Profile
Dr Benjamin Ng is a Research Fellow at the National Heart Centre Singapore and Duke-NUS Medical School. He received basic research training and his PhD in molecular pathology from the faculty of medicine at the Universtity of Western Australia. In 2015, he returned to Singapore to join the research team at National Research Institute Singapore led by Professor Stuart Cook.
Dr Ng’s interests lie in the fields of cardiovascular and respiratory research. His area of expertise is in rodent models of heart disease and interstitial lung disease. He utilizes cell biological, genetic and next generation sequencing technologies to study the behavior of particular cell types in the context of disease pathology. His current research focuses on understanding the molecular processes that coordinate the cellular cross-talk between epithelial, stromal and immune cells during homeostasis, maladaptive repair and regeneration in various tissues including the heart and lung.
Education
- PhD, University of Western Australia, Australia, 2016
- BMedSci (1st Class Honours), University of Western Australia, Australia, 2011
- BSc, University of Western Australia, Australia, 2010
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Professional Appointments and Committee Memberships
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Awards
- National Medical Research Council. OF-YIRG, 2021
- The Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Yong Individual Research Grant (AME YIRG) of Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) award, 2021
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Research Interests
- Discovering new treatments for fibrotic diseases from heart failure to interstitial lung diseases
- Basic and translational investigations of pulmonary immunology in models of fibrotic interstitial lung diseases
- Basic and translational investigations of fibroblast and epithelial cell biology in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases
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Publications
- Ng, B., Dong, J., D’Agostino, G., Viswanathan, S., Widjaja, A. A., Lim, W.-W., … Cook, S. A. (2019). Interleukin-11 is a therapeutic target in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Science Translational Medicine, 11(511). eaaw1237.
- Ng, B., Dong, J., Viswanathan, S., Widjaja, A. A., Paleja, B. S., … & Cook, S. A. (2020). Fibroblast‐specific IL11 signaling drives chronic inflammation in murine fibrotic lung disease. FASEB Journal: 34(9), 11802–11815.
- Ng, B., Cook, S. A., & Schafer, S. (2020). Interleukin-11 signaling underlies fibrosis, parenchymal dysfunction, and chronic inflammation of the airway. Experimental & Molecular Medicine, 52(12), 1871–1878.
- Ng, B., Widjaja, A. A., Viswanathan, S., & Dong, J., … & Cook, S. A. (2021). Similarities and differences between IL11 and IL11RA1 knockout mice for lung fibro-inflammation, fertility and craniosynostosis.
- Schafer, S., Viswanathan, S., Widjaja, A. A., Lim, W.-W., Moreno-Moral, A., DeLaughter, D. M., Ng, B., … & Cook, S. A. (2017). IL-11 is a crucial determinant of cardiovascular fibrosis. Nature, 552(7683), 110–115.
- Zhou, J., Ng, B., Ko, N. S. J., Fiedler, L. R., … & Yen, P. M. (2019). Titin truncations lead to impaired cardiomyocyte autophagy and mitochondrial function in vivo. Human Molecular Genetics, 28(12), 1971–1981.
- Schafer, S., de Marvao, A., Adami, E., Fiedler, L. R., Ng, B., … & Cook, S. A. (2017). Titin-truncating variants affect heart function in disease cohorts and the general population. Nature Genetics, 49(1), 46–53.
- Viswanathan, S., Ng B., Widjaja, A. A., … & Shafer S.. (2021) ‘Critical Conditions for Studying Interleukin-11 Signaling In Vitro and Avoiding Experimental Artefacts’, Current protocols, 1(9), p. e251.
- Widjaja, A. A., Dong, J., Adami, E., Viswanathan, S., Ng, B., … & Cook, S. A. (2021). Redefining IL11 as a regeneration-limiting hepatotoxin and therapeutic target in acetaminophen-induced liver injury. Science Translational Medicine, 13(597). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aba8146.
- Widjaja, A. A., Singh, B. K., Adami, E., Viswanathan, S., Dong, J., D’Agostino, G. A., Ng, B., … & Cook, S. A. (2019). Inhibiting Interleukin 11 Signaling Reduces Hepatocyte Death and Liver Fibrosis, Inflammation, and Steatosis in Mouse Models of Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. Gastroenterology, 157(3), 777–792.e14.
- Dong, J., Viswanathan, S., Adami, E., Singh, B. K., Chothani, S. P., Ng, B., … & Widjaja, A. A. (2021). Hepatocyte-specific IL11 cis-signaling drives lipotoxicity and underlies the transition from NAFLD to NASH. Nature Communications, 12(1), 66.
- Lim, W.-W., Corden, B., Ng, B., Vanezis, K., D’Agostino, G., Widjaja, A. A., … & Cook, S. A. (2020). Interleukin-11 is important for vascular smooth muscle phenotypic switching and aortic inflammation, fibrosis and remodeling in mouse models. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 17853.
- Lim, W.-W., Ng, B., Widjaja, A., … & Schafer, S. (2020). Transgenic interleukin 11 expression causes cross-tissue fibro-inflammation and an inflammatory bowel phenotype in mice. PloS One, 15(1), e0227505.
- Adami, E., Viswanathan, S., Widjaja, A. A., Ng, B., … & Cook, S. A. (2021). IL11 is elevated in systemic sclerosis and IL11-dependent ERK signaling underlies TGFβ-mediated activation of dermal fibroblasts. Rheumatology. keab168.
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