Yock Young DAN
Yock Young DANProfessor
[email protected]

Office Location – Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, 1 Jurong East Street 21, Singapore 609606

Affiliations

Principal Investigator, NUS Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI)
Senior Consultant, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital & Ng Teng Fong General Hospital
Senior Consultant, Adult Liver Transplantation Programme, National University Centre for Organ Transplantation, National University Hospital
Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Chief Executive Officer, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital & Jurong Community Hospital

Biography

Associate Professor Dan Yock Young currently serves as the Deputy Chief Executive of the National University Health System (NUHS), concurrent to his role as Chief Executive Officer of both Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Jurong Community Hospital. He is also an Associate Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and is a Senior Consultant Gastroenterologist in NUHS.

During his tenure as the Deputy Director-General of Health (DDGH, Health Services Group) Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2020 to 2023, he oversaw the healthcare services organisation and provision in public hospitals and primary care, as well as integration with community partners. He continues to serve at MOH as Chairman Medical Board, Community Care Facility and chairs the Clinical Services Strategy Committee for Cell Therapy. He is also a member of Committee of Government Scientific Advisor, National Research Foundation (NRF) as well as MediShield Life Council, MOH.

Trained as a clinician scientist, his research interests include liver progenitor cells, their mechanistic roles and potential for therapeutic applications in liver failure, liver cancer and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He is currently appointed as adjunct faculty of Cancer Science Institute, NUS and Genome Institute Singapore, A*STAR.

Research Interest

I. Liver Stem Cell in Development, disease and cancer
Liver stem or progenitor cells provide a limitless supply of cells that has significant implications for diseases. Our lab’s key focus is to understand the genetic control and regulatory determinants of these stem cells in relation to liver cirrhosis repair, liver regeneration and cancer oncogenesis. Our efforts are applied in 3 main clinical areas of Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma and reversal of liver cirrhosis, particularly in the areas of biomarkers, in vitro and in vivo disease modeling and personalised targeted therapy.

II. Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease
Metabolic dysfunction manifesting as obesity, diabetes and non-alcoholic liver disease is the scourge in 21st century and Asian phenotype is poorly understood. Through deep clinical phenotyping and precision pan-omics, we aim to unravel drivers, identify biomarkers and discover novel targets that can abrogate metabolic inflammaging.

Current Research Projects

Program for Innovations in Biomarker and Therapeutic Research for MASLD (PIONEER)
Ensemble of Multi-disciplinary Systems and Integrated Omics for NAFLD (EMULSION)
Targeting the Developmental Origins of Liver Disease and its Progression to Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)

