A/Prof Gan Yunn Hwen

Appointment(s)

Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Singapore

Assistant Dean, Academic Affairs (Equal Opportunities & Career Development), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Singapore

Co-Director, Infectious Diseases Translational Research Program, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Singapore

Degree(s)

PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1996)

BSc (Honours) in Molecular Biology, Purdue University

Biography

Prof Yunn-Hwen Gan graduated from Purdue University with a BSc (Honours) in Molecular Biology and University of Wisconsin-Madison with a PhD in medical microbiology and immunology. She is a world leading researcher in melioidosis, a disease primarily in the tropics. She established the first mucosal animal model and had helped define the field by examining bacterial pathogen’s virulence as well as the host immune response to the disease. Her lab discovered a regulatory cascade that coordinately controlled two bacterial secretion systems which are critical for bacterial virulence. Other seminal findings include the discovery that glutathione deficiency is the reason for increased disease risk to melioidosis for Type 2 diabetic patients. Her laboratory also works on identifying bacterial virulent factors of hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae responsible for causing liver abscess, which is prominent in Asia. Her recent works have identified the alarming trend of the convergence of multidrug resistance and hypervirulence in K. pneumoniae in Singapore’s hospital settings. Her ongoing research studies how antibiotic resistance genes on highly evolved and adapted mobile genetic elements are spreading among bacterial populations, and strategies to stop the spread.