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Biography

Professor Yimon Aye FRSC completed her undergraduate studies in chemistry at Oxford University (2000–2004), and doctoral research in organic chemistry with Professor Dave Evans at Harvard University in 2009. She then switched her research discipline to life sciences and received her postdoctoral training with Professor JoAnne Stubbe at MIT. Science in the Aye Lab – established mid-2012 – seeks to understand non-canonical cell signalling processes. Her laboratory is most well-known for investigations into electrophile signalling, a nuanced communication mode whereby on-target engagement between specific reactive metabolites and target proteins, orchestrates precision responses at cellular/organismal levels.

Contributions from the Aye laboratory have been recognised by varied international accolades. Recent examples include the Klaus Grohe Drug Discovery Prize, the International Chemical Biology Society Global Lectureship award for distinguished investigators in Chemical Biology, the ACS Arthur Cope Scholar award in Organic ÉîÒ¹¸£Àû¹ú²ú¾«Æ·, the Tetrahedron Young Investigator award in Bioorganic & Medicinal ÉîÒ¹¸£Àû¹ú²ú¾«Æ·, and the ACS Eli Lilly award in Biological ÉîÒ¹¸£Àû¹ú²ú¾«Æ·. 

Her recent and ongoing leadership services include among others her role as the Editor-in Chief of Current Opinion in Chemical Biology (2025–present), an associate editor of ACS Chemical Biology (2022–2024), and a panel member of European Research Council Starting and Advanced Grants.

From an early age, I became intrinsically adept at prevailing over intellectual challenges and I learned to take every opportunity open to me.

Yimon Aye

Q&A

Can you tell us more about your work?

This is a major research programme that we launched just as I established my own independent laboratory. It targets a nuanced mode of cellular communication and decision making, which we have called ‘precision electrophile signalling’. There are nearly 40 trillion cells in our body, producing tons of diverse small-molecule chemical signals. These reactive chemical signals were first characterised nearly seven decades ago, recognised as playing pathophysiological roles and regarded as active players in cell and organismal decision making. Yet, no one knows how they engage with specific cellular targets at the precise time and space, that in turn rewire cellular communications and decision making. This remains a hugely thorny problem because conventional tools to dissect such questions are plagued by lack of specificity against the broad reactivity and toxicity of these signals, especially in the absence of controllable means to study pathophysiological impacts of these innate signals. My laboratory took a nonconventional approach. Obviously, these signals are being produced at specific locales, timing, and contexts inside the cells. Could we mimic such natural build-up but with precise user-programmable control, and in a live cell? This drive led us to found the concept of ‘precision localised electrophile generation’, and build a robust set of chemical biology tools to achieve this goal. 
 
Starting from live cells, we extended and adapted our tools, now broadly known as REX-technologies, to complex in vivo models such as larval fish and nematode worms. Some of these discoveries have also directed us toward successful development of lead covalent inhibitor / protein target pairs that have evaded conventional target-ID approaches. More recently, we have further leveraged this precision localised electrophile delivery concept to address the field’s current inability to undertake proximity or interactome mapping with functionally-and biologically-relevant ligands. To that end, we recently built a tool to directly map not only the identity of localised biomolecular targets, but how their functions can be modulated by 'natural pharmaceuticals' (native reactive chemicals), bridging the two fields of proximity mapping and functional validations in a single method. To draw an analogy, this capability allows us to not only assign the zip-code but simultaneously sort based on functional content (druggability) of individual packages (proteins) in a given locale and context.

Who or what first sparked your interest in chemistry, and how has that interest evolved over time? 

I was deeply inspired by my sixth form chemistry teacher (Miss Penelope Whitham, Cambridge Tutors College, Croydon), who went above and beyond to inspire and motivate me. In fact, I was a student who was rather behind their peers, having just arrived to the UK and not having had an all-round proper education previously. I thus became determined against all odds to try to become a good chemist and an educator like her, who could help many students down the line.

What has been the most rewarding or memorable highlight of your career so far? 

Actually, it is that I ever became a scientist and an educator at all. I did not grow up thinking of such a career. Research and proper education did not (and still do not) exist where I grew up: words like researchers and scientists were unheard of during my childhood.

What have been the biggest challenges that you have faced over the course of your time in science, and what have you learned from those experiences? 

Switching research discipline. I grew up in Burma at a time when research was non-existent, and education was outlawed. Thus, from an early age, I became intrinsically adept at prevailing over intellectual challenges and I learned to take every opportunity open to me. I left home as a teenager as I secured a full scholarship to a UK sixth form college, followed by several scholarships to fund me for a 4-year combined Bachelors & Master’s degree in ÉîÒ¹¸£Àû¹ú²ú¾«Æ· at Oxford. I went on to the US, first to study organic chemistry in Harvard, then, I decided to change fields during my postdoctoral training, where I studied biochemistry in MIT. I thus entered the fields that I am currently in (chemical biology, redox biology, reactive metabolite signalling), only when I began my independent lab (mid-2012). However, in a relatively short time frame, the science from my lab has gained the recognition of several authoritative figures in these communities. Looking back, it is doubtless that my academic journey has endowed me with a unique vision to innovate cross-disciplinary tools. My desire to surmount such challenges continues to inspire me to tackle the biggest interdisciplinary research challenges in complex processes of life.

What future directions or opportunities do you see for your work? 

More translational directions and impacts due to unique strengths in UK biomedical and clinical research, including our new collaborative networks at Oxford and within the wider UK.

In what ways does creativity influence how you think about or carry out your work? 

Being unafraid of failure, going out of one’s comfort zone, taking risks, pursuing and persisting at difficult problems, striving for interdisciplinary robust solutions with mechanistic depth, and generally playing a long game and drive to keep learning and paying it forward.