Ho Yan Yeung

Ho Yan Yeung serves as a Postdoc and Guest Researcher in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Based at the Molecular Cardiology and Membrane Proteins laboratory within the Gerhart-Hines Group, Yeung's work bridges marine biology and molecular endocrinology to investigate venom peptide mechanisms.

Research interests center on the disruption of glucose homeostasis by marine toxins, particularly cone snail venom components that mimic somatostatin and insulin. This interdisciplinary focus combines toxicology, endocrinology, and molecular biology to uncover novel pathways relevant to metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Yeung's approach leverages natural venoms as tools to probe physiological systems and identify potential therapeutic targets.

Yeung's 2024 publication in Nature Communications on fish-hunting cone snails exemplifies this research trajectory, demonstrating how venom peptides weaponize hormone mimetics to disrupt prey metabolism. This work represents a convergence of marine science and biomedical research, highlighting the potential of venom studies for advancing understanding of human metabolic disorders.

Within the Gerhart-Hines Group, Yeung contributes to collaborative projects on membrane proteins and their roles in cardiovascular and metabolic physiology, utilizing advanced biochemical and molecular techniques to characterize protein function and interactions.