Richard L Young is an Associate Professor and Postgraduate and Honours Course Coordinator in the Adelaide Medical School at The University of Adelaide, and a Senior Research Fellow at the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). He is a member of the Centre of Research Excellence in Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health (NHMRC 2013-2020) - an exceptional framework for linking basic and clinical researchers in Endocrinology and Gastroenterology.

He leads the Intestinal Nutrient Sensing Group within the Nutrition, Diabetes and Gut Health program of SAHMRI Lifelong Health in investigations focussed on the intestinal sweet taste system with clinicians, basic scientists and industry. This system detects dietary sugars and low-calorie sweeteners and can, in turn, regulate the uptake and disposal of glucose in the body. He has shown how this system is regulated in healthy individuals and the consequences of its dysregulation in type 2 diabetes, critical illness and obesity. His laboratory research focuses on the vertical integration of signals from intestinal sweet taste receptors and gut bacteria to the whole body, and has the potential to yield new ways to prevent, and better manage, type 2 diabetes.

A/Prof Young also leads research in an ARC and industry collaboration investigating other gut hormone systems in humans. This research has the potential to usher in novel therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes.