Chen Y, Nurjadi D. (2025). Bridging the phylodynamic antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong through a One Health lens. International Journal of Food Microbiology.
• Woh PY*, Chen Y, Mohammadzadeh R, Schmidt, L, Moissl-Eichinger C. (2025) Reevaluation of the gastrointestinal methanogenic archaeome in multiple sclerosis and its association with treatment. Microbiology Spectrum.
• Woh, PY*!, Sengxayalath, P, Van Pham Thi, K. (2025). Impact of generational differences on rice farmer’s perception and challenges in Champassak, Laos. BMC Agriculture & Food Security.
• Woh PY*!, Shiu HY, Fang JKH. (2024). Microplastics in seafood: navigating the silent health threat and intestinal implications through a One Health food safety lens. Journal of Hazardous Materials.
• Neumann CJ, Mohammadzadeh R, Woh PY, Kobal T, Pausan MR, Shinde T, Haid V, Mertelj P, Mahnert A, Kumpitsch C, Jantscher-Krenn E, Moissl-Eichinger C. (2024). First-year dynamics of the anaerobic microbiome and archaeome in infant’s oral and gastrointestinal systems. mSystems.
• Woh PY*!, Yeung MPY, Goggins WBIII. (2023). Multiple antibiotic resistance index (MARI) of human-isolated Salmonella species: a practical bacterial antibiotic surveillance tool. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
• Woh PY*, Yeung MPS, Goggins WBIII, Lo N, Wong KT, Chow V, Chau KY, Fung K, Chen Z, Ip M. (2021). Genomic epidemiology of multidrug-resistant nontyphoidal Salmonella in young children hospitalized for gastroenteritis. Microbiology Spectrum.
• 2020: PhD in Public Health, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• 2016 MSc in Microbiology, Universiti Malaya
• 2012 BSc in Microbiology, Universiti Malaya
• 2025: Ernst Mach Grant – Worldwide
• 2025: Wellcome Connecting Science: Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacterial Pathogen Bursary
• 2024: Fellowship of Pandemic Prevention Leadership Initiative Program by WCS
• 2024: Wellcome Connecting Science: Next Generation Sequencing Bioinformatics Asia Bursary
• 2024: Women Rising Star by Women Education
• 2024: ICTMM 2024 Asia Pacific Developing Country Travel Grant – Student & Young Scientist
• 2024: U.S.-ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy for YSEALI
• 2023: U.S.-ASEAN Science, Technology, Innovation, Cooperation (STIC) Seed Grant Award
• 2022: Ernst Mach Grant, Eurasia-Pacific Uninet Award, Austria
• 2020: One Health Fellowship Fund of 6th World One Health Congress, Scotland, UK
• 2020: Hong Kong Government Scholarship Reaching Out Award
• 2020: Global Scholarship for Research Excellence, University of California, Berkeley, USA
