Dr CK Yao

Dr CK Yao is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Gastroenterology at Alfred Health and Monash University. She also holds a clinical appointment as an Advanced Practising Gastroenterology Dietitian at Eastern Health. She completed her PhD in 2017 at Monash University investigating novel biomarkers to predict the success of dietary therapies in irritable and inflammatory bowel diseases. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.

In 2020, Dr Yao was awarded the Crohn’s & Colitis Australia Angela McAvoy Research Fellowship, enabling her to investigate the efficacy of a novel sulphide-reducing diet therapy in patients with ulcerative colitis and pouchitis. She now co-leads an innovative dietary research program focused on individuals with an ileoanal pouch and ulcerative colitis at Monash University. Her research has resulted in over 60 peer-reviewed publications and has been cited more than 3,000 times. In 2025, Dr Yao was awarded the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Grant to further her work in developing improved dietary strategies for pouchitis.