Rate My Professor Yoon Yeong

Keng Yoon Yeong (Ken) is currently the Associate Head (Industry Engagement and Enterprising) and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Science at Monash University Malaysia, where he teaches Medicinal Chemistry (CHM3930) and Advanced Organic Chemistry (CHM3922). His research focuses on medicinal chemistry with intersections to organic synthesis, biology and medicine. Broadly, the theme of his research group targets small molecule and short peptide drug discovery, including synthesis of interesting chemical scaffolds targeting cancers, infectious diseases and neurological disorders using parallel synthesis; retooling old drugs through rational drug design incorporating computer-aided-drug-design, SAR, hybridisation and bioisosteric replacements; synthesis of short peptides using solid-phase-peptide-synthesis; and semi-synthesis of naturally occurring bioactive compounds to improve pharmacological properties. He has co-authored over 60 research publications in the field of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. His group’s research activities are supported by international as well as national funders such as the Royal Society of Chemistry UK, Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). He is co-inventor for 7 patent applications.

Prior to joining Monash University, Keng Yoon Yeong spent 11 years as a research scientist in industry where he worked on small molecule organic synthesis and immunoassays. He earned his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from Universiti Sains Malaysia, receiving the Golden Pavilion (Sanggar Sanjung) Award for Best Thesis (2016) and Best Research Project (2015). At Monash, he has received the Faculty of Science Dean's Award for Excellence in Honours Supervision (2023) and Excellence in Teaching (2020). Yeong is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2022-present) and Malaysian Institute of Chemistry (2018-present), and Committee Member - Division of Green and Sustainable Chemistry, Malaysian Institute of Chemistry. He has served as Visiting researcher at Petru Poni Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (Jan-Feb 2024), University of Northern British Columbia (Jun-Sep 2024), and University of Queensland (Jan-Feb 2019). Key publications include "Linking Diabetes to Alzheimer's Disease: Potential Roles of Glucose Metabolism and Alpha-Glucosidase" (Current Neuropharmacology, 2023); "Anti-Amyloid β Aggregation Activity and Cell Viability Effect of Betacyanins from Red Pitahaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) for Alzheimer’s Disease" (Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, 2023); "Shaping the future of antiviral Treatment: Spotlight on Nucleobase-Containing drugs and their revolutionary impact" (Bioorganic Chemistry, 2024); and "Indazole derivatives as selective inhibitors of butyrylcholinesterase with effective blood-brain-barrier permeability profile" (Medicinal Chemistry Research, 2024). He delivered TEDxMonashUniversityMalaysia lecture on Trends in drug discovery and development (2017).