Associate Professor Tan Yee Joo

Tan Yee Joo

BA, MA, DPhil

Associate Professor

Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Email: mictyj@nus.edu.sg

Tel: 6516 3692

Research Interest

My laboratory is doing research on hepatitis viruses, influenza viruses as well as newly emerged viruses, like the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which emerged in 2002, and SARS-CoV-2, which emerged in 2019 to cause the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also involved in research on Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C virus (HCV), the two major players which cause chronic liver diseases worldwide.

  • To study viruses causing severe acute and chronic infections.
  • To understand the role of individual viral proteins and their abilities to interact with host factors.
  • To use monoclonal antibodies to characterize functional motifs in viral proteins
  • To develop methods for the production of proteins and design of immunogenic protein fragments
  • To identify novel viral-host interactions in hepatitis B virus and use small inhibitors to disrupt them

    • Recent Publications

    1. Ng KT, Mohd-Ismail NK, Tan YJ*. Spike S2 Subunit: The Dark Horse in the Race for Prophylactic and Therapeutic Interventions against SARS-CoV-2. Vaccines (Basel). 2021 Feb 20;9(2):178. doi: 10.3390/vaccines9020178. PMID: 33672450; PMCID: PMC7923282.
    2. Le Bert N, Clapham HE, Tan AT, Chia WN, Tham CYL, Lim JM, Kunasegaran K, Tan LWL, Dutertre CA, Shankar N, Lim JME, Sun LJ, Zahari M, Tun ZM, Kumar V, Lim BL, Lim SH, Chia A, Tan YJ, Tambyah PA, Kalimuddin S, Lye D, Low JGH, Wang LF, Wan WY, Hsu LY, Bertoletti A, Tam CC. Highly functional virus-specific cellular immune response in asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. J Exp Med. 2021 May 3;218(5):e20202617. doi: 10.1084/jem.20202617. PMID: 33646265; PMCID: PMC7927662.
    3. Stebbing J, Sánchez Nievas G, Falcone M, Youhanna S, Richardson P, Ottaviani S, Shen JX, Sommerauer C, Tiseo G, Ghiadoni L, Virdis A, Monzani F, Rizos LR, Forfori F, Avendaño Céspedes A, De Marco S, Carrozzi L, Lena F, Sánchez-Jurado PM, Lacerenza LG, Cesira N, Caldevilla Bernardo D, Perrella A, Niccoli L, Méndez LS, Matarrese D, Goletti D, Tan YJ, Monteil V, Dranitsaris G, Cantini F, Farcomeni A, Dutta S, Burley SK, Zhang H, Pistello M, Li W, Romero MM, Andrés Pretel F, Simón-Talero RS, García-Molina R, Kutter C, Felce JH, Nizami ZF, Miklosi AG, Penninger JM, Menichetti F, Mirazimi A, Abizanda P, Lauschke VM. JAK inhibition reduces SARS-CoV-2 liver infectivity and modulates inflammatory responses to reduce morbidity and mortality. Sci Adv. 2021 Jan 1;7(1):eabe4724. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe4724. PMID: 33187978; PMCID: PMC7775747.
    4. Zheng Z, Teo SHC, Arularasu SC, Liu Z, Mohd-Ismail NK, Mok CK, Ong CB, Chu JJ, Tan YJ*. Contribution of Fc-dependent cell-mediated activity of a vestigial esterase-targeting antibody against H5N6 virus infection. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec;9(1):95-110.
    5. Zheng Z, Monteil VM, Maurer-Stroh S, Yew CW, Leong C, Mohd-Ismail NK, Cheyyatraivendran Arularasu S, Chow VTK, Lin RTP, Mirazimi A, Hong W, Tan YJ*. Monoclonal antibodies for the S2 subunit of spike of SARS-CoV cross-react with the newly-emerged SARS-CoV-2. Euro Surveill. 2020 Jul;25(28).
    6. Le Bert N, Tan AT, Kunasegaran K, Tham CYL, Hafezi M, Chia A, Chng MHY, Lin M, Tan N, Linster M, Chia WN, Chen MI, Wang LF, Ooi EE, Kalimuddin S, Tambyah PA, Low JG, Tan YJ, Bertoletti A. SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected controls. Nature. 2020 Aug;584(7821):457-462. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2550-z. Epub 2020 Jul 15. PMID: 32668444.
    7. Tan CW, Chia WN, Qin X, Liu P, Chen MI, Tiu C, Hu Z, Chen VC, Young BE, Sia WR, Tan YJ, Foo R, Yi Y, Lye DC, Anderson DE, Wang LF. A SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus neutralization test based on antibody-mediated blockage of ACE2-spike protein-protein interaction. Nat Biotechnol. 2020 Sep;38(9):1073-1078. doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0631-z. Epub 2020 Jul 23. PMID: 32704169.
    8. Anderson DE, Tan CW, Chia WN, Young BE, Linster M, Low JH, Tan YJ, Chen MI, Smith GJD, Leo YS, Lye DC, Wang LF. Lack of cross-neutralization by SARS patient sera towards SARS-CoV-2. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec;9(1):900-902. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1761267. PMID: 32380903; PMCID: PMC7241448.
    9. Chia WN, Tan CW, Foo R, Kang AEZ, Peng Y, Sivalingam V, Tiu C, Ong XM, Zhu F, Young BE, Chen MI, Tan YJ, Lye DC, Anderson DE, Wang LF. Serological differentiation between COVID-19 and SARS infections. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec;9(1):1497-1505..
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