Dr Yonggang (Tyler) Chang is a mid-career researcher (PhD 2008). By training he is a biochemist, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopist, X-ray crystallographer, and structural biologist who is internationally recognised for his groundbreaking research that demystified the day-to-night transition of biological clocks.

He discovered that protein fold switch or gymnastics is the linchpin of the cyanobacterial clock. It not only underlies the elegant day-to-night transition mechanism of the clock, but also beautifully couples the propagation of the clock rhythm via output pathways to effect ~24 h rhythmic gene expression. This knowledge provides a framework for understanding all biological clocks including those endogenous of humans that have been implicated in metabolism, immunity, aging and cancer. He has authored publications in the general-science journals, including two in Science (2015 first author, 2017 co-author) and four in PNAS (2011 and 2012 first author, 2010 and 2018 co-author).

In 2018, Dr Chang was recruited to Monash University with the goal of establishing his own independent research group. At Monash, Dr Chang has rapidly included the cutting-edge Cryo-EM tool. During the relatively short time at Monash University, Dr Chang has forged collaboration with cell biologist Dr Michelle Halls, enzymologist Professor Christina Michelle, and Cryo-EM developer A/Prof Hans Elmlund. Having assembled a team with expertise in complementary fields, Dr Chang is positioned to leverage the combination of the powerful biophysical techniques, including NMR, X-ray crystallography, and Cryo-EM, to elucidate the interplay of cell signalling pathways including the mTOR signalling pathway that is a central regulator of growth and metabolism.