Selected Publications

    1. Eslam, M., Fan, J.-G., Yu, M.-L., Wong, V. W.-S., Cua, I. H., Liu, C.-J., Tawesak Tanwandee, Gani, R., Seto, W.-K., Alam, S., Young, D. Y., Hamid, S., Zheng, M.-H., Kawaguchi, T., Chan, W.-K.,Payawal, D., Tan, S.-S., Goh, G. B., Strasser, S. I., & Viet, H. D. (2025). The Asian Pacific association for the study of the liver clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease. Hepatology International. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12072-024-10774-3.
    2. Lahiri, A., Lim, S. T., Kyu, H., Dan, Y. Y., & Khoo, C. M. (2025). Sequential use of continuous glucose monitoring, with or without exercise trackers, significantly improves glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13098-025-02035-6.
    3. Miao, L., Ye, S.-M., Zheng, M.-H., Miao, L., Ye, S.-M., Fan, J.-G., Seto, W.-K., Hon Ho Yu, Yu, M.-L., Kao, J.-H., George Boon-Bee Goh, Dan Yock Young, Yu Jun Wong, Chan, W.-K., Yang, W., Jia, J., Lau, G., Wei, L., Shi, J., & Zhang, H. (2024). “Fatty” or “steatotic”: position statement from a linguistic perspective by the Chinese-speaking community. Journal of Hepatology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2024.05.031.
    4. Muralidharan, S., Lee, J. W. J., Lim, Y. S., Muthiah, M., Tan, E., Demicioglu, D., Shabbir, A., Loo, W. M., Koo, C. S., Lee, Y. M., Soon, G., Wee, A., Halisah, N., Abbas, S., Ji, S., Triebl, A., Burla, B., Koh, H. W. L., Chan, Y. S., & Lee, M. C. (2025). Serum lipidomic signatures in patients with varying histological severity of metabolic-dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease. Metabolism, 162, 156063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metabol.2024.156063.
    5. Ong, C. E. C., Yap, J. Y. T., Velu, K., Wu, C. X., Yap, A. U., Ng, K. X., Chu, M. Y. S., Dan, Y. Y., Choa, P. H., & Phan, P. H. C. (2025). Case management in Emergency Care: Impact Evaluation of the CARED Program. International Journal for Quality in Health Care : Journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, mzaf003. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzaf003.
    6. Prawira, A., Xu, H., Mei, Y., Leow, W. Q., Nasir, N. J. M., Reolo, M. J., Otsuka, M., Rahbari, M., Chen, Z., Weerasooriya, M., Abdullah, L. B., Wu, J., Hazirah, S. N., Wasser, M., Chung, A., Goh, B. K., Chow, P. K., Albani, S., Lee, J., & Lim, T. K. H. (2025). Targeting Treg–fibroblast interaction to enhance immunotherapy in steatotic liver disease-related hepatocellular carcinoma. Gut, gutjnl-2025-335084. https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2025-335084.
    7. Sanyal, A. J., Newsome, P. N., Kliers, I., Østergaard, L. H., Long, M. T., Kjær, M. S., Cali, A. M. G., Bugianesi, E., Rinella, M. E., Roden, M., & Ratziu, V. (2025). Phase 3 Trial of Semaglutide in Metabolic Dysfunction–Associated Steatohepatitis. New England Journal of Medicine, 392(21). https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2413258.
    8. Yu, X., Huang, C., Evers, M., Liu, J., Ting, H. J., Zhang, S., Chong, S. Y., Tan, M. S., Wang, S., Sayed, N., Gao, L., Muthiah, M. D., Soon, G. S. T., Wee, A., Chow, E. K.-H., Jun, N., Giorgia Pastorin, Yu, V. C., Liu, B., & Dan, Y. Y.(2025). Targeted inhibition of hepatic de novo ceramide synthesis ameliorates MASH. PubMed, 11(39), eadx2681–eadx2681. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx2681.
    9. Zhi, D., Low, A., Bin, R., Liu, L., Zhang, Z., Koh, X. Q., Zhu, M., Mitra, K., Muthiah, M., Dan, Y. Y., Wei, J., & Chun, E. (2025). Dysbiosis-Driven Reprogramming of Secondary Bile Acid Metabolism in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease: Insights from an Ex Vivo Human Fecal Microbiota Model. ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.5c00497.
    10. Zhu, M. T., Zhou, L., Koh, X. Q., Li, M., Ng, A. X., Jumat, N. H. B., Leo, J., Kwa, W. T., Soon, G. S., Dan, Y. Y., & lee, J. W. (2025). Tu2016: ESTABLISHMENT OF MICROBIAL-DRIVEN HUMANIZED MICE MODELS OF STEATOTIC LIVER DISEASE WITH ACCLERATED STEATOHEPATITIS AND FIBROSIS. Gastroenterology, 169(1), S-1587. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0016-5085(25)04511-1.
    11. Ng, D.Z.W.; Koh, M.; Low, A.; Liu, L.; Jumat, N.H.B.; Zhang, Z.; Koh, X.Q.; Zhu, M.; Muthiah, M.; Dan, Y.Y.; et al. Robust Workflow for Multiclass Host-Gut Microbial Cometabolite Quantitation in Human Stool via 3-Nitrophenylhydrazine Derivatization and LC-MS/MS: A Validated Analytical Platform for Translational Studies. Anal. Chem. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.5c05360.

* Corresponding author; # Co-first author