Heng Chooi

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Heng Chooi

Associate Professor

 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7719-7524

  • The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway,

    6009 Perth

    Australia

Calculated based on number of publications stored in Pure and citations from Scopus

Personal profile

Biography

Dr Chooi (PhD, Applied Biology and Biotechnology) worked at University of California, Los Angeles (2009-2013) focusing on the molecular genetic and biochemical basis of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in fungi. He moved to the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University in 2013 after winning a prestigious ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). In 2015, he joined the faculty at The University of Western Australia and took up a lectureship in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry. His current research is focusing on secondary metabolite biosynthesis of fungi, understanding secondary metabolite roles in plant and animal fungal disease development, enzyme and drug discovery by genome mining. His work spans the field of genomics and genetics, synthetic biology, chemical biology and natural product chemistry. In 2016, Dr Chooi was awarded the prestigious ARC Future Fellowship to continue his research in this exciting interdisciplinary field.

Funding overview

ARC Discovery Project (2020-2023) - Fungal Ribosomally Synthesised and Post-translationally Modified Peptides, Chooi, Y-H, Solomon, PS

Cooperative Research Centre Projects CRC-P (2018-2021) - BioAustralis: Towards the Future, Lacey, E; Page, S; Piggott, AP; Chooi, Y-H

ARC Discovery Project (2017-2019) - Two new phytotoxins in Septoria nodorum blotch: Biosynthesis and functions, Chooi, Y-H, Solomon, PS

ARC Future Fellowship (2016-2019) - Uncovering the Hidden Secondary Metabolite Biosynthetic Potential of Fungi, Chooi, Y-H

ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) (2013-2015) - A Synthetic Biology Approach for Mining the Secondary Metabolomes of Fungal Phytopathogens, Chooi, Y-H

Current projects

PhD & Honours Research Opportunities:

1. http://www.science.uwa.edu.au/future-students/postgrad/opportunities/chemistry/metabolites

2. http://www.science.uwa.edu.au/future-students/postgrad/opportunities/chemistry/synthetic

3. http://www.science.uwa.edu.au/future-students/postgrad/opportunities/chemistry/genome-mining

Research

- Secondary metabolite biosynthesis

- Genome mining of bioactive natural products

- Fungal pathogen-host interactions

- Synthetic biology of antibiotic production

- Biocalytic enzyme discovery

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 14 - Life Below Water

Industry keywords

  • Biotechnology
  • Drug Discovery
  • Agriculture and Food

Research expertise keywords

  • Secondary metabolite biosynthesis
  • Synthetic biology
  • Enzyme mechanism
  • Natural product chemistry
  • Fungal pathogen-host interactions
  • Microbial genetics

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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  • Actinobacteria Warfare Against the Plant Pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum: 2,4,6-Trimethylpyridine Identified as a Bacterial Derived Volatile With Antifungal Activity

    Belt, K., Flematti, G. R., Bohman, B., Chooi, H., Roper, M. M., Dow, L., Truman, A. W., Wilkinson, B., Singh, K. B. & Thatcher, L. F., Mar 2025, In: Microbial Biotechnology. 18, 3, 15 p., e70082.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

    Open Access

  • An expanded database of high-resolution MS/MS spectra for lichen-derived natural products

    Bracegirdle, J., Elix, J. A., Mawalagedera, U., Chooi, Y.-H. & Gueidan, C., Dec 2025, In: Scientific Data. 12, 1, p. 244 1 p., 244.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Data article › peer-review

    Open Access

  • MIBiG 4.0: advancing biosynthetic gene cluster curation through global collaboration

