Dr Chew Weng Cheng
- Position: Mautner-BHF Research Fellow
- Areas of expertise: Cardiovascular diseases; Infectious diseases; Bioinformatics; Transcriptomics; Genomics; Microarray; Molecular biology; Population genetics; Infection
- Email: C.W.Cheng@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: Level 7 LIGHT Building
- Website: Twitter | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | Researchgate | ORCID
Profile
I am a Mautner BHF Career Development fellow based within the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine (LICAMM). I obtained a first-class honour in Bachelor of Biomedical Science in January 2015. Following my undergraduate degree, I studied a doctoral degree in infection and immunity jointly awarded by the University of Liverpool and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). Subsequently, I arrived at the University of Leeds (December 2018 – November 2021) as a post-doctoral researcher to work on heart failure with and without diabetes. In March 2021, I was awarded an inaugural fellowship – Mautner BHF Career Development fellowship as a first step to establish his own research group.
I have experience and am interested in using multi-omics big data approaches for better understanding of single and multi-disease phenomena with a view to reducing the suffering from common communicable and non-communicable diseases. I have experience in these approaches through my work on vaccine candidates for malaria; Plasmodium vivax and my recent work on heart failure with and without diabetes. Through these apparently independent areas of work I have seen an important opportunity for a research strategy bringing together understanding of infectious and cardiovascular diseases.
Research interests
I made progress with my recent exciting work on COVID-19 and identified a gene known to be important in mechanical properties of the endothelial cell membrane. Transient Receptor Potential Cation Channel of Subfamily C Family 1 (TRPC1) is suggested to mediate mechanical responses of membranes, which could be relevant to infection.
Excitingly, I found that there are significant previously unknown links for ion channels with cardiometabolic diseases. Based on this foundation, I aim to build a new research group focused on the novel hypothesis that genes regulating membrane mechanical properties are factors determining co-susceptibilities to infections and cardiometabolic diseases and risk of more severe outcomes. I will test this hypothesis using big data genetic approaches and then explore further by iterative more in-depth big data analysis combined with wet laboratory experiments performed with collaborators using patient tissue samples.
Qualifications
- BSc Hons
- PhD
- FHEA
Professional memberships
- Physiological Society
- Biophysical Society
Student education
Tutor for Introduction to Medical Sciences (IMS) module. I supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Research groups and institutes
- Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine
- Discovery and Translational Science
- Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Centre