Dr Yee Lian Chew
Senior Lecturer
College of Medicine and Public Health
Dr Yee Lian Chew, ‘the worm lady’, is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, who uses the ‘worm’ C. elegans – one millimetre long with only 300 neurons, yet 80% genetically identical to humans – to identify brain pathways that can be targeted for treatment of neurological conditions such as chronic pain. An early career academic, Yee Lian earned her BSc (2010) and PhD (2015) from the University of Sydney. In 2015, she moved to Cambridge UK to study worms in colder weather, at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. She returned to Australia in 2019 as a teaching-research academic at the University of Wollongong and is currently a Mary Overton Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University. Outside the joy of experiments, Yee Lian is a budding science communicator. She has given public lectures at National Science Week, contributed to a children’s outreach program at the Cambridge Science Festival, recorded a podcast, and filmed an Elevator Pitch for ABC Science. She was part of the 2021-2022 cohort of Superstars of STEM, a program run by Science & Technology Australia to promote the profile of women STEM professionals. The former (2021) Chair of the EMCR Forum Executive supported by the Australian Academy of Science, Yee Lian also aims to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in academia by removing barriers to retention for minoritised groups. In 2021, she was awarded a SA Young Tall Poppy award in recognition of her science communication and research profile. She is currently a early- and mid-career researcher representative on the NHMRC Research Committee for the 2022-2024 Triennium.
Mary Overton Senior Research Fellow in Neuroscience (2021-2025)
Lecturer (2019), NHMRC Research Fellow (2020), University of Wollongong
Postdoctoral research, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge UK (2016-2019)
PhD, University of Sydney (2015)
Bachelor of Science (Advanced) (Honours), University of Sydney (2010)
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Research Plain summary: What happens to our brain when we learn something? When we learn that knives are sharp, so we have to handle them carefully – or when we learn that eating pineapples makes us ill, so maybe we should avoid munching on them – we gain new knowledge and memories. When we learn something, we don’t suddenly gain a new brain or grow 500 new brain cells. But something changes. In our lab, we study how learning and gaining new memories alters how brain cells signal to each other. We find that learning triggers the release of neurochemical signals that can have wide-ranging impacts on brain regions that control movement, or the ability to sense the environment. Some of these neurochemicals can also have very specific effects on behaviour. We use the worm brain to understand these chemical changes, hoping that we can translate our research on the tiny worm brain to the much bigger brain of humans, which may change the way we manage and treat conditions like neurodegeneration and chronic pain.
ARC Discovery Project "How do protein quality control mechanisms maintain neuronal ageing?" Lead Chief Investigator, 2022-2024
SA Young Tall Poppy Award, 2021
Superstars of STEM, Science and Technology Australia, 2021-2022
University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor's Research Excellence Award for Emerging Researcher 2020
NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (EL1) 2020-2024
Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation Project Grant, 2020-2021
European Molecular Biology Organisation Long-term Fellow, 2016-2018
Medical Research Council (MRC) Career Development Fellow, 2015-2016
International Postgraduate Research Scholarship, 2011-2015
Formerly a subject coordinator for senior Medical Biotechnology students, Yee Lian is keen to engage with undergraduates and postgradute students interested in a research career in neuroscience, genetics and cellular biology. She has previously taught into Neuroscience, Chemistry (Structural Biology), Biochemistry and Biotechnology courses.
Science communication and community engagement:
- Currently part of the Superstars of STEM Program (2021-2022), Science and Technology Australia
- 'Elevator Pitch' video with ABC Science, describing scientific understanding of learning/memory in <2 minutes (youtu.be/L-rty-TU1mE ), viewed >75k times on Facebook since December.
- I regularly engage with local radio (ABC Illawarra 97.3), print media (Illawarra Mercury: https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6358795/what-worms-are-teaching-a-wollongong-researcher-about-the-human-brain/) and social media (Twitter @wormychew, https://twitter.com/ihmri/status/1186850841615065093).
- Sydney Science Festival (August 2019): I was one of 12 women participating in Soapbox Science, an initiative to raise the visibility and profile of women in STEM, where I spoke about my research (standing on a literal soapbox!) among passersby at the very busy Circular Quay, Sydney (http://soapboxscience.org/soapbox-science-2019-sydney/). I also was invited for speaking engagements at the Australian Museum and the Campbelltown library (https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/what-a-worm-can-teach-us-about-our-brains-tickets-61669014683) and at the UOW Open Day.
- Fresh Science (2013), Science in Public (https://freshscience.org.au/2013/nationalfinaldetails) through which I participated in public lectures at the Museum of Victoria, wrote a magazine article for Australasian Science and gave a short talk at a pub! My work was also featured on the Facebook page ScienceAlert, where my story received over 4500 likes.
Advocacy and Equity/Diversity/Inclusion
- 2021 Chair of EMCR Forum Executive, supported by Australian Academy of Science - the EMCR Forums's mission is to champion improvement in the national research environment through advocacy. Some of the main areas of focus are sustainable and transparent career structures, equity/diversity/inclusion, stable funding policies, career development opportunities, and raising awareness of issues facing the future of science.
- 2020 Ilawarra Health and Medical Research Institute Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
- 2020 Chair Early Career Researcher Disruption Committee, University of Wollongong
- Neuroscience, learning, memory, animal behaviour
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