    Zdouc, M. M., Blin, K., Louwen, N. L. L., Navarro, J., Loureiro, C., Bader, C. D., Bailey, C. B., Barra, L., Booth, T. J., Bozhüyük, K. A. J., Cediel-Becerra, J. D. D., Charlop-Powers, Z., Chevrette, M. G., Chooi, Y. H., D’Agostino, P. M., de Rond, T., Pup, E. D., Duncan, K. R., Gu, W. & Hanif, N. & 268 others, Helfrich, E. J. N., Jenner, M., Katsuyama, Y., Korenskaia, A., Krug, D., Libis, V., Lund, G. A., Mantri, S., Morgan, K. D., Owen, C., Phan, C. S., Philmus, B., Reitz, Z. L., Robinson, S. L., Singh, K. S., Teufel, R., Tong, Y., Tugizimana, F., Ulanova, D., Winter, J. M., Aguilar, C., Akiyama, D. Y., Al-Salihi, S. A. A., Alanjary, M., Alberti, F., Aleti, G., Alharthi, S. A., Arias Rojo, M. Y., Arishi, A. A., Augustijn, H. E., Avalon, N. E., Avelar-Rivas, J. A., Axt, K. K., Barbieri, H. B., Barbosa, J. C. J., Segato, L. G. B., Barrett, S. E., Baunach, M., Beemelmanns, C., Beqaj, D., Berger, T., Bernaldo-Agüero, J., Bettenbühl, S. M., Bielinski, V. A., Biermann, F., Borges, R. M., Borriss, R., Breitenbach, M., Bretscher, K. M., Brigham, M. W., Buedenbender, L., Bulcock, B. W., Cano-Prieto, C., Capela, J., Carrion, V. J., Carter, R. S., Castelo-Branco, R., Castro-Falcón, G., Chagas, F. O., Charria-Girón, E., Chaudhri, A. A., Chaudhry, V., Choi, H., Choi, Y., Choupannejad, R., Chromy, J., Chue Donahey, M. S., Collemare, J., Connolly, J. A., Creamer, K. E., Crüsemann, M., Cruz, A. A., Cumsille, A., Dallery, J. F., Damas-Ramos, L. C., Damiani, T., de Kruijff, M., Martín, B. D., Sala, G. D., Dillen, J., Doering, D. T., Dommaraju, S. R., Durusu, S., Egbert, S., Ellerhorst, M., Faussurier, B., Fetter, A., Feuermann, M., Fewer, D. P., Foldi, J., Frediansyah, A., Garza, E. A., Gavriilidou, A., Gentile, A., Gerke, J., Gerstmans, H., Gomez-Escribano, J. P., González-Salazar, L. A., Grayson, N. E., Greco, C., Gris Gomez, J. E., Guerra, S., Flores, S. G., Gurevich, A., Gutiérrez-García, K., Hart, L., Haslinger, K., He, B., Hebra, T., Hemmann, J. L., Hindra, H., Höing, L., Holland, D. C., Holme, J. E., Horch, T., Hrab, P., Hu, J., Huynh, T. H., Hwang, J. Y., Iacovelli, R., Iftime, D., Iorio, M., Jayachandran, S., Jeong, E., Jing, J., Jung, J. J., Kakumu, Y., Kalkreuter, E., Kang, K. B., Kang, S., Kim, W., Kim, G. J., Kim, H., Kim, H. U., Klapper, M., Koetsier, R. A., Kollten, C., Kovács, Á. T., Kriukova, Y., Kubach, N., Kunjapur, A. M., Kushnareva, A. K., Kust, A., Lamber, J., Larralde, M., Larsen, N. J., Launay, A. P., Le, N. T. H., Lebeer, S., Lee, B. T., Lee, K., Lev, K. L., Li, S. M., Li, Y. X., Licona-Cassani, C., Lien, A., Liu, J., Lopez, J. A. V., Machushynets, N. V., Macias, M. I., Mahmud, T., Maleckis, M., Martinez-Martinez, A. M., Mast, Y., Maximo, M. F., McBride, C. M., McLellan, R. M., Bhatt, K. M., Melkonian, C., Merrild, A., Metsä-Ketelä, M., Mitchell, D. A., Müller, A. V., Nguyen, G. S., Nguyen, H. T., Niedermeyer, T. H. J., O’Hare, J. H., Ossowicki, A., Ostash, B. O., Otani, H., Padva, L., Paliyal, S., Pan, X., Panghal, M., Parade, D. S., Park, J., Parra, J., Rubio, M. P., Pham, H. T., Pidot, S. J., Piel, J., Pourmohsenin, B., Rakhmanov, M., Ramesh, S., Rasmussen, M. H., Rego, A., Reher, R., Rice, A. J., Rigolet, A., Romero-Otero, A., Rosas-Becerra, L. R., Rosiles, P. Y., Rutz, A., Ryu, B., Sahadeo, L. A., Saldanha, M., Salvi, L., Sánchez-Carvajal, E., Santos-Medellin, C., Sbaraini, N., Schoellhorn, S. M., Schumm, C., Sehnal, L., Selem, N., Shah, A. D., Shishido, T. K., Sieber, S., Silviani, V., Singh, G., Singh, H., Sokolova, N., Sonnenschein, E. C., Sosio, M., Sowa, S. T., Steffen, K., Stegmann, E., Streiff, A. B., Strüder, A., Surup, F., Svenningsen, T., Sweeney, D., Szenei, J., Tagirdzhanov, A., Tan, B., Tarnowski, M. J., Terlouw, B. R., Rey, T., Thome, N. U., Ortega, L. R. T., Tørring, T., Trindade, M., Truman, A. W., Tvilum, M., Udwary, D. W., Ulbricht, C., Vader, L., van Wezel, G. P., Walmsley, M., Warnasinghe, R., Weddeling, H. G., Weir, A. N. M., Williams, K., Williams, S. E., Witte, T. E., Wood Rocca, S. M., Yamada, K., Yang, D., Yang, D., Yu, J., Zhou, Z., Ziemert, N., Zimmer, L., Zimmermann, A., Zimmermann, C., van der Hooft, J. J. J., Linington, R. G., Weber, T. & Medema, M. H., 6 Jan 2025, In: Nucleic Acids Research. 53, D1, p. D678-D690

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

    Open Access
    14 Citations (Scopus)

  • Self-Resistance Gene-Guided Discovery of the Molecular Basis for Biosynthesis of the Fatty Acid Synthase Inhibitor Cerulenin

    Shang, Z., Arishi, A. A., Wu, C., Lao, F., Gilchrist, C. L. M., Moggach, S. A., Lacey, E., Piggott, A. M. & Chooi, Y. H., 10 Jan 2025, In: Angewandte Chemie - International Edition. 64, 2, 11 p., e202414941.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

  • SpectroIBIS: Automated Data Processing for Multiconformer Quantum Chemical Spectroscopic Calculations

    Bulcock, B. W., Chooi, Y. H. & Flematti, G. R., 28 Feb 2025, In: Journal of Natural Products. 88, 2, 7 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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View all 31 grants
  • 1 Public outreach/ public event