Chris Tl Chan

Biography

TL Chan is currently a Molecular Geneticist at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. He received BSc (Hons) in Genetics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK) and obtained PhD in the Department of Pathology at the University of Hong Kong in 1999, where he focused on the investigation of hereditary colorectal cancer and development of the molecular genetic diagnosis of Lynch Syndrome (LS). His representative works include the revelation of the BRAF mutation in the hyperplastic polyp, which is one of the early malignant transformation in the normal gut flora, and the novel mechanism named transcription read-through in Lynch Syndrome which leads to promoter methylation of the MSH2. The discovery help to identify a portion of undiagnosed LS patients and then the integrity of the EPCAM located upstream of MSH2 should be included in the molecular diagnosis of LS. His work in the field of colorectal cancer gained the credit for him including the award of Research Output Prizes in 2007, 2009 and 2012 as well as the Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2008 at the University of Hong Kong. After joining the Department of Pathology in Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital in 2012. He focuses on the area of clinical application of next generation sequencing (NGS). The cutting-edge technology leads to the effective diagnosis of familial breast cancer, myeloid malignant and also preimplantation genetic screening/diagnosis. In addition, it results in the discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 recurrent mutations in Southern Chinese.

Research Interest

 Breast cancer