Citizenship United States
Canada Fields Human genetics, Medicine | Role Physician Name Yuet Kan | |
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Born 11 June 1936 (age 87)
Hong Kong ( 1936-06-11 ) Institutions University of Hong Kong
Queen Mary Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital
University of Pittsburgh
MIT
McGill University
Penn
Children's Hospital Boston
Harvard Medical School
San Francisco General Hospital
HHMI
UCSF Alma mater University of Hong Kong Known for human blood diseases
prenatal diagnosis
DNA diagnosis
DNA polymorphism Awards Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award | ||
Education University of Hong Kong Notable awards William Allan Award | ||
Yuet Wai Kan FRS (Chinese: 簡悅威, also written as Yuet-Wai Kan) (born 11 June 1936), is a Canadian and American medical scientist and physician. He is the current Louis K. Diamond Professor of Hematology and the head of the Division of Molecular Medicine and Diagnostics at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the former President of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
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Biography
Kan was born in Hong Kong in 1936. His brother, Sir Yuet Keung Kan, was the Senior Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council of Hong Kong.
Kan graduated with an M.B.B.S. (in 1958) and M.D. (in 1980) both from the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine. He undertook his medical training at Queen Mary Hospital, then went to United States for further study.
Since 1976, Kan has been a research investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Kan served as the president of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in 1990.
Kan is currently a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Kan also sits on both the Board of Adjudicators and the Selection Committee for Life Science and Medicine which chooses winners of the Shaw Prize.
Research
Kan is regarded as a pioneer of applying molecular biology and genetics into clinical medicine. Kan was the first to establish that a single DNA mutation could lead to a human disease, and the first to diagnose a human disease by using DNA.
Kan has made many fundamental contributions to our understanding of human blood diseases. Kan was the first to discover the gene deletion in human alpha-thalassemia; he was the first to discover a point-mutation causing human beta-thalassemia; with Golbus' help, he was the first to carry out prenatal diagnosis (for a haemoglobinopathy).
Kan is best known for his groundbreaking works in sickle cell and thalassemia. He is the first person who used fetal DNA diagnosis techniques to study these diseases. Kan's work led to the innovation of DNA diagnosis.
Kan discovered DNA polymorphism, which nowadays is widely used in genetic analysis for human diseases.