A/P Lee is a paediatric endocrinologist practicing at the University Children’s Medical Institute, National University Hospital, and also an academic staff of the Yong Long Lin School School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.  His clinical and research interest lies within the intersect of paediatrics and endocrinology, especially obesity, diabetes, and growth.  Intrigued by the severely obese young children in his clinics, A/P Lee started his research foray into the realms of human monogenic obesity and childhood obesity, which also led to a clinical and research stint in Cambridge, UK. 

GUSTO is Singapore’s largest and most comprehensive birth cohort study which provided unique opportunities to study developmental plasticity and the role of epigenetics.  A/P Lee research focus is on the impact of maternal and prenatal factors on the subsequent growth of the offspring, and developmental origins of taste and food preference, and appetite regulation.

SAMS is a series of human physiology studies designed to examine the contribution of genomic variation, ethnicity, environment, and fetal development to subsequent metabolic phenotype observed in overweight adults, as well as the impact on the efficacy of lifestyle intervention in managing the risk of cardiometabolic disease later in life.  The study involves detailed measurements of metabolic phenotype including insulin clamp studies for insulin sensitivity, visceral fat by MRI, MRS muscle and liver, resting metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry, and muscle biopsy specimens for epigenetics studies and in-vitro propagation.  There is also a substudy to examine neurocognitive processes of food valuation and self control using functional MRI in collaboration with the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Duke-NUS.  

Our work has also led to the development of the Asian metabolic phenotyping platform, a collaborative effort between National University Health System, Singapore General Hospital, and SICS, which enhanced our capabilities to test novel diagnostics and therapeutics in diabetes and obesity in the context of the Asian phenotype.

1. Developmental Pathways to Metabolic Diseases: Metabolic Physiology, Epigenetics and Body Composition in Healthy Overweight and Obese Subjects with a Fixed Range of Body Mass Index in Singapore
2. Developmental Pathways to Metabolic Diseases: To investigate the metabolic effects of birth weight on overweight and obese Chinese adults and their responses to weight loss over 16 weeks
3. GUSTO - Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes
4. Nutrition studies and dietary intervention in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity
5. PEGS-Premmies EpiGentic Study-Have metabolic genes been altered in children born of low birth weight?
6. Identifying the neural and cognitive mechanisms that may predict risk for the development of obesity – use of functional MRI to assess food valuation and self control in overweight men

Lee YS. Consequences of childhood obesity. Ann Acad Med Singapore. 2009 Jan;38(1):75-7.

Lee YS. The role of genes in the current obesity epidemic. Ann Acad Med Singapore. 2009 Jan;38(1):45-3.

Lee YS. The role of leptin-melanocortin system and human weight regulation: lessons from experiments of nature. Ann Acad Med Singapore. 2009 Jan;38(1):34-11.

Lee YS, So JB, Deurenberg-Yap M. Confronting the obesity epidemic: call to arms. Ann Acad Med Singapore. 2009 Jan;38(1):1-2.

Lee YS, Poh LKS, Kek BLK, Loke KY. Novel Mutations of the Melanocortin 4 Receptor gene mutations in severely obese children. Clinical Endocrinology 2008;68(4):529-35

Lee YS, BLK Kek, LKS Poh, KY Loke. The association of raised liver transaminases with physical inactivity, increased waist-hip ratio and other metabolic morbidities in severely obese children. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 47(2):172-8

Creemers JW, Lee YS, Oliver RL, Bahceci M, Tuzcu A, Gokalp D, Keogh J, Herber S, White A, O'Rahilly S, Farooqi IS.Mutations in the N-terminal region of Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) in patients with early-onset obesity impair POMC sorting to the regulated secretory pathway. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008;93:4494-9

Lee YS, LKS Poh, KY Loke. A Novel Melanocortin 3 Receptor Gene (MC3R) Mutation Associated with Severe Obesity. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2002;87(3):1423-1426

Lee YS, Poh LKS, Kek BLK, Loke KY. The Role of Melanocortin 3 Receptor Gene in Childhood Obesity. Diabetes 2007;56:2622-30

Lee YS, Challis BG, O’Rahilly S, Farooqi IS et al. A novel POMC variant implicates beta-melanocyte stimulating hormone in the control of human energy balance. Cell Metabolism 2006;3(2):135-140

A/Prof. Melvin Leow Khee Shing
Clinical Investigator

Dr Mary Chong
Research Scientist

Ms Verena Tan
Senior Research Officer

Ms Wu Ting
Research Nurse

Ms. Hillary Chua
Senior Lab Officer